Chapter 1

The timer on the screen ticked down from 59 minutes and 59 seconds.

Roman Keller sat across from Celia Vaughn in a tailored suit, his long fingers tapping lightly against the table as though he were waiting for some inconsequential contract to be signed.

"Celia, you have 59 minutes left." His tone was calm, almost gentle. "Tell me, where did you send Lana?"

Celia felt cold down to her bones. Her throat clenched as if a hand was wrapped around it, and she could not force out a single word. This was the third time he had asked.

The first time he asked where Lana Crawford had gone, she said nothing. The second time, he caught her chin between his fingers and traced his thumb along the line of her lips as he spoke in a low voice. "Celia, don't be difficult."

Now, the third time, he was using her parents' lives to force an answer out of her.

"Roman..." Her voice shook. "Those are my parents. They're the most important people in my life."

He let out a quiet laugh, but his eyes were terrifyingly cold. "Are they? Then when you sent Lana away, did you ever stop to think about how much she means to me?"

Celia stared at him, and the absurdity of it nearly made her laugh.

He had told her the women outside meant nothing, that they were just passing amusements he would tire of and throw away. He had told her she was the one he loved most, and now, he was ready to kill her parents for Lana.

"Roman." Her voice was so hoarse it barely sounded like her own. "If I don't tell you, will you really let them die?"

He leaned forward slightly, her pale reflection caught in his dark eyes. "Try me."

Celia trembled from head to toe, tears falling onto the table. She did not understand how it had come to this. Roman had loved her once, so unmistakably, so completely.

Back then, she was just a girl from an ordinary family. Roman was the heir to one of the city's most powerful dynasties. Born into privilege, he was proud and untouchable, the kind of man who never lowered himself for anyone.

Yet he fell for her at first sight. He pursued her so relentlessly that the entire city knew about it. He made 99 declarations of love that each became a spectacle of its own.

He dropped roses from a helicopter, bought out every LED screen in the financial district for a single confession, and on her birthday, he set the city's entire fireworks display off just for her.

She was swept off her feet, but her parents were firmly against it. They knew exactly the type of man he was, the type who kept a wife at home and a mistress on the side. With men from families like his, love was never a fairy tale.

They wanted her to marry someone from their own world, but Roman showed up at their front door and refused to leave for an entire day and night. He stripped away every last shred of his pride just for the chance to marry her.

Eventually, her parents gave in.

After the wedding, he devoted himself to her completely, bending to her every whim. When she had bad cramps, he flew back overnight from abroad just to make her a cup of hot chocolate.

When she mentioned offhand that she wanted chestnut cake from a bakery across town, he drove halfway across the city to get it.

She thought she had married the right man, until the first time she heard the name Lana Crawford.

It came up during a casual conversation with his assistant, who mentioned that some college girl had deliberately tripped during one of Roman's speaking events. It was a cheap stunt that no one took seriously.

Celia laughed it off. Women were always trying to get close to Roman, and he had never given any of them the time of day.

Yet the second time she heard the name, it was in bed.

He was on top of her, lost in the moment, when he breathed out a single name. "Lana."

The world dropped out from under her.

She confronted him, and he held her close, trying to explain. He admitted to thinking about keeping Lana on the side but insisted it was nothing serious, just a bit of fun.

"Everyone in our circle does it, Celia. You're still the one I love the most. That's never going to change."

However, as time went on, he stopped bothering to hide it. He bought Lana jewelry, set her up in a mansion, and even brought her to private events. The rumors tore through the city like wildfire.

Celia cried and fought, but Roman no longer comforted her the way he used to. All he gave her was a cold, flat dismissal. "Stop making a scene."

In the end, she could not take it anymore and sent Lana out of the country.

She never expected his reaction to be this extreme. He kidnapped her parents and strapped explosives to them, all to force her to say where Lana had gone.

"She's in Valcourt." The words came out shaking. "At Reinfeld. The villa under my name."

He studied her for a few seconds as though weighing whether she was telling the truth, then picked up his phone and made a call. Once he had confirmation, he grabbed his jacket and headed for the door, his steps already urgent.

"What about my parents?" Celia lunged forward and caught his sleeve. "You promised you'd let them go if I told you!"

He glanced back at her, his expression flat. "The abandoned factory on the south side. Find them yourself."

Celia stumbled out the door and drove straight for the south side.

When she found them, there were ten minutes left on the bomb. Her parents were tied to chairs with their mouths taped shut. The moment they saw her, they shook their heads frantically, begging her to run.

She rushed over and tried to undo the ropes with trembling hands, but the countdown kept ticking, steady and merciless. The timer read three minutes and 21 seconds. It was still counting down.

She could not get them loose. Tears streamed down her face.

Her father suddenly threw his weight into her, knocking her backward. The next second, he threw himself over the bomb.

"Dad!"

The explosion was deafening. The blast wave threw her off her feet, and she hit the ground hard. Everything went red.

...

When Celia woke, she was in a hospital.

Her parents, Martin Vaughn and Ruth Davenport, were both badly injured, but they were alive.

She knelt beside the bed, sobbing. "I'm sorry... I picked the wrong person..."

Ruth lifted a weak hand and stroked her hair. "Silly girl. You just have to start over."

Celia shook her head. "He won't let me go."

After she first found out about Lana, she could not accept it. Divorce had crossed her mind more than once, but every time she drafted an agreement, Roman tore it up.

He told her Lana was just a fling, that he would get bored and drop her eventually. Celia was his true love, and he would never let her go.

Martin squeezed her hand. "No, Celia. There's something you don't know, and he's probably forgotten. The night we agreed to let you marry him, your mother and I made him sign a divorce agreement.

"If he ever betrayed you, the agreement would take effect. You could walk away on the spot, and our whole family would disappear for good."

Celia froze. Tears rolled down her face before she could stop them. Her parents had planned an escape route for her all along.

...

The next day, Celia did two things.

First, she and her parents took the signed divorce agreement to a law firm. The lawyer reviewed the document and nodded. "This is valid. The divorce takes effect immediately."

Second, the three of them filed to have their identities erased.

Once the process was complete, there would be no more Celia Vaughn—not on any record, not in any system, not anywhere in the world.

Roman would never find her again.