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Todos los capítulos de The Devil's Wedding Ring : Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 10

130 Capítulos

Chapter One

I didn't know anything until I ended up being married to the man that sealed my fate. A man that killed people so precious to me and brought my own downfall. Cillian Vane. And then turned around to ask me to marry him. Few months ago, The scent of jasmine and expensive cigar smoke always reminded me of home. We were sitting on the veranda of my father’s Bel-Air estate, the kind of afternoon that felt like it had been dipped in gold. My mother, Julianna, was delicately adjusting the lace on her cuff, her eyes reflecting the pride that had become my daily bread. My father, Arthur, sat across from us, the morning’s trades open on his lap."Diamond Val," he teased, tapping a headline that featured my face draped in Bulgari. "The most wanted woman in Hollywood. I told you, Valerie. St. Claire women don't just walk; they reign."And of course, we actually do reign. I smiled, sipping my tea while feeling the weight of Hollywood on my shoulders. I was the most wanted actress in the industry

Chapter Two

"Cillian Vane?" I muttered under my breath, trying to recall where I had met him, or seen him. He is like a ghost in my head or maybe he's one of the quiet billionaires of Hollywood who pulled strings around the corner to help other billionaires climb power in the shadows and never noticed. But why was he here? And why was he dancing with me as if he knew the exact cadence of my pulse?I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d snagged a St. Claire. "I'm Sarah," I lied, the name slipping out with the practiced ease of an actress who’d played a thousand roles."Sarah?" He rolled the name around, tasting it. His hands arched higher on my waist, the heat of his palms seeping through the Da Vinci silk. "That's a good name. Honest. And you dance well, Sarah. Are you from a rich and influential home?""You could say that," I replied, my voice steady despite the way my heart was beginning to trip. "I’m from a wealthy home.""I can tell," he murmured, his voice a low vibrati

Chapter Three

Call him when I feel lonely?I didn't even give the card a second look. I crumpled that piece of cardstock into a ball and tossed it into a trash bin without a thought as I headed toward our car. I had already called a designated driver, who arrived within minutes. He helped me maneuver Jaxson’s heavy weight into the backseat, and I slid in beside him.As the car started moving, Jax held onto me, his touch heavy and desperate. My anger was still white-hot, but it had shifted from Jax to that rude Cillian Vane. Who did that man think he really was? A shadow in a mask trying to tell me who I was and how I felt? It was maddening."I'm sorry I lashed out at you like that," Jaxson’s voice slurred, his hands clasping over mine. "I don't know, Val... I just... I don't know why I’m taking my frustrations out on you. It's not fair."I let out a long heave of a sigh, the tension in my shoulders dropping just an inch. "I understand, Jax. Let’s just get home.""Do you know what my father said to

Chapter Four

The words felt like stones in my mouth. I didn’t mean them, not really, but I wanted them to hurt. I wanted to leave a mark deep enough that he’d finally understand he couldn't talk to me like that. I wanted to train him, to show him that his insecurity didn't give him a license to be cruel. I wanted him to spend the flight to France haunted by the silence I’d left behind, hoping that by the time he landed, he’d be ready to apologize."Thank God you're on time," Sarah said, her voice echoing through the drafty heights of the Bradbury Building. She literally raised her hands in a silent prayer toward the rafters. "I thought I was going to get roasted if you didn't show in the next hour. The director has been pacing like a caged tiger." She paused, her head tilting as she caught my expression under the harsh work lights. "And why is your face so down?""I just... erm... nothing..." I muttered, focusing on my shoes.Right as the words left my lips, my phone buzzed in my palm. It was a ca

Chapter five

"No, he's... he's in France. He just left."I whispered it like a prayer, like if I said it enough times, the laws of physics would rewrite themselves. I shook my head, my hair coming loose from the elaborate stage pins, my mouth falling open in a silent, jagged scream. It was impossible. He had walked out of the penthouse. He had gripped his bag. He was angry. Angry people don't just disappear."We... Sarah, I er... get my phone!!!" I shrieked, the sound tearing through the hushed theater like a gunshot.I didn't wait for her. I turned and scrambled off the stage, the heavy silk of the costume gown snagging on the edge of a prop table. I didn't care. I ripped the fabric, my breath coming in shallow, panicked stabs. I was grabbed by a pair of able hands, a stagehand trying to steady me, but I shoved him off with a strength I didn't know I possessed."My phone!!!"Sarah scrambled toward me, her face a blurred mask of tears, and thrust the device into my hand. My fingers were shaking so

Chapter Six

The first thing I tasted was copper. It was the metallic tang of a tongue bitten during a fall, followed closely by the clinical, sterile scent of industrial bleach and saline. I didn't want to open my eyes. If I kept them shut, I could still pretend I was back in the Bradbury Building, waiting for a cue that would never come. I could pretend that the scream I heard in my sleep wasn't my own."Valerie? Val, honey, can you hear me?"I opened my eyes to a ceiling of acoustic tiles and the rhythmic, mocking hum of a heart monitor. Sarah was sitting in a chair close to the bed, her eyes swollen and rimmed with red. She looked like she had aged ten years in a single night."Where am I and what am I doing here?" I asked hating the memory that pressed into my head as I stared at her. Then I remembered Jax hurt eyes when I cursed him out of disdain, my hands flew to my ears immediately, panic rose from my throat immediately, I began to shake, collapsing into the bed. "Doctor!!! She's having

Chapter Seven

"Jaxson, you're alive," I breathed, the sheer force of the relief making my head light. The sterile white of the hospital room seemed to soften into a glow. He looked exactly as he did in the morning light of the penthouse, strong, radiant, his NBA jersey hanging loosely off his broad shoulders. "I knew they were lying. I knew you wouldn't leave me."I tried to reach for him, my fingers straining against the IV tape, desperate to touch the solid warmth of his skin. I wanted to tell him about the nightmare I’d just had, the burning planes and the freeway pileups. I wanted to apologize until my lungs gave out."I'm going to France now, Val," he said, his voice sounding thin, like it was being carried over a long-distance line with a bad connection. He didn't move toward the bed. He stayed by the door, his smile fixed and unchanging. "You told me not to come back.""No, Jax! I didn't mean it! Stay, please, just stay..."I lunged forward, but my hands didn't meet flesh. They met cold, emp

Chapter Eight

The accusation hit me like a physical blow. I looked around, desperate for Sarah, but I was lost in a sea of judgment. The flashes were a strobe light of hell, blinding me, turning the funeral hall into a fractured nightmare. They were circling me now, their voices rising into a deafening chant of suspicion and hate. I couldn't breathe. I could only see the broken screen of my phone, the image of my father's car, the smoke from the mountainside."I didn't..." I croaked, my hands flying to my ears to block out the noise. "I didn't know...""Then why are you alive?" someone shouted.I was being buried. Not in the ground, but in the weight of their bodies, the blinding light of their lenses, and the crushing gravity of my own guilt. My knees buckled. I waited for the floor to take me, to finally let the darkness return.But the crowd suddenly jerked backward.A path was cleared not by kindness, but by a sudden, sharp authority. A young man stepped through the fray, his face a mask of Ivy

Chapter Nine

He didn't wait for my permission. He reached out and guided me into the solid, unyielding heat of his body. I was breaking. I was shaking so violently that the sable fur rustled against my skin. For a moment, I let my head rest against his chest, the scent of him, cedar and cold steel, blocking out the smell of the wet earth and death.He led me toward the waiting SUV, his grip on my waist the only thing keeping me upright. As the door opened, the interior light hit his face, and for the first time, I saw the gray of his eyes without a mask. They weren't kind. They were the color of a winter sea, deep and full of things that drown.The man who sat in the shadows of the boardrooms. The man who bought the ruins of empires.I didn't resist, where was the strength to pick choices? I didn't ask where he was taking me. I was too tired to care if he was a savior or a ghost.He started the engine and began to drive away, "The hotel is the other way," I whispered, my voice barely audible over

Chapter Ten

The momentary softness I thought I’d seen in the kitchen was gone, replaced by a gaze that was disturbingly focused. "Just take a bath, you'd feel much better after," he said as he walked out of the bathroom. "I'd be waiting."I heaved a sigh, the sound echoing against the cold marble. I stripped off the mud-stained wool and the ruined Chanel, letting them fall in a heap on the floor like the debris of a life I no longer owned. I stepped into the water, the heat stinging my skin, forcing the chill out of my bones. For the first time since the Bradbury stage, I let myself go under. I stayed submerged until my lungs burned, praying the water would wash away the scent of the cemetery and the sound of the news anchors.The kind of relief that wrapped around me as I stayed submerged was different. It was a temporary death, a silent world where the gravity of being Valerie St. Claire didn’t exist.I came back up, washed, and stepped out of the bathroom tying a towel around my chest. To my s

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