FORCED TO MARRY THE RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE IN 9 DAYS

###CHAPTER 6- THE POOL*

The Sterling Estate in the Hamptons was glittering for Rowen Sterling's Annual Summer Ball.

Elena didn't want to come. Her stitches from the accident had just come out. But Rowen had personally asked for her. "Come, my dear. I want to show my real daughter-in-law."

So she wore white.

So did Vivienne — Caspian's ex-wife.

It was not a coincidence.

Vivienne walked in like she still owned the house, like she still owned Caspian. She kissed Rowen on the cheek. She kissed Caspian on the mouth. And then she found Elena by the infinity pool.

"White is brave for you," Vivienne whispered, circling her with a champagne glass. "Especially when you have so much to hide. How is your mother? Margaret, right? Still in a coma at The Langford Private Clinic? Must be expensive to keep a vegetable alive."

Elena's hands balled into fists. "Don't talk about my mother."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Vivienne laughed loudly so everyone could hear. "I forgot. You're sensitive. Because you sold yourself to pay for her. Tell me, how much did Caspian pay? A million? Two? You must be very good at —"

"Stop," Elena said, voice shaking.

Vivienne grabbed her wrist and pulled her onto the dance floor by the pool edge. The music was loud. Everyone was watching.

"Dance with me, little Cinderella," Vivienne hissed through a smile. "Let's see if you can pretend to be a Sterling for one minute."

She spun Elena hard. Elena stumbled in her heels, dizzy.

"I said stop!" Elena tried to pull away.

"You're embarrassing him!" Vivienne snapped, and then — in front of all of Rowen's investors, in front of Caspian, in front of everyone — she shoved Elena with both hands.

Right into the 12-foot infinity pool.

*SPLASH.*

The crowd gasped.

Elena didn't come up.

Because Elena couldn't swim. She had never learned. Her white dress tangled around her legs, pulling her down. She thrashed, swallowing water, screaming.

"HELP! I CAN'T SWIM! CASPIAN! HELP!"

Caspian was five feet away. He saw it all. He saw Vivienne push her. He saw his wife drowning.

And he froze.

His father Rowen was standing right next to him. And in that one second, Caspian's entire childhood came back — Rowen telling him _never embarrass the Sterling name, never choose a woman over the empire._

So he did nothing.

He just stood there, fists clenched, face white, watching the woman he was falling in love with drown.

It was the waiter who jumped in.

He dragged Elena out. She collapsed on the cold marble, soaking wet, her white dress completely see-through, her hair stuck to her face, coughing and vomiting chlorinated water.

"Caspian..." she choked, looking up at him, her hand reaching for him. "You... you watched..."

Caspian opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

Then Elena's eyes rolled back.

Her body went limp.

She fainted. Right there on the edge of Rowen's perfect pool, in front of 200 of New York's richest people.

Silence.

And then Rowen Sterling moved.

Everyone expected Rowen to be angry at Elena for causing a scene. Everyone expected him to side with Vivienne — the proper ex-wife he had always liked.

But Rowen Sterling knelt down.

He took off his own $10,000 tuxedo jacket and covered Elena's shivering, unconscious body. He lifted her himself — a 72-year-old man carrying his daughter-in-law like she was made of glass.

"Caspian," Rowen said, his voice so quiet and so dangerous the entire party went dead silent. "Get the car. Now. Take her to The Langford Private Clinic."

Caspian finally snapped out of it. "Dad, I —"

"NOW!" Rowen roared. It was a sound no one had ever heard from the old man.

Caspian picked Elena up and ran.

Rowen watched them go. Then he turned. Slowly. To Vivienne.

Vivienne was smiling nervously. "Rowen, she slipped, I —"

Rowen walked up to her. He smiled too. A terrifying, cold Sterling smile.

"Vivienne, dear," he said softly, so only she could hear, while the crowd pretended to drink. "You made a mistake tonight. A very big mistake."

"I didn't —"

"You pushed my daughter-in-law into my pool knowing she couldn't swim. You tried to humiliate a Sterling wife in my house."

He leaned in.

"You think I didn't know you wore white on purpose? You think I didn't see you push her? Elena is the first good thing that has happened to my son since his mother died. And you tried to drown her."

Vivienne went pale.

Rowen straightened his tie. He signaled his head of security.

"Vivienne's father wanted that loan from Sterling Industries, correct? $50 million for his failing hotels?" Rowen said, still smiling for the cameras. "Call the bank. Cancel it. And call Vogue. And call every house in New York. Vivienne Hawthorne is no longer welcome in any Sterling property. Or any property we fund. Which is... most of New York."

Vivienne's mouth dropped. "You can't — Rowen, you can't do that! Caspian —"

"Caspian will learn to live with it," Rowen said. "Now get out of my house before I have you thrown out soaking wet like you did to her."

He didn't shout. He didn't need to.

Vivienne was escorted out, sobbing, mascara running, while the entire party watched.

Rowen then turned to the crowd, his face changing back to the charming host.

"The party is over, ladies and gentlemen. My daughter-in-law needs rest."

---

At The Langford Private Clinic, Elena woke up two hours later in a VIP suite — right next to Margaret Alvarez's room.

Caspian was sitting on the floor again. Just like the night she forgave him. Head in his hands. Still in his wet clothes.

"You fainted," he whispered. "You swallowed too much water. You... you almost..."

Elena looked at him, her eyes empty.

"You watched me drown," she said hoarsely. "You watched everything happen and you didn't side me. You didn't even move."

"I was scared of my father —"

"Your father saved me!" she screamed, tears finally coming. "Your father Rowen saved me! Not you! Your father punished her! Not you!"

Caspian flinched like she had slapped him.

"I hate you," Elena sobbed, curling into herself. "I hate you, Caspian Sterling."

And outside the door, Rowen Sterling stood listening, his old eyes wet, hearing his son finally understand what it means to lose the woman he loves.

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