Substitute Bride, Stolen Heart

Chapter 6 : The Voss Patriarch

The dining hall at Elias Voss's estate looked like it had been built to intimidate guests before they even sat down, vaulted ceilings, a table long enough to seat twenty, portraits of Voss men lining the walls with the same cold, assessing eyes I'd already learned to recognize on Killian.

Elias Voss sat at the head of it like he'd been carved from the same stone as his house.

"So." His voice was gravel, quieter than I expected, which somehow made it worse. "This is the bride."

"Avalene," Killian said, pulling my chair out before I could do it myself. "My wife."

"I know her name." Elias didn't look at me while he said it. He looked at Killian, like I was a decision his son had made without permission. "What I don't know is why the contract specified a Whitmore daughter, and yet the woman sitting at my table looks nothing like the photograph I was shown three months ago."

The room went very still.

Selene, seated across from me in blood-red silk, watched with the faint, satisfied smile of a woman who'd set a trap and was simply waiting to see it spring.

"The contract said a Whitmore daughter," Killian said evenly. "It didn't name one specifically. I read every clause before I signed it. There's no breach."

"There's a “deception”." Elias's fork clinked against his plate, deliberate. "Either by the Whitmores, or by you. Which is it, Killian?"

I opened my mouth — to explain, to apologize, to do something — but Killian's hand found mine under the table before I could speak, a single warning press against my fingers. “Let me.”

"Neither," Killian said. "I knew who she was the moment she lifted her veil. I married her anyway. That was my choice, not a deception played on me."

Elias's eyes finally moved to me, and I felt the full weight of them calculating, cold, searching for weakness the way his son searched for lies.

"You're the adopted one," he said, not unkindly, which was somehow crueler than if he'd sneered it. "No blood ties to the Whitmore fortune. No real family standing of your own."

"That's right," I said, before I could lose my nerve.

"And you understand what that means for this family's alliance? For the merger this marriage was meant to secure?"

"I understand it means I have nothing to offer you," I said, voice steadier than I felt. "No money, no name that matters, nothing except the fact that your son chose me anyway. If that's not enough for your contract, that's between the two of you. It was never something I asked for."

Silence rang through the hall.

Selene's smile faded, just slightly, replaced by something sharper.

Elias studied me for a long, unreadable moment and then, to my shock, something like the ghost of approval passed over his face.

"She has spine," he said to Killian, like I wasn't sitting three feet away. "More than I expected from a Whitmore charity case."

"Careful," Killian said quietly, and there was no mistaking the edge in it now. "That's still my wife you're talking about."

Elias's mouth twitched almost a smile, almost respect. "Careful yourself, son. That temper of yours is exactly why half this city already believes the rumors about you." He leaned back, studying us both. "I'll allow the marriage to stand. For now. But understand this, Avalene—" his eyes cut to me, hard again "—if this arrangement threatens my company's merger with the Whitmores in any way, I won't hesitate to end it. Contract or no contract."

"It won't," Killian said before I could answer.

"We'll see." Elias rose from his seat, signaling the meal was over whether we were finished or not. "Selene, walk me out. I want to discuss the eastern acquisition."

Selene rose gracefully, but not before her eyes cut to me one last time something colder now, more purposeful than the curiosity she'd shown in the study.

"Welcome to the family, little bride," she said, sweet as poison. "Do try to last longer than I expect you to."

The doors shut behind them, and the dining hall went quiet except for the distant sound of a clock somewhere ticking too loud.

I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. "That went well."

Killian almost laughed the sound rusty, unfamiliar, like it hadn't left him in a long time. "You just stood up to my father. Nobody does that. Not even Marcus."

"Was that a mistake?"

"No." His hand was still over mine on the table, and he didn't move it. "That was the first time I've seen him actually respect someone in this family in years."

I looked down at our hands, warmth spreading somewhere beneath my ribs that had nothing to do with the wine.

"He's still going to come after me," I said quietly. "Isn't he. Him, Selene, Marcus, all of them."

Killian's jaw tightened, the softness from a moment ago hardening back into something protective.

"Let them try," he said. "You survived tonight. You'll survive whatever's next. I'll make sure of it."