Married To The Vampire Billionaire

Lily knew her family was sinking. She always knew. The cracks in the walls of their small house, as well as the bills they hadn't paid stuffed into their drawers, and her father's vacant expression spoke volumes. They had all become shackled to debt a breathing, animate weight that hung over everyone a darkness that enveloped them, one they couldn't escape.

Carlos, her father, did his best to conceal it. He worked double shifts at the factory; he came home with tired eyes, and his worn-out boots told stories of fatigue. Maria, her mother, tried to keep the house warm, welcoming, even though the fear in her eyes could not hide. They thought they were protecting Lily from it. They thought wrong.

It was a dark, rainy night that changed everything around us. The storm was pounding a steady beat against the windows; Maria and Carlos were sitting at the kitchen table with a man in a charcoal suit

. He introduced himself as Victor Donovan-Jake's father. He wore a smile that was thin, a voice calm and measured like silk over steel, saying, "We have a solution to your... predicament," sliding a thick envelope across the table. The envelope's sound echoed in the room. Carlos's fingers twitched.

"That's firty million dollars," Victor continued lazily, a hint of boredom in his voice. "It is enough to pay your debts, to maintain your home and your lives. In exchange-" He glanced at Lily, tightening his smile, "your daughter will marry my son."

The words landed in the room like poison. Lily was frozen. Maria shot her hand out, tightly holding onto Carlos's arm. Her father's jaw tightened. He was sweating.

"Why me?" Lily asked softly, her voice trembling.

Victor turned to look at her, he never blinked. "Because you are exactly what we need."

Jake parted his lips like he wanted to say something- instead he turned his face away, face tense, jaw locked. There was a flicker in his dark eyes. Regret? Concern? She couldn't tell.

Carlos' hands were quivering when he grabbed the envelope. Maria was going off in Spanish, frantically, on the phone. Her voice went higher now. Meanwhile, Carlos was hanging like a heavy weight in his chair. He couldn't breathe; the immensity of his disappointment was crippling. He didn't take very long to deliberate.

He opened the envelope with nerves. His hands were still shaking. Right away, his first thoughts were of the bundles of cash inside it all reflecting the small amount of light there was in that room. Added together, billing for it from the mortgage, medical bills, loans, and payments, he had everything all totaled up.

"We don't have a choice Lily," Carlos managed to say softly without even looking at her.

Her throat was burning with the tears she sacrificed, but she swallowed them deep. All her life, she protected her parents. If this is what it took to protect them... then, did she have a choice?

Three days later, Lily stood in a mansion she had only seen online, being fitted for a wedding dress she didn't want, to a man who hadn't spoken to her more than ten words.

The Donovan estate was a huge place. Marble floors, chandeliers of gold, velvet curtains in every room. Servants walked silently in the hallways. They would not look at her. The air felt heavy, like there were secrets hidden behind the walls.

Things began to happen, despite the hourly countdown to her wedding day.

At night, she would wake thinking she could feel eyes upon her from the dark corners of the room. The windows were sealed shut every night yet she woke to icy draughts pulling along her skin.

Twice, she had seen Jake standing still beneath the moonlight outside her window long after midnight, staring up at her without blinking. Each time she stumbled to the glass, he had melted back into the shadows without a sound.

Once - just once - she had snuck into the west wing of the mansion. The wing they told her was "off-limits." She had pushed open a vast wooden door and stepped into a gallery of portraits. An entire wall covered in rows and rows of old oil paintings. Each face eerily similar to Jake's. The sharp jaw. The steely eyes. Some of the portraits were dated over 100 years ago - and none of them aged.

The unease inside her grew heavier.

When she stood alone in a large room, the morning of the wedding, towards the cloth of the skirt, she realized that Jake took silent steps towards her"You don't need to be afraid of me," he said, his voice is always deep and smooth. His eyes looking nowhere but into hers dark and bottomless.

"I'm not afraid," she said with a lie on her lips.

Jake turned his head slightly to consider her. "You should be."

Before she could formulate any other words, the heavy oak doors creaked open behind them. Victor stepped inside, the smile on his face even broader.

"It is time," he said with his booming voice echoing off the cool marble walls.

When Jake turned away to leave, she caught a glimpse of it - a glimmer under his collar. A zig-zag scar like a burn mark; kind of like... a symbol. A jagged, ancient-looking symbol that was dark against his alabaster skin.

Her heart raced.

But she didn't have the chance to ask before her mother, Maria, rushed over to her.

"Lily," Maria whispered, looking pale with wide eyes. She stuffed a small folded piece of paper into Lily's hand, shaking slightly, "I found this hidden in Carlos's drawer. You have to read it before you say 'I do.' "

Lily's heart sank.

Her mother turned and quickly disappeared into the crowd as the music began to start.

With trembling hands, Lily unfolded the paper.

It was a contract. Not a contract simply about the marriage.

It was a binding document that was signed with her father's shaky handwriting.

And at the bottom... in blood-red ink...

"In exchange for Lily's life."

She gasped. Her legs felt like jello.

This was not simply marriage.

This was a sacrifice.

And she had less than an hour to figure out exactly what her parents had sold her into... before she stood at the alter.