CHAPTER 1 – The Marriage No Woman Should Ever Accept
People say every woman dreams of marrying for love.
I married for survival.
The day the doctors told me my father had less than a week to live without emergency surgery, my entire world collapsed.
He was the only family I had left.
The hospital demanded nearly half a million dollars before they would even schedule the operation. I begged every bank for a loan. I sold my apartment, my jewelry, my mother's wedding ring—everything.
It still wasn't enough.
Then, like a ghost from another lifetime, Victor Ashford appeared.
My father turned pale the moment he saw him.
"I hoped I'd never see that man again," Dad whispered.
Victor was nearly seventy years old.
Cold gray eyes.
Perfectly tailored black suits.
Hands that barely trembled despite his age.
He wasn't just rich.
He was one of the wealthiest private investors in the state.
No wife.
No children.
No family.
Just a mansion hidden behind iron gates that most people only knew from rumors.
He calmly listened while I explained my father's condition.
When I finished crying, he simply nodded.
"I'll pay every cent."
I thought I'd finally found an angel.
Then he smiled.
"But you will become my wife."
Silence.
Even the clock on the wall seemed to stop ticking.
My father stood up so suddenly his chair crashed onto the floor.
"No!"
Victor didn't even look at him.
"I'm not asking him."
He looked directly into my eyes.
"I'm asking you."
My heart pounded so hard it hurt.
"I don't understand... why me?"
He took a sip of tea before answering.
"Because your face reminds me of someone."
That was all.
No explanation.
No romance.
No affection.
Just a business proposal.
Marriage...
In exchange for my father's life.
I wanted to refuse.
God knows I wanted to.
But later that night...
I found my father secretly crying in the hospital bathroom.
"I don't want to die..."
That sentence shattered me.
The next morning...
I signed the marriage papers.
No wedding dress.
No flowers.
No guests.
Only lawyers.
Documents.
And absolute silence.
The contract contained one strange clause.
Everything that happens inside Victor Ashford's mansion must remain secret forever.
Breaking the agreement would cost me everything.
Including my father's medical treatment.
The mansion itself felt less like a home and more like a museum.
No family photographs.
No laughter.
No televisions.
Only antique clocks ticking endlessly through empty hallways.
There were servants...
But none of them ever smiled.
They avoided eye contact.
Whenever Victor entered a room, every conversation stopped instantly.
That first evening, an elderly maid quietly knocked on my bedroom door.
She carried a silver tray.
On it sat a tiny porcelain cup...
And a single white pill.
"What is this?" I asked.
She hesitated.
Then whispered something so softly I almost didn't hear it.
"I'm sorry."
Before I could ask what she meant...
Victor appeared behind her.
"The medicine."
His voice contained no emotion.
"You must take one every night before bed."
"Why?"
"It's part of our agreement."
"What kind of medicine is it?"
"You don't need to know."
"I won't take something without knowing what it is."
His eyes became colder.
"If you refuse..."
"...the money for your father's treatment stops tonight."
My hands began shaking.
I looked at the pill.
Then at my father's smiling photo on my phone.
Finally...
I swallowed it.
Within minutes...
My eyelids became unbearably heavy.
The room spun around me.
Victor quietly pulled the blanket over my shoulders.
"Sleep."
Those were the last words I heard.
The next morning...
I woke up feeling strangely exhausted.
Almost as if I had cried all night.
But I remembered nothing.
Not a single dream.
Not a single sound.
Only darkness.
It happened again.
And again.
And again.
Every single night.
The same pill.
The same deep sleep.
The same missing hours.
The strange part?
Victor never acted like a husband.
He never touched me.
Never entered my room during the day.
Never even looked at me for more than a few seconds.
Yet...
Every morning...
Fresh flowers mysteriously appeared beside my bed.
Someone always changed my blankets while I slept.
Sometimes my hair was neatly braided...
Even though I always went to bed with it loose.
One morning...
I woke up wearing different pajamas.
I was certain I hadn't changed them myself.
Fear slowly replaced confusion.
What was happening while I slept?
One afternoon I accidentally overheard two maids talking.
"...another one..."
"...just like before..."
Before they noticed me.
Both women immediately fell silent.
One of them burst into tears.
That night...
I made a decision.
If no one would tell me the truth...
I would find it myself.
The next day I secretly bought the world's smallest hidden camera.
I hid it inside an old bookshelf facing my bed.
That evening...
Victor handed me the white pill again.
For the first time...
He smiled.
"You look nervous."
"I just didn't sleep well."
"You'll sleep very deeply tonight."
His words sent chills through my body.
I forced myself to swallow the pill.
Minutes later...
Darkness consumed everything.
The following afternoon...
As soon as Victor left the mansion...
I locked my bedroom door.
My heart raced as I inserted the memory card into my laptop.
The recording began.
There I was...
Sleeping peacefully.
Five minutes passed.
Nothing happened.
Then...
The bedroom door slowly opened.
Victor walked inside.
He sat beside me.
Very gently...
He brushed my hair away from my face.
His expression wasn't cruel.
It was heartbreakingly sad.
Then...
He whispered a woman's name.
A name that wasn't mine.
"My little Eleanor..."
Tears suddenly rolled down his face.
I couldn't breathe.
Why was he calling me someone else?
Then...
Victor reached into his pocket...
And pulled out a small golden key.
He unlocked the antique wardrobe standing across the room.
The wardrobe door slowly creaked open...
And from the darkness inside...
Someone stepped out.
Not Victor.
Someone else.
A tall figure wearing a black doctor's coat...
Who had somehow been hiding inside my bedroom the entire time.
May you like
And what happened next...
Made me scream so loudly that my neighbors later called the police.
