The Auctioned Bride

Death.Was it really like what people say it was? Dread? The end? Pain?Or was it a form of relief, a time when you really disappear and rest?For the first time, I wished to be in that position..the quiet stillness of the grave where my father lay. It should have been me. Perhaps it would have been better if it were me.Maybe.. Just maybe my life wouldn't be hell on earth or worse than hell.I stood at the edge of the freshly turned earth, the scent of damp soil mingling with the faint perfume of lilies. The coffin, which was polished and dark, seemed too heavy for the world to bear. For a moment, I imagined it closing around me instead, a final escape from the suffocating weight of grief.The crowd murmured, polite and calmed. Uniformed black. Family acquaintances, distant relatives, and a handful of loyal employees who had been with my father since the empire was just a name whispered among steel factories. Their faces were a blur. Only one stood out.Damian.He was tall, composed,

I know I shouldn’t be up and about, planning a wedding only weeks after my father’s burial. I know I should still be in mourning, wrapped in black, hidden away from the world. But where else could I go? When Seraphina and Lucien seized everything, my father’s houses, his accounts, his estate, when they stood before me with their lawyer and papers and their mocking eyes, I had no choice but to seek shelter here. With Damian.One week ago, I had a home, a father, a future built with certainty. Now I had none of those things. All that remained was Damian..his house, his protection, his promise.The weight of my loss clung to me like a second skin as I stood inside his grand estate, surrounded by fabrics and sketches, the chatter of seamstresses filling the room. They spoke of lace and cuts, of pearls sewn into veils. Their voices blurred into meaningless noise.A wedding dress should have been a dream. Every girl imagined this day, the way her father would beam with pride walking her dow

The hospital stank of antiseptic and silence. I woke up to the sound of someone’s shoes clicking down the hallway, fading again, as if the world itself had already forgotten me. My throat burned, my body felt emptied and hollowed. My hands went instinctively to my belly flat and aching. Nothing.The doctor didn’t even look at me when he walked in, just scribbled something on a chart.“You’re stable. You can leave.”Leave? As if I had anywhere to go. As if I hadn’t been stripped of everything in one night..my father, my home, my fiancé, my child.I pushed myself up, legs trembling. The thin hospital gown clung to my skin. There was no one waiting for me, no one to take me home, Home. The word felt cruel, because I had none.By the time I stumbled out into the night air, the street was empty except for the black car parked at the curb. Its engine purred low, like a predator waiting.“Althea.” The voice was mocking, smooth. Seraphina’s man. I recognized him instantly. The smirk on his

Chapter 7For a moment, there was nothing but silence between us. It was so thick I could hear the blood pounding in my ears. He stood there, unmoving, and yet it felt as though the entire house bowed beneath his presence.He didn’t rush to speak. He simply looked at me. That stare…sharp, measuring and cold that slid over every inch of me. He looked at me like I was some sort of puzzle he wasn't quite interested in. My skin prickled.I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. Something in those eyes held me locked, caught between dread and an unwilling pull I didn’t dare name.Finally, he spoke.“You cry too loudly.”His voice was low and deep, with a kind of calm that unsettled me more than if he’d shouted. It wasn’t rough, it was smooth, like a man used to being listened to. Every syllable was measured and, heavy with weight.Heat flushed up my face. I hadn’t realized he’d heard me. Shame twisted in my chest, mixing with the fear that already gnawed at my ribs.“I… ” My voice cracked,

A knock rattled the door. It was sharp and impatient. My chest tightened.“Come in!” I said with the little strength I had left in me.“Dinner!” a gruff voice barked from the other side, not bothering to answer or to come in like I asked.I froze. The thought of walking into a dining hall where Valerio Moretti might be waiting made my stomach twist. But I couldn’t stay locked in here forever. If I was going to make him notice me, I had to start now.I glanced at the mirror again. My lips were still cracked, my eyes rimmed red from crying, but underneath the ruin, I could still see her. The girl my father said looked like my mother. The girl who could make men stop in their tracks.I touched the cold glass. “You’re still in there,” I whispered. “Now use it.”I straightened my back, brushed down the dress that still smelled faintly of auction rooms and fear, and opened the door.Two guards waited outside. They didn’t look at me, not really. Their eyes were fixed forward, their guns slun