ASK HIM ABOUT THE ACCOUNTS

By noon, it was everywhere, spreading faster than anyone in that house could contain it.

Kane Heir's Secret Affair. Bride's Sister Steps In While Fiancée Fights For Her Life.

I sat on the edge of my bed scrolling through headline after headline, each one worse than the last, strangers deciding exactly what kind of woman I must be without knowing a single true thing about that night.

My phone rang. Julian.

"Tell me you're okay."

"I'm not okay, Julian. He thought I was her. The whole time."

"Selene." A long breath on the other end. "I'm coming over."

"Don't. His father called an emergency meeting. I have to go."

"You don't owe them anything."

"I owe my family a name that isn't destroyed. That's not the same thing."

"You're already talking like you're going to say yes to whatever they ask you in that room."

"I don't know what else to do."

"Refuse. Walk away. Let the headlines burn out the way they always do."

"It's not that simple, and you know it."

"It never is with you." He sighed, tired and worried at once. "Just promise me you won't sign anything without asking for something in return."

"I promise." I hung up before he could argue further, because I didn't have the strength to lose that fight too.

***

Ryker's father was already pacing when I arrived, the study curtains drawn against the cameras camped outside the gate.

"You will marry her," he said to Ryker, not even glancing my way. "Immediately. Quietly. Before this destroys everything we've built."

"Marry her?" Ryker's voice was flat, disbelieving.

"There has to be another way to handle this," Ryker added, finally looking at his father directly.

"There isn't. Unless you'd prefer to explain to our shareholders exactly why a woman left this house looking frightened." His father's eyes cut to me, sharp, assessing. "Would you like to explain that to the press yourself, Miss Marlowe?"

"No," I said quietly. "I wouldn't."

"Then it's settled."

Ryker didn't argue further. He sat there, jaw tight, staring at the floor like a man doing math on his own ruin.

I had conditions of my own, and this time, it wasn't Elise who spoke for me.

"A house," I said. "In my name. Money I control myself. And when this ends, and it will end, I walk away clean. No fighting, no delays."

His father studied me for a long moment, something calculating shifting behind his eyes. "You're negotiating."

"I'm surviving. There's a difference, but I understand if that's new to you."

"You'll get your house. And your money." He said it like he was crossing an item off a list. "Anything else, Miss Marlowe?"

"One more thing." I looked at Ryker directly for the first time since I'd walked into that room. "I want it in writing that whatever happens between us stays between us. No press statements without my approval. No version of this story that isn't at least partly mine."

Ryker's father exchanged a glance with his son, some silent calculation passing between them. "Fine."

"Fine," I repeated, and the word felt strange in my mouth, foreign, like agreeing to something that had never actually been a choice.

That night, Ryker found me in the hallway with a folder under his arm.

"There's something we need to discuss," he said, not quite looking at me. "The wedding photos. Press events. My family expects a certain image."

"Okay."

"You're not exactly what people picture when they picture my wife." He said it plainly, like a fact on a spec sheet. "There will be comments. About your size. I won't be spending my time managing any of it, and I won't be apologizing for people noticing what I already noticed the moment I married you."

I stood very still, something in my chest folding in on itself, though I refused to let it show on my face.

"Understood," I said, my voice steadier than I felt.

"You don't have anything to say to that?"

"What would you like me to say? That it hurts?" I met his eyes directly. "You'd only enjoy that too much."

"I don't enjoy any of this."

"You certainly deliver it well for someone who claims not to enjoy it."

Something flickered across his face, surprise maybe, or the closest thing he had to it. He didn't apologize. I hadn't expected him to.

The wedding happened eleven days later. Small. Cold. A photographer paid to make it look like something it wasn't. I wore a dress I chose myself, fitted properly for once, refusing to let anyone in that family dress me like a problem to be managed.

Ryker didn't look at me once during the ceremony.

My mother cried through the whole thing, though I couldn't tell if it was from happiness or guilt. My father shook Ryker's hand afterward like they were closing a business deal instead of watching his daughter marry a man who could barely stand to be in the same room as her.

Elise found me on the terrace that night, settling into the chair beside mine without asking.

"You look like you'd rather be anywhere else," she said.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Only to someone who's sat in that exact seat before." She studied me a long moment. "For what it's worth, you handled that room today better than anyone gave you credit for."

"It didn't feel like anything worth being proud of."

"Surviving rarely does." She reached over and covered my hand with hers, her grip surprisingly firm. "You're stronger than this family has ever bothered to notice, Selene. I've known that for a long time."

"You barely know me."

"I know more than you think," she said, and something in the way she said it made me look at her twice, though she offered nothing more, just patted my hand and let the silence stretch between us, comfortable in a way nothing else that day had been. "Whatever happens next in this family, remember that you have at least one person in this house who sees you clearly. I intend to keep it that way."

"Why?"

"Because someone should have, a long time before now."

My phone buzzed against my thigh. A text, unfamiliar number.

You have no idea what you just married into. Ask him about the accounts before it's too late.

I stared at the screen, my heart slamming, the warm silence of the terrace suddenly feeling very far away. I typed back, my thumbs unsteady.

Who is this?

The reply came almost instantly.

Someone who's been watching this family longer than you have. Watch your back, new Mrs. Kane.

I looked up at Elise, who was watching me with an expression I couldn't quite read, and I understood, with a cold certainty settling low in my stomach, that whatever I'd just married into went far deeper than one drunken night and a scandal in the tabloids.

Author's Notes

Heyyy my loves, IceWitch here! ✍️❄️

Okay so I need y'all to know I have been LIVING inside Selene's head for the last five chapters and I am not okay, but in the fun way. That text at the end of chapter 5?? I planted that seed so long ago in my notes and I have been WAITING to finally let it loose on you guys. Someone out there knows something, and no, it's not who you think (or... is it 👀).

Also can we talk about Ryker for a second. I know. I KNOW. He said the thing about the wedding photos and half of you are already in my comments plotting his downfall and honestly? Valid. Let him cook a little longer though, because the version of him waiting on the other side of this book is going to make every single insult worth it. I promise you that.

Selene deserves the whole world and I am having way too much fun making her fight for it. If you're loving this as much as I'm loving writing it, drop a comment, add to library and support this book with your gems, and tell me who you think sent that text. I read every single one of your theories and some of you are scarily close.

New chapter dropping soon, don't touch that dial 😌

XOXO

~ IceWitch