Marriage Before Love Ten Years of Secret Admiration

For ten years, I lived in my guardian Ethan Hayes's home, loving him in secret. He was the sun I revolved around.

Then, he announced his engagement, introducing the woman he loved as my future female guardian, and spent an entire year showing me I meant nothing to him.

The night he came home drunk, he pulled me into his arms, murmuring another woman's name as his lips crashed down on mine.

The next morning, his eyes filled with disgust as he accused me of climbing into his bed.

"I never thought you would stoop this low," he said.

His fiancée cornered me, calling me shameless and threatening to throw me onto the street.

In that moment, a decade of devotion turned to ash. The love carved into my bones was finally scraped away.

On the day of his birthday, I packed one small suitcase and walked out of the house that had been my prison. I left a final drawing on his desk with a simple note: "Goodbye, Ethan."

Chapter 1

The day Ethan Hayes announced his engagement, I deleted the secret folder on my computer named "My Sun."

It contained ten years of my life. Every sketch I'd ever drawn of him, from the first time I saw him at eight years old, to the man he was now at twenty-eight.

The mouse hovered over the delete button. My finger felt heavy, but when I clicked, it was with a strange sense of release. A ten-gigabyte folder vanished in a blink. Just like the ten years of my devotion.

Wiped clean.

I picked up my phone and dialed my father's number.

The call connected instantly. "Ava."

"Dad, I got in."

A moment of silence, then his voice, filled with relief. "To NYU?"

"Yes," I said, my voice steady. "The art department."

"Good, that's very good," he said, the sound of a chair scraping in the background. "I'll have the funds transferred to your account tomorrow. The apartment is ready whenever you are. Just tell me when."

"Thank you, Dad."

"Don't thank me. This is what I should have done long ago." His voice was tinged with regret. "Are you leaving because of Ethan's engagement?"

I looked out the window at the manicured lawn of the Hayes estate. A place I had called home for a decade.

"He's getting engaged, Dad. I can't stay here forever."

A heavy sigh came through the phone. "He watched you grow up... I thought he... never mind. Leaving is for the best. Boston has been nothing but a cage for you."

I hung up and walked to the full-length mirror. The girl in the reflection had pale skin and eyes that were slightly red, but her gaze was calm. Chillingly calm.