Chapter 23 Marriage license
RORY POV
I cried the entire ride back.
I sat in the back seat with my hands in my lap and tears running down my face and I didn’t bother hiding it. What was the point? He was taking everything from me.
My freedom. My future. My choices.
He had threatened to kill my parents like their lives meant nothing. Like they were objects he could simply remove if they became inconvenient. They were the only reason I was still holding on, the only reason I hadn't completely fallen apart.
And he hadn't even looked back at me.
He hadn't spoken. Not once. Not even a fake apology for the disgusting things he had said.
Not that I expected one. He had made it very clear what kind of man he was.
Now I stood inside his study, my hands clasped tightly in front of me while he typed something on his phone like this was just another normal evening. Like he hadn't just forced a woman into marriage.
The room smelled expensive. Leather, wood polish, something masculine and heavy that made my lungs feel tight.
He opened a heavy wall safe and pulled out a small, velvet jewelry box. He flicked it open.
Inside sat a ring, a diamond so large and cold it looked like a shard of ice.
"Put it on," he commanded.
I took it with trembling fingers. It was beautiful, and I hated it. It was a brand. I tried it on my finger. It wouldn’t go past my knuckle. Of course it wouldn’t. Nothing about this was ever going to fit.
“Hand it over,” he said. “I’ll have it fixed to your size.”
I placed it on his outstretched palm. He put it back in the box and set it aside. Then he reached across the desk and slid a file toward me.
"Sign them."
I stared at the bold letters at the top of the first page. Marriage License. My stomach did a slow, sick roll. I tried to test my voice, it was shaky, but it finally came back
"W-what is this?"
"The wedding papers," he said, his eyes never leaving mine. "The moment you sign, you belong to the Miller estate. Legally and physically."
I stared at the file again.
I’m signing my life away to a monster.
“Can I at least read them first?” I asked. “The terms—”
"No. I don't have the time to watch you struggle through fifty pages of legalese." he said flatly. “I’ll summarize later."
“Okay,” I said. Because arguing with him about this felt like trying to redirect a wall.
“Can I at least go home first?” I said. “Say goodbye to — to my friends. I’ll come back tomorrow I promise.”
He tilted his head slightly. Something in his expression shifted toward what might have been amusement on anyone else.
“Which friends, Aurora?” he said. “The one who married your ex? Or the one who threw a party and let her guests spend the entire night insulting you?”
I went silent. It was useless to argue. He was right. My "friends" were a collection of people who only liked me when I was beneath them.
"Exactly. That's what I thought."
But he wasn't completely right.
I had Ella. I had Jason, my neighbour who sometimes lent me money without making me feel small. I had Rachel, the sweet girl who always smiled at me at the bar.
And I had my parents.
Broken as they were... they were still mine.
"What about my parents?" | whispered. "I need to see them."
“Your mother,” he said, “is as close to dead as a living person can be. And your father will swing a bottle at your head the moment you walk through the door without bringing him one.”
He knew everything. Every dark corner of my family's shame. I felt exposed, like he'd stripped me naked in the middle of the room.
I reached for my last desperate option to make him reject me.
"I'm deaf," I muttered, my head hanging low.
He frowned.
"What?"
"I can't hear without my hearing aids."
My head dropped as I twisted my fingers together. Shame burned under my skin. No powerful man would want a "defective" wife. Surely, this would be the dealbreaker.
Right?
He stood up.
My heart started racing.
Alexander rose from his chair. He walked toward me with that slow, egoistic grace, like a god who expected the universe to tilt on its axis just for him. He stopped an inch away.
When he raised his hand, I flinched, squeezing my eyes shut and waiting for the blow.
It never came.
Instead, I felt his bare fingers-cold and steady, slide under my dark hair. He didn't hit me. He cupped the side of my face, his thumb lingering over the small plastic device behind my ear. He inspected it like a scientist looking at a flawed specimen.
He scoffed and stepped back, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"Not only did my son find me a stuttering, fat wife," he said, his voice dripping with icy disdain, "but she's also deaf."
The words cut deeper than the knife he'd used on Mr. Smith. To hear the man I was now tied to list my insecurities so casually... it was a different kind of violence.
"Any more predicaments I should be aware of?"
I shook my head, my eyes burning with unshed tears.
"Good. Sign the papers."
I grabbed the pen. My hand hovered over the line. I didn't want to marry this devil. I'd rather be back with my cheating ex than with a man who had no drop of humanity left in him.
"I won't m-make a good wife," | said, one last desperate attempt.
"Sign."
"I stutter. I'm fat. I have no education."
"Sign."
"I can't cook! I'll burn your house down. I can only make sandwiches and pancakes."
"Sign."
I looked up at him, my vision blurred by tears.
"It's pointless! I... I don't like sex. I huff and puff. I can't get w-wet."
"Sign, Aurora."
His voice was a whip-harsh, stern, and leaving no room for another word.
A tear escaped, dripping onto the document and smearing the ink. I signed my name.
Aurora Hale. I felt the soul leave my body the moment I finished the last loop of the 'e!
I stepped back, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand. "Anything else?"
"We will discuss your roles later. The wedding is in a week. It will be small, private, and absolute."
Why me? Why choose a girl who was poor as a rat when he could have any woman in the city?
What had I done so wrong in my life to deserve this?
"Excuse yourself, Mrs. Miller."
Mrs. Miller. The name felt like a collar around my neck. My name was Aurora Hale. But as I walked out of the study, I realized Hale was dead. And Alexander Miller was the one who had killed her.