Married By Midnight

Episode Two: Nine Hours Later

Nine hours earlier, the lights were off again.

Rhea stepped through the narrow doorway, clutching her coat tighter against the cold. The air in the apartment was heavy—too quiet, too familiar. A chill ran up her spine, but not from the weather.

Julian sat cross-legged on the worn rug, textbooks open, the pale glow of a dying tablet casting shadows on his face.

“They cut the power again?” she asked softly.

“Fourth time this month,” he muttered, not looking up. “No big deal. I boiled some water earlier. Are you hungry?”

Rhea’s chest tightened. Her sixteen-year-old brother was asking if she was okay. That had been happening too often lately. He was a boy forced to grow up too fast.

“I’m fine,” she lied.

She always was—even when their mother screamed through the walls, even when she came home to eviction notices, even when she poured drinks for men who looked at her like a transaction.

She dropped her bag and noticed something unusual on the table. A thick envelope. Cream-colored. Heavy. It didn’t belong in their world.

With trembling fingers, she tore it open.

Ms. Castellanos,

You are invited to a private engagement with Mr. Damien Moreaux at 8:00 p.m. sharp. Come alone. Your presence is not optional.

She stared at the message, the paper crackling slightly in her grip.

“Rhea?” Julian asked. “What is it?”

She slipped the letter behind her back. “Nothing,” she said too quickly.

But it wasn’t anything.

It was a summons from a man powerful enough to shatter everything.