Alle Kapitel von The Bride They Buried Alive : Kapitel 1 – Kapitel 9

The mirror in Lila’s tiny attic room was cracked in one corner, but she had learned to angle her face so the fracture line fell across her left cheekbone like deliberate stage makeup. She stared at the girl looking back at her... pale, unremarkable, hair scraped into a tight bun that made her eyes look smaller than they were. Perfect.She practiced the expression again... the slight downward tilt of the mouth, the way her shoulders curved inward as if trying to disappear into the wallpaper. ...Invisible... Not ugly, exactly. Just... forgettable. The kind of face people looked past in a crowded room. She had spent six years perfecting it.Downstairs, the family was already at breakfast. Lila could hear them without even opening her door... the bright laugh of her older sister, her mother’s indulgent murmurs, and the low rumble of their father on the phone with some business associate. No one had called her name. No one ever did unless they needed something fetched or a message delivere

Lila slipped through the side gate just after eleven-forty. The gala lights still spilled across the driveway, but the main entrance was quieting down. She had changed back into her plain black dress in the taxi, yet her blood still hummed from the callback. The director’s last words kept replaying: “You’re locked in for the full series, Liora. You owned that stage tonight.”She moved fast toward the back door, bag heavy with the wig and makeup. One more minute and she would be upstairs, safe.She never made it.A wheelchair rolled out of the main hallway right as she turned the corner. Damien Blackthorn sat in it, dark suit sharp, face unreadable under the low lights. His uncle Victor walked beside him, speaking quietly. Lila tried to step back, but her foot caught the edge of the marble step.She pitched forward.Her hands landed on the arms of the wheelchair. Her body followed, collapsing straight into Damien’s lap.Time slowed.For one long second she was pressed against him… ches

The lawyer’s words still hung in the dining room like smoke.Lila stood frozen by the window, the black car long gone. Her pulse roared in her ears. Damien Blackthorn had looked straight at her and said the words she could still see on his lips.Lila... you are mine.Her mother’s voice shattered the silence first. “This is a mistake. It has to be. Lila was not even at the gala. She has done nothing to deserve this.”Her sister shot up from her chair, face twisted. “He chose her? The one who disappears to run errands? I smiled at him the entire night. I posed for every photo. And he wants the nobody who wasn’t even there?”Lila turned slowly from the window. She kept her face blank, the same mask she had perfected for six years. But inside her mind raced. The table read was tonight at eight. The director expected Liora Vale. Her mother now expected her to be the perfect, obedient daughter who would smile and accept whatever arrangement the Blackthorns demanded.Her mother paced the len

I lay on top of the covers fully dressed, the programme on the pillow beside me, staring at the ceiling until the light outside turned white. The circle in ink kept pulling my eyes back to it. Clean. Deliberate. At some point footsteps passed in the corridor. Slow. They stopped outside my door just long enough... then moved on without knocking. I didn't move. At seven a knock came. A woman I hadn't met opened the door a crack. Neat uniform. Eyes to the floor. "Mr. Blackthorn asks if you'll join him for breakfast, ma'am." "Tell him I'll be down in ten minutes." I folded the programme and buried it at the bottom of my bag. Then I stood in front of the mirror and put Lila back on. Shoulders in. Chin down. The look that said nothing and asked for less. I'd worn it for six years. It still fit. Damien was already at the table when I came downstairs. No Victor. Just him, a cup of coffee, and the morning papers beside his plate. He didn't look up immediately. Which told me he'd hea