Meet My Wife, Elara

Elara stood frozen at the grand entrance of the Hale mansion, as her breath caught in her throat.

Her fingers trembled ever so slightly as they curled around Lucian’s hand, clinging to him as if he were the only solid thing in a world that had suddenly tilted off its axis.

The air was thick and heavy with every pair of eyes in the vast hall was fixed on her.

Not just one or two glances. Not curious flickers that slid away after a second. No! They were staring at her openly and unapologetically.

Elara had expected something. Like... Cold stares from people filled with arrogance. Maybe even thinly veiled hostility or outright.

But this… this felt different.

The looks directed at her weren’t merely curious. They were stunned.

They stripped her bare inch by inch, dissecting her from head to toe as though she were a mistake, an anomaly that had disrupted the natural order of their universe.

Elara swallowed hard. Her throat felt dry all of a sudden.

Her grip on Lucian tightened unconsciously, as if she were afraid he might vanish if she loosened her hold for even a second.

Only then did she really feel it.

His posture was rigid, not with fear, but with something like... A man bracing himself for impact.

This was his home. His territory. His blood.

And yet, in this moment, it felt like he was standing on a battleground right alongside her.

That realization sent a strange ache through her chest.

She leaned closer to him instinctively, her voice dropping until it was barely more than a breath between them.

“Lucian…?”

One word. That was all it took for her unease to spill through.

In that single whisper lived every doubt she hadn’t voiced yet. Every fear clawing at her ribs. Every question she was too afraid to ask out loud.

For a fraction of a second, just a heartbeat, she wondered if she had made a terrible mistake.

If coming here had been reckless.

If this marriage, so sudden, so impulsive, so utterly unforgivable in the eyes of society, was about to collapse before it ever had the chance to exist.

Lucian turned his head towards her and then smiled.

Not the polite curve of lips he used in boardrooms to disarm rivals.

Not the distant, unreadable expression his family had branded as his default state.

This was different. It was real, warm, genuine, and soft.

A smile meant only for her.

It transformed his face so completely that it felt unreal, like witnessing something forbidden.

“Don’t worry,” he murmured, his thumb brushing against the back of her hand as he squeezed her fingers gently, grounding her. “Everything is going to be all right. Don't pay any mind to them.”

Elara’s breath caught. She hadn’t even realized how badly she needed to hear that.

Before she could respond, before she could process how that smile had loosened something knotted deep inside her, Lucian stepped forward, drawing her with him.

They moved together... Past towering columns carved with symbols of legacy and power.

Past generations of wealth that had never once imagined someone like her would stand here.

He guided her into the living room of the Hale mansion, into the center of the stunned people.

And that was when everything fell apart.

The moment his family truly saw his expression...

The porcelain plate slipped from his mother’s fingers.

It shattered against the floor with a sharp, violent crack.

His sister gasped, one hand flying to her mouth as her phone slipped from her grasp and landed on the couch with a dull thud, forgotten.

His younger brother, who had been leaning lazily against the armrest with the careless confidence of someone who had never known consequences, visibly faltered, then collapsed onto the sofa as if his legs had suddenly forgotten how to hold him upright.

Their father slowly lowered the newspaper he had been reading.

He removed his glasses in a state of shock, folding them carefully as though his world hadn’t just cracked open.

His sharp eyes narrowed, disbelief and calculation warring behind them as he stared at his son.

And their grandmother... The old woman's mouth fell open wide with shock

No one spoke. The room was frozen in suspended disbelief.

Because the impossible had just happened.

Lucian Hale had smiled. Not a successful acquisition. Not at a ruthless strategic victory. Not the smirk he usually gives them.

But a genuine smile towards a woman.

A woman dressed in a white wedding gown.

A woman who was standing beside him as if she belonged there.

As if she had always belonged there.

No! Impossible!

Something was very wrong. Something was terribly wrong somewhere.

His mother recovered first.

She rushed toward him, her face pale with disbelief and something dangerously close to panic.

Her perfectly composed exterior cracked as her gaze flicked between Lucian and Elara, searching for an explanation that didn’t exist.

But before she could speak, before the flood of questions could explode from her lips... Lucian spoke.

“Mom. Dad. Grandma.”

The room instinctively stilled. Without hesitation, he turned slightly and looked at Elara.

Not as an afterthought or as an accessory. But as the center of his world.

“Meet my wife, Elara.”

The word hit the room like a bomb.

“:My wife, Elara:”

Silence. Utterly and absolutely silent.