Chapter 1 They spoke of arranged marriages

Valeria Vance had never believed in the concept of fate, at least not in the way her family portrayed it. They spoke of arranged marriages as if they were the keys to securing legacies, fortifying alliances, and ensuring prosperity. To them, a marriage was merely a transaction, a business agreement dressed in the illusion of romance. It was the life she had been born into, one where her own desires held no value against the demands of duty and family legacy. But no one ever asked her what she wanted. No one had ever cared.

The day she married Cassian Sterling was the day she relinquished control over her own life.

At first, Valeria had hoped things might change. Cassian was a handsome man, cold but composed, his sharp features and icy demeanor seeming like something from a dream-something unreachable. On their wedding night, when they stood in the grand, empty silence of their marital chamber, she had imagined that this man, so distant and calculated, would one day warm to her, would see her not as a symbol of a political alliance, but as a person. She wanted to believe that she could change him, that their union might evolve into something more than what it had been made to seem.

But the coldness never melted.

Cassian never touched her.

The silence between them grew louder with every passing day, and with each passing day, Valeria felt the weight of her own disillusionment pressing harder against her chest. She learned, after months of living under the same roof, that Cassian preferred to disappear into his study, his business meetings, his silent, endless hours. She became accustomed to the loneliness that settled over her, like a thick fog that never lifted. She had long ago stopped waiting for him to come to her, stopped pretending that the space between them would one day shrink. He didn't care. He never had.

It wasn't just the lack of intimacy that stung the most-it was the way Cassian had begun to withdraw entirely from her life. The long hours he spent away from their home, his absence more frequent than his presence. He never asked how she was, never inquired about her day, and when they did converse, it was only to discuss things that had nothing to do with them-strategies, deals, politics, alliances.

Valeria tried to be patient. She tried to maintain the dignity that her family had instilled in her, hoping that perhaps one day, he would come to appreciate her, that he would see beyond the marriage and the arrangement. But those dreams shattered one evening.

She had returned to their home late, exhausted from one of her own meetings-her first foray into managing her late father's estate. The door to the study was ajar, and as she walked past, her heart sank. Cassian was there, as always, but this time, there was a woman with him. A woman who clung to him in a way that Valeria had never experienced. The woman's laughter filled the air, high-pitched and seductive, a sound that made Valeria's stomach churn with bitterness. The sight of Cassian's hand resting on the woman's shoulder, his gaze soft as he looked at her, hit Valeria like a blow to the gut.

It wasn't the first time she had suspected something was wrong. But this-this was the confirmation she never wanted. Her world crumbled in that single, brutal moment.

Valeria stood frozen, her heart racing as she watched the scene unfold before her. She wanted to scream, to confront them, but the words stuck in her throat. She wasn't sure if it was the shock that paralyzed her or the hollow realization that this had been the inevitable outcome of a marriage that was never hers to begin with. Her husband, the man she had vowed to build a life with, had betrayed her trust in the most cruel of ways.

And yet, Cassian did not see her. He didn't hear her gasp, didn't register her presence. He was too wrapped up in his own world, his own schemes, his own desires. She wasn't even a shadow in his eyes anymore.

Valeria turned and walked away, her steps heavy as she left the study behind, her mind racing, her emotions a blur of rage and hurt. That night, she cried for the first time in years. For the life she had lost. For the woman she had tried to become, only to be discarded. For the person she had once believed she could be with Cassian, a dream that now seemed laughable.

It wasn't just the betrayal that stung-it was the realization that she had no one. She was alone. She had been alone for so long, even when she had shared a bed with him. Cassian had never truly been hers. Their marriage was nothing more than a cage, and she had been its prisoner.

The following days were filled with a strange, numb silence. Valeria spent her time buried in paperwork, managing her inheritance with a focus that kept her mind from wandering. But it was always there, lurking beneath the surface-the hurt, the betrayal, the anger. And the question that gnawed at her: Why had she stayed so long? Why had she allowed herself to become a part of something so toxic?

It was the moment she finally allowed herself to answer that question that everything changed.

Valeria knew she couldn't stay.

She was done. Done with the lies. Done with being used. Done with the suffocating expectations. And so, she made the decision to leave.

It wasn't an easy choice, and it wasn't one that came lightly. But it was the only one that mattered anymore. She had endured so much, and yet, the only person who had ever truly betrayed her was herself. She had betrayed her own desires, her own happiness, for the sake of an illusion that never existed.

With her mind made up, Valeria packed her things-just the essentials-and left. The world she once knew faded into the distance, but she didn't look back. She couldn't afford to.