||𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐮𝐞𝐭.||
-Melanie Rossi has always been a good girl who follows the rules, but when she is forced into an arranged marriage with a man she's never met, she finds herself trapped in a dangerous game o...
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The faint rays of morning light crept through the edges of the heavy curtains, painting the room in muted golds and greys, disrupting the delicate peace that had settled around us. As I began to awaken, a mingled sense of warmth and uncertainty enveloped me. It felt as though I was wrapped not just in blankets but in an unnamed tension that lingered in the air—a feeling familiar yet foreign.
I blinked, slowly coming to terms with my surroundings. The bed was still, and the other half felt uncharacteristically empty.
Nikolai was gone.
Panic prickled at the edges of my consciousness. Had I dreamed him? The memory of his presence—the gentle weight of his arm against my body, the fleeting warmth of our connection—flooded back in vivid detail. I rolled over, half-expecting to find him sleeping soundly beside me, a diamond of comfort against the chaos of my life. Instead, the sheets were cool and untouched.
His absence felt like a sharp knife slicing through the fog of my dreams, no one ever held me like that.
I buried my face in the pillow, inhaling deeply, hoping to coax back that lingering essence of him—his warmth, his scent, the strange sense of safety he'd initiated within me. Suddenly, I felt foolish. What did I have to hold on to? An arranged marriage? A man I barely knew? A man who loves someone else.
"Get a grip, Melanie," I muttered to myself, slapping the fabric of the pillow as if attempting to dismiss the echoes of my attachment. I sat upright, my heart racing, feeling the weight of my decision looming like a stormcloud.
Reaching for my phone, I scrolled through my missed notifications, catching sight of a flurry of messages from Emory, She had always been one to check in when things got rough.
"Mel! Where are you? Text me, please!"
"Worried sick over here! You ditched me like a bad romance novel!"
I couldn't help but smile at her overzealous concern, but the smile quickly faded. My mind drifted back to the turmoil roiling beneath the surface—what I had to face today. This day was supposed to mark the beginning of a completely new chapter, one filled with danger, secrets, and my own confounding emotions for a man with an uncertain past—a man whose touch still lingered on my skin.
Biting my lip, I replied, "I'm okay! Just woke up... Alone."
Half-tempted to divulge every moment and feeling from last night, I hesitated, weighing whether she could handle the tangled mess that was my life now.
A soft ping alerted me to her quick response. "Alone? No no! This is serious! I was coming over! You're getting MARRIED. Scream! How you handling this?"
I rolled my eyes, "We need to talk... Good and bad." I pressed send, knowing full well what would come next: a torrent of questions and opinions from Emory, who definitely wouldn't shy away from the dark parts of my life.
