Chapter One:
Stephanie's point of view
The suffocating scent of white lilies filled the wedding hall, a fragrance that reminded me more of a graveyard than a celebration.
I stood there, my body stiff inside a white gown that wrapped around me like a shroud, while the gazes of my family and relatives pierced my back like needles.
Beside me, the "groom" coughed feebly a sixty-five-year-old man with wrinkled skin smelling of stale tobacco and medicine.
He didn't look at me as a bride, but as a piece of land he had just acquired at a public auction.
Twenty-three years against sixty-five... a nauseating equation that only made my father's cold smile widen.
He was proud of himself for selling me to wash away the "shame" of that night which still haunted my nightmares. One night with that stranger who stripped me of everything and left a "proof" growing inside my womb day by day.
My hands trembled as I clutched the bouquet, the hall's chill seeping into my bones.
The priest opened his mouth to utter the words of eternal bondage: "Do you take this man to be your husband, in poverty and in wealth..."
A violent explosion roared.
It wasn't just doors shattering; it felt as if the world itself had split apart. Shards of stained glass rained down over the screaming guests.
From the midst of the dust and destruction, a group of men in black suits surged forward like demons rising from the bowels of the earth.
And at their front... was him.
He walked with heavy, confident strides, his broad frame dominating the space. His grey suit was tailored with terrifying precision over a body as solid as steel.
Not a single strand of his neatly styled black hair had moved despite the chaos. He possessed an aura that forced the lungs to stop breathing.
Before my father or the guards could process what was happening, he drew a pistol with mechanical coldness.
Bang!
The sound of the gunshot deafened me. I felt a warm spray hit my face, and soon I saw the elderly groom stagger before falling as a lifeless corpse at my feet.
I screamed silently as I watched his crimson blood seep into and stain the train of my white dress, turning its purity into an execution ground.
The blood froze in my veins when my eyes met his grey ones; they were as cold as a Siberian winter, devoid of any remorse.
He stepped toward me, and I felt the pressure of his powerful fingers digging into my arm, pulling me toward him with a cruelty that made me stumble over my blood-soaked dress.
He leaned his head down, and I felt his hot breath graze my ear while my entire body shuddered under his grip. He whispered in a deep, resonant, and terrifying voice:
"Did you really think your family could marry you off and sell what belongs to me to another man?"
He tightened his grip further, to the point where I felt my bones were about to shatter, and continued in a whisper that made my heart stop:
"You, and the child you are carrying... belong to me. And no creature on this earth will dare take you from me."