"The sunlight streaming into the master suite was too intense. It was sharp and clinical, piercing through the heavy charcoal curtains and stabbing at my eyes. I didn't want to wake up. Every time I drifted back toward sleep, I could pretend I was still in my own bed, in my own house, before my life was traded away for a pile of cash.

But then I smelled it. That heavy, expensive scent of cedar and cold power.

I was in Dante Vane's world now.

I sat up slowly. The room tilted for a second, and a wave of nausea washed through me like a physical blow. I waited for it to pass, hands gripping the edge of the silk sheets. I had spent the entire night on the very edge of the mattress, listening to the rhythmic, steady breathing of the man beside me. Dante slept like someone without a conscience: calm, deep, unperturbed. I had spent those hours counting the seconds until dawn, staring at the breadth of his back and wondering when he would finally turn around to claim the "collateral" he had paid ten million dollars for.

But he never touched me. He didn't even look at me when he went to bed.

A soft knock at the door made me jump.

"Mr. Vane is waiting for you for breakfast, ma'am," a muffled voice said.

Ma'am. The word sounded like a collar to me.

I crawled out of bed and dressed in a high-necked cream dress. It made me look like a "proper" wife, but the fabric felt like a shroud. My skin was dull, with a strange grayish tint that even the most expensive concealer couldn't fix. It felt as if I were fading away.

I found Dante in the dining room. It was a space so large it felt like a museum-all marble and silence. He was sitting at the head of the table, his nose buried in a financial newspaper. He wore a three-piece gray suit that made him look lethal, without a single hair out of place even though it was barely seven in the morning.

"You're late," he said without looking up. "The staff has prepared smoked salmon and coffee. Sit."

I pulled out a chair as far away from him as possible. The heavy wood screeched against the marble with a harsh sound that made me grit my teeth.

Then, the smell hit me.

A maid poured dark, oily coffee into a porcelain cup. Normally, I loved that smell. It was the scent of my old life. But today, the burnt aroma rose like poison, mixing with the scent of the salmon, and my stomach did a violent, sickening flip.

"Claire?" Dante's voice was sharp.

I didn't answer. I couldn't. I pushed the chair back and ran. I didn't care about the role of the "devoted wife" or the staff watching me. I ran down the hallway with my hand over my mouth until I reached the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

I barely reached the toilet before I vomited.

It was violent. It was unbearable. I stayed on the floor for what felt like an hour, forehead pressed against the cold porcelain, trying to remember how to breathe.

It's just stress, I told myself in a shaky, desperate whisper. The bankruptcy. The wedding. Dante. It's just the trauma of being sold like merchandise.

But a cold, sickening thought began to grow in the back of my mind. I sat up slowly, wiping my mouth with a trembling hand. I started to count. Days, weeks.

One week. Ten days. Fourteen.

My period was two weeks late.

The blood drained from my face so fast I thought I would faint. I reached into the vanity-the one Dante's staff had stocked with "essentials"-and rummaged through the back. I found the small rectangular box I had bought in a panic three days earlier and hidden under a pile of silk robes.

I had been too afraid to use it. Now, I had no choice.

The minutes of waiting were the longest of my life. My mind raced back to six weeks ago: the night of the St. Claire charity gala. I was so angry with my father, so desperate to escape my life. I had met Killian Thorne in the shadows of the garden.

Killian was Dante's shadow. His greatest rival. A man who burned with a different kind of darkness. We shared drinks and a reckless, desperate conversation about fleeing our families. A night of rebellion. A mistake born of wine and spite.

I looked at the test on the sink.

Two pink lines. Bright. Clear. Terrible.

"Oh, God..." I let out, a sob caught in my throat.

I was no longer just Dante's collateral. I was a time bomb. I was carrying the heir of the only man Dante Vane hated more than my father. If Dante found out, he wouldn't just throw me out. He would destroy me. He would see this baby as a weapon against him.

I tore off some paper, wrapped the test into a white ball, and threw it in the trash, burying it under tissues. I splashed my face with ice-cold water, slapping my cheeks until I achieved a fake, desperate glow.

I had to be perfect. I had to be a ghost.

I opened the bathroom door, bracing myself to go back to the dining room.

I froze.

Dante was standing in the middle of the bedroom. He wasn't looking at me. He was leaning against the bedpost, staring at the phone in his hand. My phone. I must have left it on the nightstand when I ran to the bathroom.

The air in the room turned to ice. He looked up. His dark eyes locked onto mine with a silent, calculating intensity that made my knees tremble.

"You took a long time, Claire," he said. His voice was dangerously low, the kind of calm that precedes a storm.

He didn't look angry; he looked like he was solving a puzzle.

He took a step toward me. The sunlight highlighted the sharp line of his jaw.

"Is the coffee that bad?" he asked.

"I... I have a migraine," I stammered. My voice sounded weak and fake even to me. "The stress from yesterday... I think I just need to lie down."

Dante took another step, invading my space until I was backed against the bathroom door. He held up the phone. The screen was still on, showing a notification that froze my heart.

[1 Missed Call: Killian Thorne]

[1 New Message: Killian Thorne - "We need to talk about that night, Claire. I know the truth."]

Dante's grip on the phone tightened until his knuckles turned white.

"Curious," he whispered, inches from my face. He smelled of cedar and rain, but his eyes were pure fire. "Because your 'migraine' seems to be synchronized with your social life."

He turned the screen toward me, his thumb hovering over Killian's name.

"Explain to me," he said through gritted teeth, "why my greatest rival is calling my wife at seven in the morning to talk about 'that night.'"