The next morning, Arielle woke with a knot in her chest. The sun filtered through the heavy curtains, golden and warm, but it did nothing to ease the cold that had settled in her bones. She had hardly slept. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Clarisse’s expression from yesterday—the pity, the sharpness, the disdain. And Celine’s name lingered like a ghost on her tongue.
Celine.
Kairo’s sister. The sister who had fallen in love, who had wanted to choose her own path, but had been denied. The sister Arielle’s family had betrayed.
And now, she was Kairo’s wife. Bound to him not just by a contract, but by the bloodline of those who destroyed what he loved.
Her chest tightened. She sat up slowly, forcing herself to breathe evenly. She couldn’t let this truth slip, not now. Kairo couldn
