The Price of Her Obsession

at Marcus Thorne, his own Head of Security, the man she believed was her savior, the man she loved. The irony was a constant, bitter taste in Ethan' s mouth. He had forced this marriage, a desperate

that his family's power and

ars he kept hidden, a lingering weakness in his left lung that sometimes stole his breath. He had tasked Marcus, then a junior aide with a hungry look, to manage the final, visible stages of her recovery, to ensure absolute secrecy about his own involvement. He' d wanted her to heal without the weight of obligation to him. Marcus had taken that instruction and twisted it into a heroi

is own lies. But Seraphina, primed by Marcus with whispers of Ethan' s jealousy and ruthlessness, saw Ethan' s hand in it. Grief and rage had consumed her. She engineered a scandal, leaking fabricated, damning secrets about the Cole dynasty, secrets that shattered their reputation and

l, a prisoner of a group calling themselves "The Order of the Eternal Vigil." They were an ancient, clandestine organization, their reach global, t

d her "The Matriarch." It was Seraphina. She had found her way into The Order, or perhaps they had sought her out, drawn

r perhaps The Order had ways to warp time itself – he was her personal captive. She called it "Three

caress in the sterile confines of his prison, a place designed

countered, any creative endeavor he undertook to maintain his sanity, she systematically, brutally extinguished. She called it "destroying their children." A sketch he made of a bird seen through a high window, torn to shreds before his eyes. A story whi

oice, cold and devoid of its former warmth, echoed i

f his will, the symbolic destruction of every fragile thing

ne younger, with an unsettling eagerness in his eyes. He was introduced as Lucian, "a persona

s the straightforward brutality of the guards. He seemed to delight in psychological g

never reaching his eyes, as he meticulously arranged instruments of pain Ethan h

where Ethan' s hidden vulnerabilities lay – not just the physical

rced to relive a distorted, nightmarish version of the yacht explosion, Seraphina herself swep

Seraphina commande

expecting her to tak

ou are too eager. His suffering is mine to

orgive me, Matriarch. I o

ll, bleeding and trembling. "As for you, Ethan," she said, her voice laced with that familiar, chilling hatred, "your continued e

r. "Take him to the Courtyard of Sorrows. Let all se

ew its reputation. Dread, cold

pain and despair, flashed back. Not to the recent

eraphina Vance," he' d said. "The Southern families need a stronger tie

curity man, Thorne," his fat

than had replied,

e altar. Her whispered words, "I will make you regret this until

s that had pulled her back from the brink. He remembered the agony of his own injuries, sustained during the chaotic rescue, the weeks he' d spent hovering between life and death himself, his fa

ent gratitude, had agreed. "Of cour

r her, he was the one who nearly died for her. "They ripped my heart out for you, Seraphina," he' d said, h

ars later, during one of their rare, strai

rescue... Marcus was

ight in shining armor? Please. Your jealousy of Marcus is pathetic. He risked everything fo

d. Seraphina, her face a mask of pure, undiluted hatred, confronting him. "You

ruction of his family, her own staged "death"-it all flowed from that single, p

rch. The "Three Hundr

ty years, but each day was an eternit

of Sorrows, a flicker of something new sparked

Truly end. Oblivion s