The wedding was barely over when Caesar turned to me with ice in his voice. “This is a business arrangement. My heart belongs to somebody else. Remember that.
”
I knew. I had known all along. I was just the daughter sold to the Anderson family to save the Carter Group from ruin. My adopted mother had traded me like cargo, and Caesar had accepted me only because my father’s money could help him find the girl he’d lost sixteen years ago—a girl named Ru, his first and only love.
I nodded. “I understand. ”
Then he left me at the reception to go back to work. I didn’t complain.
I had no right to. I had my own secret, one I’d carried since I was a child: I was still in love with a boy named Hawk, the one who’d given me a necklace on Christmas Eve before a fire tore us apart. For sixteen years, I’d never stopped looking for him. But now I was married to someone else, and he was gone.
Caesar’s stepsister, Sophia, found me standing alone in the hall. She smiled with false sweetness. “Well, well. Since he left you on your wedding day to go to work, he must hate you.
”
I didn’t answer. I just picked up my own luggage and walked inside. The Anderson mansion was cold and enormous. Sophia made sure I knew my place.
“Caesar belongs to me. Don’t even think about stealing him. ”
I didn’t want Caesar. I wanted to disappear.
But Sophia wasn’t done. She told me my room was on the second floor, in a particular study. When I walked in, I found a beautiful painting—a boy and a girl, drawn in pencil, with a necklace around the girl’s neck. I touched it, wondering why it felt so familiar.
Then someone splashed paint over my face. I couldn’t see. I stumbled, and when I finally wiped my eyes, the painting was ruined. Caesar stormed in.
“How dare you ruin my painting? ”
“I didn’t,” I said. “Someone splashed me with paint. I couldn’t see anything.
”
“You jealous woman,” Sophia hissed from behind him. “You disgust me. ”
Caesar’s eyes were cold. “You were never meant to be my wife.
The woman I want to marry is an angel. She’s completely different from you. ”
He ordered me to leave. I went.
Later, I found a violin in the music room and played the song I’d heard was his favorite. Caesar appeared, his face dark. “Never play that song again. Do you understand me?
”
“I’m sorry. I heard it was your favorite piece. ”
“It was Ru’s song,” he said. “She played it for me when we were children.
”
Sophia found us. “You already ruined his painting. Now you’re touching his violin? He spent a fortune on that for his childhood sweetheart.
How dare you? ”
I apologized. I didn’t know. But Sophia wasn’t satisfied.
She grabbed my hand, twisted it, and screamed as if I’d hurt her. Caesar came running. “What’s going on? ”
“I was trying to help her and she just started freaking out,” Sophia said.
Caesar looked at my bleeding hand. For a moment, his voice softened. “Let me look at your hand. ”
He bandaged it gently.
I didn’t understand him. One moment he hated me; the next he was kind. I told myself not to care. The next day, he confronted me with a letter.
“Don’t you know your adopted mother sold you to the Anderson family to pay off debts? She begged my father to take you as interest. I have no choice but to marry you. ”
I read the letter myself.
It was my mother’s handwriting. She’d called me a burden, offered me as payment, and asked the Andersons to use her family resources to find Ru so I could be divorced and discarded. “No,” I whispered. “My mother wouldn’t do this to me.
”
“Believe it or not,” Caesar said, “it’s the truth. But if you really care about your mother, don’t piss me off again. ”
I felt the ground fall away beneath me. The woman who raised me had sold me.
The man I married hated me. And the boy I loved was gone. At a family dinner, Sophia mocked me in front of everyone. She made me fall, and my dress was filthy.
When Caesar offered me a ride home, I refused. “I can walk. ”
He didn’t argue. He drove off without me.
I limped through the rain, alone. My leg had been injured years ago, and the pain was sharp. I thought about Hawk. I thought about my mother.
I thought about the life I’d lost. Then Caesar’s car pulled up. “Get in. ”
I shook my head.
“I said I can walk. ”
“Get in,” he repeated. “I’m not leaving you out here. ”
I got in.
He didn’t say another word. That night, I found the necklace Hawk had given me—the one with the letters R and H, for Ru and Hawk. I held it close. “I’ll find you,” I whispered.
“I promise. ”
But Sophia found it first. She stole it while I slept. When I woke, it was gone.
I searched everywhere. I was frantic. “Where’s my necklace? It’s the only thing Hawk left me.
”
Sophia smiled. “What necklace? I don’t know what you’re talking about. ”
I knew she had it.
But I had no proof. Days passed. Caesar grew colder. Sophia grew bolder.
She cornered me in my room with a knife. “You think you can seduce Caesar with that horse face? I wonder if he’ll still want to look at you after I ruin it. ”
She slashed at me.
I fought back. I managed to escape, but she cut my face. The wound bled down my cheek. When Caesar saw me, he was furious—but not at Sophia.
“What did you do to her? ”
“She attacked me,” Sophia said. “She’s crazy. ”
Caesar looked at me with disgust.
“You’re nothing but trouble. ”
I wanted to scream. But I had no one to defend me. Then Caesar got news: they’d found Ru.
She was in Rosetown, the town where they’d grown up together. He left immediately. I was alone in the mansion, with Sophia and her cruelty. She found me again.
“You’re not Caesar’s wife. You’re just a placeholder. Once Ru comes back, you’ll be gone. ”
I didn’t argue.
I was too tired. But then something strange happened. Caesar came back from Rosetown, and he wasn’t with Ru. He was with me.
“What are you doing here? ” I asked. “I wanted to see you,” he said. “I’m sorry I left you alone in the rain.
”
I didn’t understand. He’d been so cold. Now he was gentle. Then I saw it—the necklace around his neck.
The one Sophia had stolen from me. “Where did you get that? ” I asked. He looked at me strangely.
“It’s Ru’s necklace. I gave it to her when we were children. ”
My heart stopped. “That’s my necklace.
Hawk gave it to me. ”
Caesar stared at me. “What did you say? ”
“Hawk gave it to me,” I repeated.
“On Christmas Eve. Before the fire. ”
His face went pale. “Ru?
”
I shook my head. “I’m not Ru. I’m Annabelle. ”
But I was lying.
I knew the truth now. I was Ru. The girl he’d been searching for all these years was me. I’d been adopted by the Carter family after the fire.
I’d lost my memories of him. But the necklace, the song, the painting—they were all mine. I was the girl in the painting. I was the one he’d promised to marry.
And I was married to him now. But I couldn’t tell him. Not with Sophia pregnant with his child. Sophia had lied about that too.
She wasn’t pregnant. She’d faked it to keep him. When I found out, I confronted her. “You’re not pregnant.
”
She laughed. “Doesn’t matter. He believes me. And he’ll believe anything I say about you.
”
She was right. Caesar trusted her. He didn’t trust me. But I had one thing she didn’t: the truth.
I told Caesar everything. I told him about the necklace, the painting, the song, the fire. I told him about the boy who gave me the necklace and the girl who saved him from the burning tree. He listened.
He remembered. “It’s you,” he whispered. “It’s always been you. ”
Sophia tried to stop me.
She screamed, she cried, she accused me of lying. But Caesar knew the truth now. He knew she’d been deceiving him all along. He had her arrested.
He had John, the butler who’d been helping her, arrested too. And then he turned to me. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I couldn’t see it.
I couldn’t see you. ”
I looked at him. “You hurt me,” I said. “You hurt me over and over.
”
“I know,” he said. “And I don’t deserve your forgiveness. But please, give me one more chance. Let me make it right.
”
I was silent for a long moment. Then I said, “I’m pregnant. ”
His eyes widened. “What?
”
“I’m pregnant,” I repeated. “With your child. ”
He fell to his knees. “Marry me,” he said.
“For real this time. I don’t want to miss another moment with you. ”
I looked at him—the man who had hated me, who had hurt me, who had finally seen me. “Yes,” I said.
“I’ll marry you. ”
And for the first time in sixteen years, I felt like I was home.
