g light across polished marble floors. Leya swam through the crowd, accepting well-wishes from the guests she didn't know, nodding po

s associates, wearing the same detached expression, his smile never quite reaching his eyes. A pri

into the sprawling gardens below. Laughter and clinking glasses faded through the backgrou

and sadness. "You did well today, Leya," she says softly, laying a hand on her da

motion forced its way up. "What future?" she ask

nd the veneer, the weight of guilt in her mother's heart. "I am so sorry darling," she wh

ntion made Leya'

hat moment, she felt like a prisoner in a cage, wondering if the price she had to pay was too high. Somewher

e. He heard congratulations, he heard toasts, but none of it mattered. He had done as his father had w

as keen-edged as ever. "I must say brother, you did well

on his half-emptied glass of whiskey. How he detested this charade,

han you think," Eleanor teased

h the powerful patriarch. His father had orchestrated this whole thing-had him hog-tied, he was bei

Harrison growled low, his

but you are, dear brother, whether you like it or

ment, a strange sense of guilt washed over him, a guilt he hadn't wanted to feel, and yet he felt guilty because he had not ask

ct that he resented her, h

From the minute his father had announced this arrangement, a silent vow was made that he would never let Leya Anderson

weight of it all, a flicker of doubt crept onto his mind. Was she really the enemy

refusing to let it take root. It d

retreating to the quiet sanctuary of her new bedroom in the Blackwood mansion. It was a grand

ingers trailing into the edges of her gown as she

re than anything, being trapped in a house that wasn't hers,

linked them away. She had promised herself she

d her made her stiffen. She knew who

cut through the silence. "Don'

m. He stood framed in the doorway, his face unreadable, but

nd menacing. "And don't think for one seco

each heavier than the last. She opened he

so that he could stand directly in front of her, never once breaking his s

ed and left, slamming t

matter of denial, it was the truth that had hit home, and the reality of her situation really sunken in.

ek, the action of wiping it away seemed to steal a resolve in her chest. She had su

d survive

lackwood sat in his personal study with a glass of brandy on the rocks, his

desk retrieving a file marked