CHAPTER 2 : THE PRICE OF A SOUL
1550 Words
The iron door slammed closed behind me, loud and final, like a guillotine. Now I was locked in a room that smelled of cold stone and Caden Sterling’s expensive, dangerous cologne.
“Sit down, Ivy,” Caden said. He didn’t look at me, just tossed his tactical vest onto the table.
“I’m not sitting,” I shot back, trying to keep my voice steady, even though it came out small. “I want to know why I’m really here. Not the story you gave me in the car. What’s the real price for my life?”
He finally turned around, slow and deliberate. The single bulb overhead cast shadows across his face. “The price? Right now, your life means nothing to anyone but me. To me, you’re the key to the vault that’s holding my father’s blood. Did you think I brought you here for some happy ending?”
“You think I’m weak,” I whispered, clutching the oversized coat he’d thrown my way. “You think just because I lived in a penthouse, I haven’t noticed what’s going on. You want me to help you kill my father.”
“I don’t want to use you, Ivy. I am using you,” he said, and walked toward me, his boots echoing on the stone floor. “Your father’s moving his assets to a private bank in Singapore tomorrow. Once that money’s gone, so is he. And if he gets away, I never get justice for what he did to my family. Do you get it? If I fail, the man who murdered my father wins. And if you fail me, you go back to the grave he dug for you.”
“He’s still my father!” I yelled, tears burning at my eyes. “You’re asking me to help destroy my own blood!”
“Blood?” Caden laughed, but there was no warmth in it. “That man sent killers to your bedroom, Ivy. He didn’t check if you were asleep. He didn’t care if you were scared. He only checked his watch to see when the insurance money would hit his account. That’s the ‘blood’ you’re defending?”
My legs buckled. I sank into a chair, suddenly so tired. “I have nowhere to go. No one left to trust.”
“You’ve got me,” he said, leaning in until his chest was just inches from mine. “Right now, I’m the only thing standing between you and a body bag. But my protection comes at a price. I need those biometric codes. I need you to walk into that estate tomorrow night and open that safe.”
“I can’t go back there! They’ll kill me the second they see me!”
“They won’t see you,” Caden murmured, his voice low, almost gentle. “You’ll be a guest at the masquerade ball. A masked stranger. My wife.”
I stared at him, barely breathing. “Your wife? You want a fake marriage just to crack a safe?”
“It’s the only way to get you inside without setting off alarms. My name still means something to the old board members. If I show up with a ‘new bride,’ they’ll be too busy gossiping to notice you slipping off to the study.”
I shook my head, my hand drifting to my stomach. The baby. If I did this, I’d be putting a target on my back. If I refused, Caden might find out what I was hiding before I was ready—or worse, he’d get rid of me.
“Why me, Caden?” My voice shook. “You could’ve found a professional thief. You could’ve blown the safe open.”
“It has to be you,” he said, catching a tear on my cheek with his rough fingers. “It has to be a Vance opening that door. His own daughter, handing me the rope to hang him. That’s the only way justice feels real.”
“You’re cruel,” I whispered.
“I lost my soul ten years ago,” he said, his voice flat. “Are you going to help me, or should I find another use for you?”
“What other use?”
His eyes darkened, lingering on my lips. The air shifted, thick and tense. “Don’t tempt me, Ivy. You wouldn’t like the answer.”
“I’ll do it,” I blurted, pushing him back. “I’ll help you get the ledger. But I want something first.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re in no position to demand anything, Princess.”
“One condition,” I insisted, standing tall. “When this is done, you give me enough money to disappear. You never look for me. You let me start over somewhere the names Vance and Sterling mean nothing.”
Caden just stared at me, the silence pressing in. “You want to run from me that badly?”
“I want to live,” I said. “And I can’t do that next to a man who only sees his enemy.”
He moved closer, gripping the chair behind me. “Fine. You get me the ledger. I get my revenge. You get your freedom. But until that vault is open, you’re mine. You eat when I say. You sleep where I say. And tomorrow night, you play the blushing bride so convincingly that even the devil believes it.”
“I’m not a good liar, Caden.”
“You’d better learn fast,” he said, already halfway to the door. “The dress is in the closet. Try it on. We leave at dawn.”
“Caden, wait!” I called, my voice sharper than I meant.
He stopped but didn’t look at me. “What now?”
I swallowed, nerves jangling. “The gala... three months ago. The man in the wolf mask. Was that really you?”
He froze. Didn’t turn. The air between us went cold. “Does it matter?”
“It does to me,” I said, voice so small I almost didn’t hear it myself. “Because that night was the first time in my life I felt free. If it was you, then you weren’t trying to hurt me. You were... you were someone else.”
Finally, he faced me. I couldn’t read his expression, not really. He crossed the room, slow and deliberate, then reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear. His touch was almost gentle. Almost.
“That night was a mistake, Ivy,” he said quietly. “I went to kill your father. I saw you in the garden, and, for a moment, I forgot myself. Forgot what he did. But then the sun came up, and the hate came back.”
“So it was all a lie? Everything you said to me?”
“Everything,” he lied, jaw tight. “You were a distraction. Just a way to kill time until I could finish what I came for.”
His words hit hard, like I’d been punched. I wanted to yell, to hit him, to tell him he’d left a scar that wouldn’t fade. But I didn’t. I wouldn’t give him that.
“Good,” I said, forcing my chin up. “Then this marriage will be simple. If we both hate each other, no one gets hurt.”
“Not a chance,” Caden said. He leaned in, his breath warm against my cheek. “But listen, Ivy. If you try to betray me tomorrow, if you run to your father—I won’t just let you go. I’ll ruin you. I’ll leave you with nothing but your dress and your shame. Got it?”
“I get it,” I said, staring him down. “I have everything to lose. My life, my future... and the last thing I have of my mother. I won’t mess this up.”
“Good. Get some sleep. You’ll need it for the wedding.”
He left. The lock clicked, loud and final. I went to the closet and pulled out the dress. Ivory silk, silver thread—beautiful, really. Like something out of a dream, if you ignored what it meant.
I sat on the bed and pressed my palm to my stomach. “We’re going to be okay,” I whispered, hoping the empty room believed me. “I’ll play along. Then we’ll get out.”
But as I watched the door, a cold thought crept in. Caden planned everything. He knew the codes. He knew about the gala. He knew about my father’s money.
If he was so careful, and if he’d been watching me for months, could he really not know about the baby?
I stared down at the dress and felt my whole body tense. I was heading straight into the lion’s den, carrying the lion’s cub, and the man with the leash was the one who wanted the lion dead.
As the moon rose over the mountains, I had to ask myself:
Am I walking into my father's house to steal his secrets, or am I walking into a trap that Caden set for me the moment we met in that garden three months ago?
- Writer
