Chapter 1 - The Price of a Daughter
Evelyn grabbed her father's sleeve at the altar and whispered, "Don't make me marry him."
Richard Vale pulled free and placed a signed marriage contract in the old millionaire's hand.
Beside Evelyn's signature was a handwritten number.
$18,000,000.
Evelyn suddenly understood she wasn't the bride.
She was the payment.
For one second, nobody moved.
The organ continued playing.
White roses covered the church walls. Hundreds of candles burned along the aisle. Nearly two hundred guests sat beneath the vaulted ceiling, watching the ceremony with polite expressions that told Evelyn they had either noticed nothing or had been paid enough not to notice.
Her father smiled.
That was what frightened her most.
Richard Vale was smiling as though he had just closed the most important business deal of his life.
Maybe he had.
"Evelyn."
Her mother's whisper came from behind her.
Evelyn turned.
Margaret Vale stood in the front pew wearing silver silk and diamonds. Her face was composed, but her fingers were wrapped so tightly around her handbag that her knuckles had turned white.
"Finish the ceremony," Margaret said.
Evelyn stared at her.
"You knew?"
Her mother's eyes flicked toward the guests.
"Not here."
"You knew."
"Evelyn."
That single word answered everything.
Evelyn looked toward the man waiting beside the priest.
Sebastian Blackwood.
Seventy-eight years old.
Billionaire investor.
Owner of Blackwood Holdings.
And, according to every newspaper article Evelyn had secretly read during the previous three weeks, a man who had not been photographed smiling in more than twenty years.
His face looked carved from old stone.
Deep wrinkles cut across his forehead. His silver-gray hair was thin. His shoulders curved slightly beneath his black tuxedo.
But his eyes were strange.
They weren't old.
Evelyn had noticed that the first time they met.
His movements were slow. His voice was rough. His hands sometimes trembled.
But his eyes watched everything.
Sharp.
Patient.
Dangerously awake.
Three weeks earlier, Richard had summoned Evelyn home and announced that Sebastian had asked for her hand.
She had laughed.
Then she realized nobody else was laughing.
Richard's construction empire was collapsing. Banks had frozen credit lines. Two development projects had stalled. Creditors were circling.
Sebastian had offered salvation.
He would purchase the Vale family's debts.
He would prevent bankruptcy.
He would preserve their mansion, their company, and the reputation Richard valued more than his children.
There was one condition.
Evelyn.
"I won't do it," she had said.
Richard had stared at her across his desk.
"You don't understand what's at stake."
"I understand perfectly."
"You've lived comfortably because of this family."
"So now you want repayment?"
His jaw had hardened.
"Don't be dramatic."
"You just told me to marry a man fifty-two years older than me."
Sebastian had appeared at dinner the following evening.
Evelyn had expected arrogance.
Instead, the old man barely spoke.
He asked about her work.
She told him she restored historical documents for a small private archive.
Richard interrupted.
"That's just a hobby."
Sebastian looked at him.
"I asked Evelyn."
It had been the first moment she felt something didn't fit.
Men like Sebastian Blackwood didn't need reluctant wives.
They could buy companionship without marriage.
And men like Richard Vale didn't surrender control of their daughters unless the price was enormous.
Now Evelyn knew the number.
Eighteen million dollars.
The priest cleared his throat.
"Evelyn?"
Every face turned toward her.
Sebastian's gaze met hers.
She wanted him to look triumphant.
That would have made hatred easier.
Instead, he looked almost apologetic.
"You can say no," he murmured.
Richard heard him.
His face changed instantly.
"Evelyn."
The warning was unmistakable.
Her younger brother Daniel sat beside Margaret.
Daniel wouldn't meet her eyes.
That hurt worse than her father's threat.
Daniel had called Evelyn six nights earlier.
Dad's desperate, he'd said.
If Blackwood walks away, everything collapses.
Everything.
Evelyn had asked whether "everything" included her.
Daniel had gone silent.
Now she understood his answer.
She turned back to Sebastian.
"If I say no," she whispered, "what happens?"
"Your father's agreement with me becomes void."
"And his company?"
"That is not your responsibility."
Richard stepped forward.
"Enough."
Sebastian's eyes shifted toward him.
The room seemed to cool.
"Step back, Richard."
Richard did.
Evelyn noticed it.
Her father obeyed him.
Richard Vale obeyed almost nobody.
She looked again at the contract.
Eighteen million.
Her family had assigned a number to her freedom.
Something inside her became very still.
She thought of the apartment she had rented after college because her father hated that she wanted her own life.
She thought of her mother telling her to stop embarrassing the family by working for a salary.
She thought of Daniel borrowing money and never returning it because "family doesn't keep score."
Apparently family did keep score.
They had simply never shown Evelyn the ledger.
She looked at the priest.
"Continue."
Her mother inhaled sharply.
Richard relaxed.
Sebastian did neither.
The ceremony resumed.
Evelyn heard every word as though it were being spoken underwater.
When she was asked to say "I do," she did.
Not because she surrendered.
Because she wanted to know why.
Sebastian Blackwood had offered eighteen million dollars for a woman who openly disliked him.
There had to be another reason.
And Evelyn intended to discover it.
After the ceremony, Richard kissed her cheek.
"You did the right thing."
She looked at him.
"For whom?"
His smile disappeared.
"Don't start."
"You sold me."
"I saved this family."
"With me."
"Someday you'll understand."
Evelyn almost laughed.
Instead she said, "I already do."
She walked away before he could answer.
The reception took place at Blackwood Manor.
It was enormous.
But Evelyn barely noticed the marble floors, chandeliers, champagne fountains, or string quartet.
She watched Sebastian.
He greeted guests.
Accepted congratulations.
Played the role of an elderly groom.
But occasionally, when nobody seemed to be watching, his posture changed.
His shoulders straightened.
His steps became firmer.
Once, Evelyn saw him catch a falling champagne glass before a waiter could.
Fast.
Too fast.
The waiter looked surprised.
Sebastian immediately returned to his slow movements.
Evelyn's suspicion sharpened.
At midnight, the final guests departed.
Margaret hugged Evelyn at the entrance.
"Try to make this work."
Evelyn stepped back.
"You mean try to make the sale worth it."
Margaret's face crumpled for half a second.
Then Richard appeared.
"Come on, Margaret."
Daniel remained near the car.
Evelyn walked toward him.
"Daniel."
He finally looked at her.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
His eyes filled with something she couldn't read.
"Everything."
Richard called his name.
Daniel left.
Evelyn watched their car disappear beyond the gates.
Sebastian stood behind her.
"You should get some sleep."
She turned.
"I want answers."
"Tomorrow."
"No."
He studied her.
Then nodded.
"Very well."
He led her upstairs.
Not to the bedroom she had been shown earlier.
To another room at the end of a private corridor.
Sebastian unlocked it.
Inside stood a large antique desk.
On it lay photographs.
Documents.
Newspaper clippings.
And a detailed miniature model of the Vale mansion.
Evelyn stopped.
"What is this?"
Sebastian closed the door.
"Something you deserved to see before this marriage went any further."
She turned toward him.
He reached up.
His fingers touched his jaw.
Then they slid beneath the edge of his skin.
Evelyn froze.
"Sebastian?"
He pulled.
The wrinkled skin moved.
Evelyn stumbled backward.
The old man's face was coming off.
Not skin.
A mask.
A breathtakingly realistic prosthetic mask.
Silver hair came away next.
The stooped billionaire vanished before her eyes.
The man underneath couldn't have been older than thirty-three.
Dark hair.
Strong jaw.
Steady eyes.
The same eyes.
Evelyn covered her mouth.
"Who are you?"
The stranger placed the mask on the desk.
"My name is Adrian Blackwood."
Her heart slammed against her ribs.
"Where is Sebastian?"
"Dead."
The room seemed to tilt.
"Then who did I marry?"
"Legally?"
He looked at the marriage certificate.
"Me."
Evelyn backed toward the door.
"You lied to everyone."
"Yes."
"You lied to me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Adrian looked toward the photographs.
"Because your father would never have accepted my proposal if he knew who I was."
"Why would you want him to?"
Adrian's expression hardened.
"I didn't marry you because I wanted your family's money."
"I don't have any."
"I know."
"Then what?"
He moved one photograph toward her.
It showed Vale Manor twenty-seven years earlier.
A group of people stood on the front steps.
Richard was younger.
Margaret stood beside him.
And at the edge of the photograph was a woman Evelyn didn't recognize.
Adrian turned the picture over.
There were four handwritten words.
Evelyn read them.
Her breath stopped.
Adrian watched her.
"Your family was always my target."
Evelyn stared at the name beneath the photograph.
Then someone knocked three times on the locked door.
Adrian's face changed.
May you like
Nobody was supposed to know they were there.
The handle slowly began to turn...
