Chapter 1
On the eve of our Blood Pact ceremony, Caius suddenly postponed our binding ritual—all for his human sweetheart.
He unilaterally cut off the blood supply and froze all assets to the entire Vance family.
When my father went to confront him, Caius had him detained on the spot.
Desperate to save my father, I went to beg him. He gripped my jaw so hard it ached, his thumb roughly wiping away the tears forced out by the pain.
"Sera, delaying the ceremony is just a little lesson for you," he said, his tone gentle yet dripping with arrogance.
"As long as you agree to let Elara move into the manor after the wedding, and promise not to hurt her, everything stays the same."
"Otherwise, you can just go marry Alaric, that powerless tyrant of the Dark Realm. Be smart. Choose the path that keeps you alive."
I stared at him dead in the eye, not saying a word.
Thinking I had resigned myself to my fate, a satisfied smirk curled on his lips.
"Be a good girl. Wait for me to pick you up on the day of the Blood Pact."
What he didn't know was that on the day of the Blood Pact, I would step directly into the car Alaric sent, brushing right past his wedding convoy at the intersection.
Eventually, Caius would drop to his knees outside the gates of the night manor like a stray dog, begging for my forgiveness.
...
"As long as you agree to marry me to save the Vance family, and help me destroy Caius... the mining rights to the Vance family's Sunstone veins will be my dowry."
Amid a torrential downpour, I knelt outside the Dark Faction's territory for an entire day.
The gates finally pulled open.
Alaric walked out, holding a large black umbrella.
He looked down at me from above, his sharp gaze sweeping over my trembling shoulders and bleeding palms.
After a brief, heavy silence, his deep voice broke through the rain.
"Deal."
With that, he gestured to the butler behind him. The butler immediately hurried forward, tilting an umbrella to shield me from the freezing, violently falling rain.
The tight string holding my sanity together instantly snapped. I shifted my stiff legs, only to face-plant into the muddy water and black out completely.
As I fell into the darkness, the memories of two days ago crashed into my mind, completely out of my control.
That day, I had begged Caius for an entire night. I was even willing to break our engagement—anything, as long as he gave my father a way out.
But his face remained ice-cold. "It's just a misunderstanding. Your father brought this upon himself. As long as you behave, I'll consider letting him go."
Yet, at exactly high noon the next day, the alarms in the detention block began to blare.
Accompanied by the deafening crash of shattering glass, I busted open the door to the top-floor cell.
The rooftop had no shade. I watched as my father was dragged out into the blazing sun.
Without the protection of a Sunstone, a pureblood couldn't withstand the agonizing peak of noon daylight.
The blistering sun scorched his flesh, his agonizing shrieks piercing my eardrums.
In just a matter of seconds, my father was reduced to a pile of foul, scorched ashes right before my eyes.
A gust of wind blew, and the residual ash fell into my eyes.
It felt like my internal organs had been brutally pulverized and ripped out.
I gasped for air, dry-heaving until my eyes were bloodshot. My whole body shook with a freezing chill, yet I couldn't shed a single tear.
In that exact moment, the Seraphina who knew how to beg died completely.
Holding my father's ashes in my hands, I swore a blood oath. I would use my marriage as a weapon to avenge him.
And Caius's mortal enemy, Alaric, was the perfect blade.
Caius was so certain that I couldn't survive without his financial protection. He assumed I'd just swallow my humiliation like a good dog and accept Elara.
He was too arrogant.
He thought grabbing a few bank accounts meant he had me by the throat. But he had no idea that the Vance family's true trump card was the Sunstone mine that monopolized the entire territory.
Burning with a scorching fever, I woke up in my room.
Rumors were already running wild outside. They said I was so heartbroken over being publicly dumped that I was actively seeking death.
Meanwhile, the room was stacked high with boxes of designer gemstone necklaces—perfectly in line with Caius's usual, condescending style of "compensation."
The phone by the bed rang. Caius's voice dripped with blatant impatience:
"Stop acting. Did you get the necklaces? I know you feel wronged, but who are you trying to put on this tragic show for by running out into the rain?"
"Do you have any idea that Elara blamed herself so much she cried all night because you got sick?"
"The Blood Pact ceremony can still proceed as scheduled. On one condition: you transfer the entire supply contract for the Sunstone mine over to Elara's name. Otherwise, your father is never getting out of there!"
I could faintly hear Elara's delicate sobbing through the receiver.
Caius's tone immediately softened to coax her, before firmly cutting the call.
Staring at the dead screen, the corner of my mouth hooked into a cold sneer.
My father was already dead. What the hell did he have left to threaten me with?
Elara's human family was bankrupt from embezzlement, drowning in massive debt.
Caius had gone through all these hoops for one simple reason: he wanted to steal my family's mine for free, all so his bankrupt little sweetheart could make a comeback.
Fine.
Then I'll use this entire mine to build a tomb for the both of you.
