Chapter 1  : Celia  'The Spare Daughter

"No."

The word slipped out before I could stop it. It sounded too small in the drawing room, but it was enough to make the very air freeze.

My father slowly looked up from the contract in his hand.

"What did you say?" Victor Rowan asked, his voice calm.

I swallowed, though my throat had already dried up. "I said no."

Across from me, Sienna gasped like I had committed a crime.

"Dad, do you hear her?" she said, one hand flying dramatically to her chest. "She's doing this on purpose."

Of course I was.

In this house, everything was always somehow my fault.

The chandelier above us glittered warmly, but nothing in that room felt warm. Not my father's eyes. Not my mother's face. Not Sienna's trembling lower lip as she sat there in her dress, looking like a fragile angel instead of the woman who had just thrown me into hell.

"You ungrateful girl," Marianne Rowan screamed coldly. "Do you have any idea what is at stake here?"

I almost laughed.

For the past week, all I had heard was stake, merger, investors, collapse.

Rowan Textiles was drowning.

The only thing keeping it alive was the Lancaster deal and the Lancaster deal came with one condition. Marriage.

Sienna had agreed to it happily when Adrian Lancaster was just a name on paper. A billionaire heir. A perfect alliance. A glittering last name.

But now, after hearing he had no interest in her, after learning whispers of another woman he's been craving for, she suddenly couldn't do it.

So they turned to me.

Like they always did when they needed a sacrificial lamb.

"Celia will do it," my father had said an hour ago, as casually as if he were asking me to pass the salt.

I still couldn't believe he meant it.

"You raised me in this house," I continued, staring at him. "That doesn't mean you own my life."

The slap came so fast that my head snapped to the side before I even realized he had moved.

For a second, I just stood there, feeling the fresh sting spread across my cheek.

Sienna gasped softly. "Daddy..."

"Don't talk back to me," Victor hissed. "Everything you have is because of me."

Everything I have?

What did I ever have in the first place? Nothing here had ever felt like mine.

Not this house.

Not this family.

Not even the name I carried.

Marianne rose from the sofa, smoothing invisible wrinkles from her sleeve. "This is the least you can do after everything we have done for you."

The least.

I had grown to hate that phrase. It followed me all my life.

When Sienna spilled juice on her own dress, it was my fault for not watching her properly.

When guests came over, I had to vanish upstairs so Sienna could shine alone.

When my father needed errands, lies, apologies, or silence, it was always the least I could do.

And now, apparently, marrying a man my sister didn't want was also the least I could do.

"I won't marry him," I said again.

Sienna stood up so suddenly. "Then what about me?" she cried. "Do you want the whole city to laugh at me? Do you want people saying Adrian Lancaster rejected me?"

I stared at her.

This was about her?

Her embarrassment?

Not the fact that she was asking me to walk into a marriage she herself refused to be in?

"You said yes to this marriage, so marry him."

Her eyes filled with tears instantly.

"Mom," she whispered shakily. "She's jealous. She always has been."

A bitter laugh escaped me.

That was enough.

Victor stepped toward me, fury stripping the last of his restraint. "You will marry Adrian Lancaster today. Whether you want to or not."

My whole body went cold.

Wait, it wasn't next week again like planned?

My mother folded her arms. "The courthouse slot has already been secured. Adrian agreed to a private ceremony. The press has been redirected. You will get dressed and go."

I stared at her.

"You already arranged everything?"

"Of course we did."

That was the moment something cracked inside me.

It wasn't because I expected love. It was because some foolish little part of me had still hoped they would at least ask.

Instead, they had planned it all behind my back like I was an object to be moved.

"I said no."

Victor's jaw tightened. "And I said you don't get a choice."

I stepped backward without meaning to.

No one here cared about me.

Father's face was cold and absolute.

Mother, disgusted.

Sienna, dabbing at tears she had produced on command.

No one here was going to save me.

So I turned and ran.

"Celia!" my mother shouted.

I was already out the door, my heels striking hard against the marble floor. I nearly slipped at the stairs, caught myself, then rushed through the corridor toward the back exit.

I only needed the gate.

Just the gate.

I shoved open the back door and flew down the steps into the cold afternoon air.

Relief hit me before two security guards suddenly stepped in front of me before I even reached the driveway.

My feet stopped.

"Move," I ordered, breathless.

Neither man met my eyes.

"Miss Rowan. Mr. Rowan ordered us not to let you leave."

For one second, I couldn't even breathe. Then I couldn't help laughing. The men stared at me as if I'd gone mad.

Of course they did. Of course I couldn't escape. Of course they'd trapped me.

By the time they brought me back inside, I had stopped struggling.

Think fast, Celia.

That was what I kept telling myself when my mother locked me in my room.

What I kept telling myself when stylists came in with a wedding dress I had never seen before.

What I kept telling myself while Marianne watched them pin my veil into place like she was supervising staff.

The gown was beautiful.

Ivory silk. Long sleeves. A fitted waist.

It looked like something out of a dream, but when I stared into the mirror, I saw no bride. Only a woman being wrapped up for sacrifice.

"Don't look so miserable," Marianne suddenly commented from behind me. "This is the only useful thing you've ever done for this family."

I met her gaze in the mirror. "You mean the only useful thing Sienna wouldn't do."

Her face hardened instantly. "Careful."

I looked away before she could see the tears in my eyes.

I wouldn't cry in front of her. Not for this.

Half an hour later, I was in the backseat of a black sedan, clutching my bouquet so hard some petals had bent beneath my fingers.

The city blurred outside the window.

This was really happening.

I was really being taken to marry Adrian Lancaster.

The Adrian Lancaster.

The billionaire heir with the ruthless reputation, the cold face in business magazines, the man Sienna had once called too dangerous to love.

The courthouse ceremony passed like a fever dream.

Just a private room with a single civil official.

My father's voice did most of the talking while my mother just stood one side, staring at her nails like this was none of her concern.

And Adrian...

He arrived late.

The moment he stepped in, my breath caught. He was taller than I expected at least 6'2. Broad-shouldered, dressed in black and beautiful in the coldest possible way.

But what struck me most was how detached he looked. It was if everyone there was beneath his notice.

There was also a faint scent of whiskey around him, which told me he definitely wasn't sober.

Was the rumour of him being in love with another woman really true?

His eyes landed on me only once beneath my veil. He didn't smile, speak or even react.

If he realized I wasn't Sienna, he gave no sign.

Or maybe he simply didn't care enough to look closely.

The vows were brief. Then came the signatures and the ring which felt like ice when it slid onto my finger.

And just like that, I became Celia Lancaster.

No kiss.

No joy.

No applause.

Nothing.

When it was over, Adrian spoke for the first time.

"Let's go."

That was all.

By the time the car pulled into the Lancaster estate, night had already fallen.

The mansion was enormous. White stone, iron gates, endless lit windows glowing against the dark.

Beautiful.

A maid led me upstairs after a dinner I was too sick to touch. The bridal suite was vast and elegant, but I stood in the middle of it feeling smaller than I ever had in my life.

It was our wedding night? Was he going to...

The door suddenly opened and I quickly turned around.

Adrian walked in, loosening his tie.

He looked tired. More intoxicated than before, though still composed. His gaze fell on me, and I instantly went stiff.

He crossed the room without a word and stopped right in front of me.

My pulse pounded.

He reached up and touched the veil, then my cheek through it, his lips curving faintly.

"I've waited too long for this Sienna.”