Chapter 1: The Bruises Beneath the Ivory Wedding Gown
The bedroom was too large for the silence inside it. City lights glittered beyond the window, scattered across the darkness like a celebration I could not reach. I stood beside the bed in my ivory wedding gown, its low back leaving my shoulders exposed, while Adrian Vale watched from several feet away near the door. The dress was supposed to mean safety, a promise made visible in satin and careful seams. Instead, every breath made the fabric shift against my skin, and I could feel the marks beneath it. Adrian did not move. In his black tuxedo, tall and composed, he looked less like a man waiting for an explanation than someone deciding what an explanation would cost me.
My name is Elena Moretti, and that night I was afraid of the room, the dress, and the man standing between me and the door.
I kept my eyes on the city because looking at Adrian made the air feel thinner. The bed remained at my side, untouched and perfectly made. Behind me, his presence held the room in place. I heard no footsteps, no question, no shift of clothing. Only the distant hush of the city pressed against the window.
“Please… don't touch me.”
The words left me smaller than I wanted them to sound. Adrian stayed where he was. His silence did not reassure me. It made me aware of everything else: the cool floor under my shoes, the tightness of the bodice, the pulse beating hard beneath my jaw.
I turned only a little, intending to see whether he had moved. The gown pulled across my back. The motion exposed my left shoulder blade.
For one suspended second, neither of us looked away.
Dark purple bruises spread beneath the edge of the fabric, some deep enough to appear almost black in the low light. Their shapes interrupted the smooth line of my skin. Adrian's eyes narrowed. His face remained controlled, but his attention fixed on the marks with a precision that made me wish I could take them back into hiding.
A tear gathered at the corner of my eye. I held my breath, and my jaw trembled anyway.
Adrian still said nothing. The silence became its own kind of question.
I pulled the gown higher with both hands, dragging the ivory fabric over my shoulder. The movement was quick and clumsy. The satin caught against my fingers before settling into place. I kept my head turned toward the window, refusing to meet his gaze.
“You don't understand what he'll do.”
The sentence was a plea and a warning, but it did not change the room. Adrian's expression shifted by degrees. The cold attention in his eyes did not disappear; it gathered into something quieter and more deliberate. He looked at the covered bruises, then at my face.
I waited for anger. I waited for him to cross the space between us. Instead, he remained near the door, one hand lowered at his side, his posture almost calm. That calm frightened me more than a raised voice would have.
The wedding gown whispered when I stepped backward toward the bed. My knees touched its edge, but I did not sit. Sitting would have made me feel trapped. Standing left me exposed. Adrian watched me weigh the two choices without saying a word.
Outside, the city continued shining. Inside, the future of the wedding seemed to narrow to the distance between his shoes and mine.
Adrian's lips parted slightly, without a smile.
“I'm deciding whether wedding ended…”
May you like
He stopped there, leaving the rest suspended between us. I gripped the fabric at my shoulder. Somewhere beyond the bedroom, something remained unseen and unresolved, but Adrian's decision was already taking shape in his face.
I did not move. Neither did he.
