Chapter 2 The Man in the Moonlight

Ariella stared at Damian, her fingers still clutching the letter. She couldn't decide which was more chilling-his presence, or the fact that everything about this mansion seemed alive, like it had been waiting for her.

"You're serious?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Damian crossed his arms, jaw tight. "Dead serious. I would've preferred we never met, Miss Duvall. But here we are. Bound by someone else's madness."

Ariella looked around the grand hall once more. Moonlight streamed through the stained-glass windows, casting broken fragments of red, violet, and blue across the marble floors. The chandeliers above groaned in the wind, as though the house itself disapproved of their presence.

"What exactly do you want from me?" she asked.

He smirked, but there was no amusement in it. "Nothing, except for you to follow the terms. We fake an engagement, tolerate each other's existence, and unlock the inheritance. After ninety days, we go our separate ways."

Ariella narrowed her eyes. "And the fact that our families despised each other doesn't make this the slightest bit suspicious to you?"

"I suspect everything," Damian replied. "Especially Ravenhall."

He turned and began walking up the staircase without a glance back. "Come. I'll show you your room."

For a moment, she hesitated. Something inside her warned her not to trust him-not to follow him up that staircase. But something stronger pulled her forward: curiosity, or maybe the haunting feeling that this was where everything was meant to begin.

She followed him.

Each step creaked beneath her feet, echoing through the vast, hollow halls. Paintings watched from the walls-figures with hollow eyes, caught mid-turn or half-smile, as if aware of the lives passing beneath them.

"Your room is in the east wing," Damian said, stopping at a heavy door with iron vines twisted into the frame. "It's been sealed since your mother disappeared."

Ariella froze. "You mean-she vanished here?"

He met her gaze. "In that room. Thirteen years ago, to the day."

Ariella stepped back. "Why would you put me here?"

"Because that's what the letter said. That's where the truth begins."

Her hands trembled as she reached for the doorknob. Cold. Heavy. She turned it slowly, and the door groaned open.

The room was untouched. Lace curtains hung in place, brittle with age. A vanity stood before a cracked mirror. On the bed lay a white rose, dried with time... and pinned beside it, a note in faded ink.

"Find the vow, break the curse."

Suddenly, the air shifted.

Behind her, Damian was gone.

She spun around into empty hallway shadows-and somewhere far off in the house, a woman screamed.

End of Chapter Two.