Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
His gaze sharpened. “You want clear expectations?” He leaned forward, leaning closer until I could feel his breath fanning against my cheek, until the air between us crackled again.
I nodded, swallowing nervously.
“Good. Because I don’t like dancing around the truth,” Adrian said, staring me down, his next words shattering every hope I harbored. “This marriage is a farce.”
Crack.
Something inside me snapped—a sharp, resonant crack like porcelain breaking.
My world splintered.
He leaned back, voice deceptively casual. “I married you because I couldn’t let my brother have you.”
Thud.
Adrian decimated me.
His confession hit me like a hammer to the chest. I gasped, breath hitching.
“You were his obsession, his prize,” he continued, voice low, almost like he was savoring the cruelty. “And let me tell you… it felt real fucking good watching him lose it all.”
Adrian annihilated me.
The world tipped. My knees buckled, and I hit the edge of the velvet-draped bed with a hollow thud. My husband’s ruthlessness had reduced me to ashes.
“His legacy that he was so arrogant about is now mine,” he added, as though claiming a trophy. “He wanted you. I took you. It was simple. You were merely a pawn to my vengeance. Nothing more.”
I sagged against the silk sheets, my soul bleeding through invisible wounds. My hands shook. “B-but you said you loved me,” I whispered, voice cracking. “You love me,” I repeated, trying to convince myself more than him.
Adrian regarded me with an indifferent tilt of his head, his blue eyes as dark and unforgiving as a hurricane that obliterated everything in its path. “Do I?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Adrian
I watched as the truth shattered her and crumbled before me, this beautiful creature in white who had been handed to me on a silver platter.
My wife.
The word tasted like victory on my tongue.
The sight of her breaking filled me with a dark, primal satisfaction that surged through my veins like a drug.
Her face transformed as the realization struck her—her hazel eyes widening, pupils dilating with shock before contracting with pain, her perfect pink lips trembling, the carefully constructed mask of composure shattering like glass. The subtle shift in her posture as her shoulders slumped forward, her spine curving inward as if to protect herself from the blow.
My bride, realizing her true worth on our wedding night.
In this moment, she was utterly, devastatingly beautiful in her vulnerability.
My beautiful, pitiful wife.
Satisfaction coursed through me, hot and intoxicating. I had waited so long to wipe that smugness off Matteo’s face, to watch his carefully constructed world crumble. And now I had finally done it. The image of my brother’s face in the audience while I stood at the altar…the shock, the rage, the utter devastation…would fuel me for years to come.
And yet, something nagged at me.
Serafina had walked right into my arms without me having to trick her into bed... it had been almost too easy.
Too fucking easy.
The thrill of the chase, the thrill of winning felt hollow now. Empty. The victory wasn’t as sweet as I had imagined because she had practically gift-wrapped herself for me.
But this was only the beginning.
Matteo had to suffer more, and to make him suffer, Serafina would have to suffer too.
How unfortunate for my bride.
“You’ve r-ruined me,” she whispered, her words barely audible.
Her face transformed, the initial shock melting into something darker, something dangerous—an untamed fury like I had never seen in her before. Her hands balled into fists at her sides, her chest heaving behind the lace of her wedding gown with rapid breaths.
I stayed silent, letting her drown in the truth of her new reality.
“You ruined me.” Her voice cracked. The words seemed to ignite something within her. She rose from the bed. “You ruined me, humiliated me, destroyed everything I’d been raised to become.”
She lunged at me then, her small fists pounding against my chest with surprising force. I could have stopped her easily, but I allowed it, savoring her rage.
Fuck me, she was ethereal.
Hauntingly beautiful.
“How could you?” she screamed, tears streaming down her face. Each word punctuated by another blow. “How dare you? You took everything from me! For what? Why?”
Her fists continued their assault, each blow weaker than the last as her strength waned. “I have had enough of being everyone’s pawn!”
I remained perfectly still, watching her unravel.
“I’ve had enough!” she hissed in my face. “I won’t be your puppet.”
I caught her wrists, holding them firmly but not enough to hurt her. I could if I wanted to… “That’s too late now.” I leaned down, my lips brushing her ear. “You’re my wife and it’s till death do us part.”
“How?” she asked, lips curled with disgust. “How did you do it? Did you drug me? Is that how I ended up in your bed?”
“Now now, be careful with your accusations, wife.”
“What did you do?” Serafina bellowed, the walls echoing with her broken fury.
Feisty, she was.