Forbidden Reign

CHAPTER ONE

A hundred crystal chandeliers lit up the Alexander estate's magnificent ballroom. Intense golden light flooded the room, reflecting brilliantly off impressively tall gilded pillars and luxuriously cascading silken drapes. The air was filled with a delicate hum of several polite conversations and the sounds of many champagne glasses clinking together. Luna Alexander, in an exquisitely created ivory gown that flowed elegantly along the floor with each graceful step, glided effortlessly through the remarkably advanced throng. She appeared to be the perfect heiress to a large number of observers—self-assured, beautiful, as well as obedient. Internally, she experienced a feeling of at least five suffocating sensations.

A meaningful number of Alexanders were people of royal status, though they did not possess a crown. Matthew Alexander, her father, a sharp, authoritative man with iron-gray hair along with piercing blue eyes, governed their large business empire with the ruthlessness of a king. Vivienne, her mother, a strikingly elegant socialite whose face was perpetually graced with a charming smile, was exceptionally adept at concealing deep cruelty with excessively sweet and charming words. Her two siblings, Alexander “Lex” Jr. and Evangeline, were found to have thrived in the roles that were expected of them—Lex as the ambitious heir apparent and Evangeline as the picture-perfect daughter married off to secure another high-profile alliance.

Vivienne, observing her daughter moving toward a corner of the room, issued a gentle yet pointed reprimand. "Luna, smile properly," she said, her voice low and sharp. "You are embarrassing yourself." It is requested that a couple of shoulders be pulled back.

A practiced, neutral expression was adopted by Luna in response to her mother's words, thereby concealing a certain degree of pain. She straightened her posture and put on a serene smile for at least several of the onlookers, though a meaningful number of them did not notice her Luna, who was the youngest.

While Lex enjoyed board meetings with their dad and Evangeline wowed with their mom at charity events, Luna’s wishes and aspirations were dismissed as silly fantasies. At 24, she tried to break the single mold more than once by proposing ideas for charitable foundations, showing interest in the art world, and even advising a modernization of the family’s image in the field of humanitarian work.

“Luna,your brother will always take care of strategy,” Matthew had waved her off at one dinner when she spoke of the possibility of reinvestment into the building of eco-friendly suburbs. “Your time will come when we need it to happen.”

The force of his speech was with weight that held her back with chains. “When we need it to happen.” The course of her whole life has been planned into so many minute details. The events she was permitted to go to, the dresses she was supplied with, the ideas she was free to express or not to express.Love, freedom, self-determination were not the qualities that the heiress of Alexander family was able to enjoy.

Luna made her way to the balcony, gently nudging past the crowd and escaping to the warm night air which provided a stark contrast to the estate’s golden lights. She rested her head against the stone railing while clenching her fists, frustration running through her. She was tired of hiding in her family’s shadow, drained from spending years not being able to find herself amidst all the noise her family made. She shrunk, every word they said getting to her; her mother’s endless critique, her father’s lack of engagement, Lex’s husky remarks, Evangeline’s fake show of support. It all boiled down to one thing. Their wealth had no bearing on her life and only served to reinforce control over her. The fact did little to lessen the impact though.

The illuminating glimmer from her phone drew her attention—weaving her back to the present. It was a message from Jake, whom she believed to be her single and eldest friend. A notion which always baffled her.

Jake: How’s the royal court treating you tonight?

Luna chuckled, shaking her head, and resorted back to her thoughts. It was dry humor, but to Jake it was always funny. They were best friends growing up, and ever since he immigrated to another country, she felt misplaced because she had no one to confide in. It was through their conversations that she could be unapologetically herself.

Luna: It’s barely bearable. Someone save me from the circus.

Without wasting any time, Jake responded.

Jake: Someday, you'll look back and appreciate me for allowing you to express your feelings. Anyways lex still out for the throne?

She was laughing, if that was the word for it. It was short and sharp, as she used to say, like a gun. It wasn't a laugh that was ever really a laugh. And it wasn't a laugh that anyone ever really wanted to elicit. Her laugh, if it could be called that, amounted to a better-than-even chance of something bad happening to me.

Luna: Always. The universe bends for him. Did you know? It must be very nice to have your own, to be you in it.

Luna had no way of knowing that, across oceans and time zones, Jake—or rather Damion Cassano—was reading her message with a storm brewing behind his dark, calculating eyes. From the balcony of her opulent prison, Luna watched the garden below. Servants hurried around, making last-minute preparations for some extravagant firework display her father had planned to dazzle the guests tonight. Somehow, she had to make it until then—until she could be free and leave this place, somehow, no matter the cost.

But as her phone vibrated again in her hand and another message from Jake appeared, she had no idea that the escape she craved was already drawing closer. And it was darker and more dangerous than anything she could imagine.