01
Never in her life would Charlotte Lane have expected to encounter something she had previously only ever seen in movies and books! Perhaps if she had foreseen it, things would have turned out completely differently. But, as it happened, it was already too late, and there was nothing the dark-haired girl could do about it.
It didn’t matter whether she wanted this or not—and that was the worst part of it all. All she could do now was press on, though even that wasn’t something she could be entirely certain of. Small wonder, then, that she was torn by conflicting emotions—feelings that certainly didn’t help her make a crucial decision.
Especially since the power she had newly discovered within herself wasn’t exactly stable. Consequently, she needed to keep her emotions in check—something that, given her current situation, was simply impossible. Needless to say, she wasn’t exactly thrilled about that.
„I’m done for, that’s for sure! Damn it, I’m done for! What possessed me to throw that stupid ring? If I hadn’t thrown it back then, I wouldn’t be in this mess now... but then again...,” Words raced through Charlotte’s terrified mind like machine-gun fire.
That was until she realized that, were it not for that ring, she would likely be pushing up daisies by now. Not to mention the discovery of a family secret she was never supposed to learn about! It was no surprise, then, that she couldn’t control the sensation of her heart stopping in her chest at the thought of it all. She tried desperately to catch her breath, but to no avail—and that was the worst part of it all. She hated being the center of attention; the spotlight made her feel suffocated, and nerves made her sweat profusely—a reaction she couldn’t control.
Not to mention the fact that she felt faint every time she had to speak in public. And now, those dreadful camera flashes were going to kill her. They would burn right through her, and just like that, she’d be gone from this cursed world. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the stupid bulbs in the lights flickering dangerously.
It looked as if they were about to blow with a massive bang, shattering from the inside out. Maybe that would be for the best; then she wouldn’t have to answer questions from these bloodthirsty, ruthless people. With every passing moment, she grew more certain that she was about to collapse right there on the spot.
She could barely stay on her feet, and their gazes were piercing right through her. She was done for—and yet, she hadn’t done anything to deserve this ordeal. Or perhaps she was going through this precisely because she hadn’t listened to her grandmother, who had always told Charlotte one thing:
Under no circumstances—once she received the engagement ring from her mother—was she to part with it; she had to keep it close. Especially since the ring had been passed down from mother to daughter in their family for generations. How could she have known back then that things would come to this?
After all, it wasn’t her fault—it was her stupid father’s, who had taken it into his head to pick out a husband for her. She had told him she didn’t need a man to be happy; in fact, a husband would only get in the way of what she wanted to achieve. She was absolutely sick of listening to the parade of suitors her father kept sending her way.
That was why she had agreed to show up at that stupid birthday party for the daughter of her father’s boss—though he had never deigned to tell her what exactly his job entailed. She knew one thing, though: she had to find a way out of this mess, and it was proving far harder than she’d imagined.
She needed a lie—anything—because Charlotte knew, deep down, that vampires couldn’t possibly be real. Yet here was a member of that very race, staring at her from behind dark glasses, a smile playing on his lips—one that struck her as odd and suspicious.
Not that she would ever have called it a smile—she was certain of that. Especially since, not so long ago, she had regarded vampires as nothing more than folklore. Had she known back then that they were real, she surely would have reacted very differently.
„Please, say something... Anything! I kept repeating like a mantra that it was just a stupid coincidence and not serious at all!,” Charlotte muttered under her breath, unable to believe she was now accompanying him at this damn press conference.
A conference that was making things worse, not better! However, he had no intention of helping her with this—something she strongly disliked. It had all started quite innocently a couple of weeks earlier, back when Lotte had no idea what was about to unfold.
As she had mentioned right at the start, she had gone to a certain lady’s birthday party. She used the event as a pretext to avoid receiving yet more suitors—a list of candidates that, far from shrinking, kept growing longer.
This was beginning to drive her absolutely mad; she had even gone so far as to feign illness to avoid seeing anyone. Of course, that ploy hadn’t worked—her father had seen right through the lie. It was as if he had completely forgotten that the world had moved on and such practices were a thing of the past.
Charlotte understood that he was worried about her, but she had no intention of getting trapped in a relationship with no future—one devoid of any real affection—simply to please him. That was out of the question. Lotte had no desire to endure a miserable union with someone just to keep her father happy and get him off her back.
That was why Charlotte was even more shocked when she heard the words that followed—words she had expected all along. There was no chance he would keep quiet about them; the dark-haired woman was a hundred percent certain of that, and she wasn’t wrong. It was no wonder, then, that she reacted the way she did upon hearing them.
„How dare you speak to me like that, you brat! If you don’t pick someone from the list I’ve chosen for you, I’ll pick for you myself—and then you won’t have any say in the matter!,” Arthur Lane retorted a moment later, slamming his hands onto the desk and glaring at her with murder in his eyes.
He seemed intent on sticking to his decision, refusing to grasp that she was no longer a little girl. Consequently, there was no way she would simply agree to it or remain as terrified of him as she once had been. Things were different now; she wasn’t afraid of him at all, which is why she responded the way she did to what she had just heard.
„Excuse me?! Not a chance! I’d sooner die than marry someone I’ve never even laid eyes on! Do you want to ruin my life with a senseless marriage where neither party feels any affection for the other? Do you want us to be married only on paper while keeping lovers on the side? That’s sick—are you out of your mind?! I don’t know how on earth my mother ever married you; the whole thing is a mistake! And let me warn you: the moment I find out the wedding date, I’ll end my life that very day—before it ever happens! And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get ready for the party you insisted I attend!,” Charlotte snapped, before spinning on her heel and storming out of his study.
„Who gave you permission to leave? Get back here!,” Arthur Lane shouted, trying to stop his daughter, but to no avail.
As she left, Lotte slammed those damned doors with all her might, as if it were nothing. She couldn’t even name the emotions tearing through her; they were shifting by the second, like patterns in a kaleidoscope. She felt the rage and anger churning inside her so intensely that her whole body was shaking violently.
