02

Two crimson lines on the plastic white strip dictated her sentence; Audrey Sullivan was pregnant with the man who had come to destroy her. Eight weeks had been enough for her night of freedom to transform into an inescapable cell. Standing before the mirror, Audrey felt the luxury of her bedroom was now nothing more than a cheap stage set against the impending ruin of her family name.

The crash of the front door snapped her out of her stupor. Descending the stairs, the air grew heavy, charged with an electrical magnetism. There, in the middle of the drawing-room, stood Alessandro Di' Giovanni. Audrey clung to the banister, her stomach lurching; that firm jaw and those broad shoulders were unmistakable. It was him—her accidental lover and now her financial executioner.

"Don't worry, Sullivan. I only came to meet your daughter," he replied to her father's welcome, his baritone voice vibrating in Audrey's chest. "Though I have a feeling we've met before."

The world stopped. Audrey felt the blood drain from her face as Alessandro's gaze locked onto hers, sharp and probing.

"My daughter is a dedicated girl and never leaves the house," Olivia, her mother, intervened with a protective arrogance that only made Audrey lower her gaze, ashamed of the lie.

Alessandro let out a dry laugh, laden with a contempt that made the air in the room unbreathable. He turned toward Eliot Sullivan with the calm of a predator that already had its prey cornered.

"I'd like to discuss a matter of vital importance with you in private," the dark-haired man stated.

Eliot, stripped of all his former arrogance, nodded in a submissive gesture, gesturing toward the study with a trembling hand.

Following a tense conversation, Alessandro emerged minutes later with the cold detachment of someone who had just purchased a piece of property. Audrey stepped forward, hoping for a word or a gesture that would confirm her suspicion, but he walked away without sparing her a single glance, leaving her paralyzed in her tracks.

Then, her father approached her. Eliot did not look relieved by the deal, but terrified. He held the contract up before Audrey's eyes and spoke with a voice charged with deadly seriousness.

"I hope you're as pure as your mother claims, Audrey, because Alessandro has added a final condition... If you fail the chastity exam his doctors will administer tomorrow, he won't just cancel the deal; he'll make sure we end up in prison.

***

Audrey Sullivan stared at herself in the mirror dressed in white, knowing she was not walking toward an altar, but toward the slaughterhouse of her own dignity. The expensive lace and silk concealed the secret beating within her womb—a constant reminder of the night she surrendered her freedom to the man who was now buying her surname. She loathed the reflection returning an image of purity her parents still insisted on selling.

"You should be thanking that man for saving us," Olivia her mother remarked coldly. "Don't ruin it with that funeral face; crack a smile when you walk in."

Audrey did not answer. Instinctively, she placed a hand over her abdomen. The pregnancy was the only thing that truly felt like her own, but panic choked her at the memory of the medical exam clause. Crossing the threshold of the parlor, Alessandro Di' Giovanni waited with military posture. His glacial eyes clashed with Audrey's, intimidating her until she felt entirely insignificant. The ceremony was a blur of legal words until the pronouncement of the final phrase.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife."

The silence was sepulchral. Alessandro turned toward her with a calculated slowness. Audrey tensed, expecting a cold kiss, but the dark-haired man's lips never brushed hers. Instead, he leaned down until his warm breath grazed her ear.

"Did you really think I'd forget you, Audrey?" he murmured in a voice so low only she could hear. "I know perfectly well you weren't the virgin your parents believe. I know who you are and what we did that night."

Audrey's world ground to a halt. He remembered her. The terror that his gaze would uncover her secret collapsed her system. The lack of oxygen was too much; her knees buckled, and darkness claimed her. Alessandro caught her before she hit the floor, preventing his new wife's body from striking the marble.

Eliot and Olivia rushed forward in alarm, but Alessandro showed no compassion. He watched Audrey's pale face with thinly veiled contempt, convinced this was nothing more than a stunt to shirk her responsibilities.

"Take her to the hospital if necessary," Alessandro ordered his men, dropping Audrey's body into her father's arms as if she were an annoying bundle. "Just stop wasting time with this theater."

He adjusted his shirtscuffs, looking down at the Sullivans with an icy smile that chilled their blood.

"I trust you don't think a timely faint will get you out of your obligations, Sullivan. Your daughter can fake weakness all she likes to buy time, but the medical exam will happen the moment she opens her eyes... and if I discover this little stunt is to hide the fact that I've been sold damaged goods, you'll regret it."