Chapter 6: First Night in Hell

The guest room felt too big. Too quiet. Too empty. I stood in the middle of it for a long time after the housekeeper left, my small suitcase still sitting unopened by the foot of the bed.

I finally moved, unzipping the suitcase and pulling out my clothes one by one. A couple of simple dresses, jeans, t-shirts, the necklace from my mother. I arranged them neatly in the massive walk-in closet that could have fit my entire old bedroom. It felt ridiculous. Pathetic, almost. My things looked lost in all that space.

I sat on the edge of the bed and touched the necklace again, running my thumb over the small pendant. “What am I doing here, Mom?” I whispered. No answer, of course.

A knock made me jump. The housekeeper, Mrs. Hale, she’d introduced herself earlier, poked her head in.

“Dinner will be served in the dining room in twenty minutes, miss. Mr. Draven asked that you join him.”

My stomach twisted. “Okay. Thank you.”

I changed into simple clothes, nothing fancy. I didn’t want to look like I was trying. When I made my way downstairs, following the directions Mrs. Hale had given me. The dining room was big.

Lucian was already seated at the head, scrolling through his phone with a deep frown.

I hesitated in the doorway.

He didn’t look up.

I cleared my throat. “Um… hi.”

Nothing. He kept scrolling.

I walked over and pulled out the chair to his right. The second my fingers touched the chair, he spoke without lifting his eyes.

“Not there.”

I froze. “Sorry?”

“You’re not eating here tonight.” His voice was flat, like he was commenting on the weather. “Mrs. Hale will bring something to your room. I have work.”

The rejection landed like a slap. Heat rushed to my face. “I… okay.”

He still didn’t look at me. Just dismissed me like I was a staff. Like I was nothing.

I turned and left before the tears could start. Mrs. Hale met me in the hallway with a sympathetic look and a covered tray. She didn’t say anything, just led me back upstairs and set the food on the small table by the window.

The meal was probably delicious, but it tasted like cardboard. I ate a few bites, then pushed the plate away. The silence pressed in on me. No Natalia’s mocking laugh. No Isadora’s sharp comments. No Father’s comforting words. Just… nothing.

And somehow that was worse.

I curled up on the bed after changing into my nighties. The events of the day kept replaying. The way Lucian had looked at me when our hands brushed in the car. That split second where something dangerous flashed in his eyes before the ice took over. The way my family had practically shoved me out the door. Evelyn’s whispered warning.

Safer here than there.

What did she know that I didn’t?

Tears came slowly at first, then faster. I buried my face in the pillow to muffle the sounds, but they kept coming. Big, ugly tears that shook my whole body. I cried for Ethan’s betrayal, for the way Natalia had laughed while he was inside her and for Isadora’s cruelty. For the little girl who once believed Isadora’s warm cookies and bedtime stories meant she was loved. For the woman I was supposed to become who somehow ended up here, married to a stranger who wouldn’t even eat dinner with her.

I cried until my throat hurt and my eyes burned. Until the pillow was damp and my chest felt hollow.

Sometime much later, when the house was completely quiet, I got up to get water from the bathroom. My eyes were swollen, my face a mess. I splashed cold water on my cheeks and stared at my reflection. I looked broken. Lost.

I opened the bedroom door to step into the hallway and nearly collided with a solid wall of muscle.

Lucian.

His hair was slightly messy like he’d been running his hands through it. He must have been working out or something.

For a second, neither of us moved.

His eyes flicked over my face, down to my trembling lips, then back up. Something shifted in his expression. Not quite softness, but not the usual cold mask either. His hand came up like he might touch my arm, then clenched into a fist at his side.

I swallowed hard. “I was just getting water,” I whispered, voice hoarse from crying.

He didn’t reply right away. His gaze lingered on my mouth again, longer this time. The air between us felt thick, and I felt the heat coming off his body. Up close, he was even more intimidating. And somehow… magnetic.

Lucian’s jaw tightened. He gripped the doorframe above my head with one hand, knuckles turning white. I could see the muscles in his arm flexing like he was physically holding himself back from something.

“Go back inside,” he said roughly. His voice was lower than usual, almost strained.

I nodded quickly and stepped back. Our eyes met one last time, his dark with something I couldn’t name, mine wide and uncertain. Then he turned sharply and walked away down the hallway.

I closed the door and leaned against it, heart racing. My skin still tingled from the nearness of him. What the hell was that? He acted like he hated me, like I was beneath him… but that look. The way he gripped the frame like he wanted to break it.

I crawled back into bed, pulling the covers up to my chin. Sleep didn’t come easy. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Lucian’s face in the hallway. The cold glare mixed with that flicker of heat. The way his hand had hovered like he almost wanted to comfort me …or maybe devour me.

This was supposed to be my new life. My “safer” place, according to Evelyn.

But lying there in the dark, in a stranger’s house, with a man who confused and terrified me in equal measure, I wasn’t sure I believed her anymore.

The tears came again, quieter this time. I cried for the girl I used to be, for the future I thought I might have, and for the terrifying unknown stretching out in front of me.

Lucian Draven was a devil.

And I had just been delivered straight into his world.