Annelise couldn't believe her ears.
The sterile chill of the room clung to her skin, but her father's words burned hotter than fire. Her mouth parted slightly, her lips dry, but no sound escaped. The hum of medical equipment filled the silence between them, mocking the way her world tilted off its axis.
She just stood there—frozen, staring.
Had her father always been like this?
She had always suspected that Aston had bolts loose in his head, but this? This wasn't madness. This was something far worse. He wasn't just delusional—he was heartless. A monster.
He's a psycho.
Her thoughts snarled, unfiltered, as she glared at the man she used to call Dad.
And then he said her name. Softly. Deliberately.
"Annelise… Annelise, Annelise," he repeated, as though savoring it, like a name branded into flesh. "I chose you and not Wendy because you're the right girl. Not only are you brave and bold, but also… so very beautiful."
His smile stretched, eyes gleaming with something twisted—something inhuman.
"I never thought having such a beautiful daughter would ever come in handy. But here we are."
Annelise flinched. Something inside her cracked.
She felt naked under his gaze—not in the way a lecherous man might look at a woman, but in the way a butcher looks at a prized calf. Like he was admiring the value of her parts rather than her person.
"You know this, right?" he added, stepping closer.
Aston's voice was almost gentle now, but it made her want to scream. Like silk wrapping around a blade.
She did know. Objectively.
Her long, thick lashes cast shadows on her pale cheeks, her raven-black hair spilled down her back in waves that never needed styling. Her lips were pink, soft, heart-shaped. Her skin, creamy and unblemished, needed no foundation. And those black eyes—deep, almost hypnotic—always drew attention. Her body, curvaceous and sculpted by nature rather than effort, often earned her stares she never asked for.
Yes. She was beautiful.
But for the first time in her life, she regretted it.
Regretted every gift nature had given her. Because now, that beauty had a price. A cost she hadn't agreed to pay.
"I'm sure Caden has seen women more beautiful than me," she snapped, desperation creeping into her voice. "I'm not doing any of that stupid stuff!"
Aston didn't flinch. In fact, he smiled.
"He must have," he agreed. "But that doesn't mean you can't capture him."
Then his eyes turned cold. "And I never said this was optional."
Her heart dropped.
"If you want your mother to come out of that place alive," he said, gesturing to the hospital bed in the next room "you will do it."
Annelise clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms. Her mother lay there—weak, unconscious, breathing through a tube. Pale and unmoving. Every machine beep was like a countdown.
"You said Caden is dangerous," Annelise whispered, trying to reason, to bargain. "If he finds out about this, won't he kill you before the fourteen months are up?"
Aston's expression darkened.
"I'm sure there's another way—there has to be," she tried again, stepping forward.
But his voice thundered, cutting her off.
"No! Only Caden's heart can save me!"
Annelise staggered back at his sudden fury.
His pupils dilated unnaturally, a red flicker pulsing in his irises like fire behind glass. She felt it before she saw it—that shift in him. Her father no longer felt human. The way the air thickened around him, how the shadows in the room seemed to warp toward him—it was terrifying.
She backed up two full steps.
"But… Caden's just a human," she muttered. "Isn't he?"
Aston let out a breathy chuckle.
"No," he said, eyes gleaming with cruel delight. "He's a vampire. A pure-blooded one. That makes him even more perfect."
A ringing started in her ears. A vampire? . Her father was insane. He thought she would be the best person to kill a vampire?!!.
Her skin crawled as she he remembered. The air around Caden the first time she met him. The unnatural grace. The way his eyes lingered like he could hear her heartbeat. The fear she felt in her gut.
It wasn't imagination.
"He's also the heir to the Valtore family," Aston continued. "And you are going to marry him."
"What?" Annelise croaked.
She hadn't even finished processing the vampire part before that word slapped her across the face.
"Marry him?"
Aston only smiled, and that smile chilled her to the bone. It was the smile of a man who had all the power—and knew it.
Before she could react, a sharp beep-beep-beep cut through the room.
Her mother.
The machines connected to her mother began to spike wildly. Tubes shook. The fragile woman on the bed arched back in pain, a scream tearing from her throat, raspy and raw.
"Mom!" Annelise cried, rushing toward the bed. But Aston held her back.
Tears welled up in her eyes as her mother writhed, the tubes in her nose pulling painfully, her face contorted in agony.
"Stop it! What are you doing?" Annelise screamed.
Aston raised a small remote-like device in his hand. One button glowed red under his thumb.
"It's either you agree," he said smoothly, "or her heart—and her body—will end up as damaged as mine in the next fourteen months."
He pressed the button again.
Annelise sobbed as her mother screamed louder.
"Fine!" she cried, covering her ears. "I'll do it! Please! Just stop all this!"
Aston released the button. Slowly, the machines quieted. Her mother slumped back into the bed, unconscious, her mouth slightly open, her chest rising and falling once more in shallow breaths.
Annelise sank to the floor, her chest heaving with sobs.
"Please…" she whispered. "Don't hurt her again."
Aston threw his head back and laughed. Laughed like he hadn't just broken his daughter into pieces. As his laughter died down, his fangs descended—long and gleaming, monstrous in their clarity.
"Good girl," he said.
Annelise's eyes widened in horror. His fangs. The red in his eyes. The coldness in his soul.
He wasn't just a man playing at darkness.
He was part of it.
"Leave!," he ordered, voice now soaked in power that made her bones tremble.
She didn't argue.
She scurried out of the room like prey fleeing a predator. Down the cold, gleaming hallway of the mansion.Past flickering lights. Past locked rooms she dared not peek into. Her breath hitched with every step, her tears drying on her cheeks, her chest burning with grief and humiliation.
As the heavy metal doors sealed behind her, Annelise leaned against the cold wall, sliding down until she hit the floor.
Everything hurt.
Her mother's screams still echoed in her ears. Her father's voice—so calm, so certain—wrapped around her like a noose. Her hands trembled.
A vampire.
A forced marriage.
A father who would weaponize her beauty to barter with monsters.
And a deal she had no way out of.
She stared at the tiled floor, her tears falling silently.
She wasn't just playing a role anymore.
She was being dragged into a world where her heart didn't belong—and maybe wouldn't survive.