Chapter 1

1.

"I’ve made up my mind. I'll marry the Ashford family's vegetable."

Vivian Holloway leaned against the doorframe of the old Holloway mansion, a slight smirk playing on her red lips.

The cigar in Richard's hand nearly slipped onto the priceless Persian carpet. He sprang up abruptly from the leather seat, his wrinkles smoothing out as he said, "Vivian, you've figured it out? Great! The Ashford family is pressing hard―they need you to marry into the Charleston family within half a month. Whatever style of wedding dress you want, I'll have it arranged..."

"That's it?" Vivian scoffed. "I'm taking your beloved bastard daughter's place, and you're not going to show a little appreciation?"

The temperature in the living room plummeted. Richard's face darkened. "How dare you speak like that? What bastard daughter? That's your sister."

"A sister is someone who shares a mother," she said with a light, icy laugh. "She's the product of your affair. I will never acknowledge her."

A vein throbbed on Richard's temple, but he forcibly suppressed his anger before it could erupt.

He took a deep breath, the cigar ash scattering onto the floor. "What do you want?"

"One billion dollars," she said, her red lips parting slightly. "And after I'm married, I want you to assign Elias to protect your bastard daughter."

Richard's expression froze.

He stared at his daughter as if she were insane. "Are you crazy? A billion dollars will wipe out all my liquid assets! And Elias? Isn't he the bodyguard you care about most? You used to throw fits about wanting to marry him. Now you're getting married and you're not taking him with you?!"

"Just tell me if you agree or not," Vivian said, rolling her eyes impatiently as she turned to leave.

"Fine!" Richard slammed his hand on the table. "The day you go to Charleston to get married, I'll take care of both things."

He didn't have the energy to question her motives. He just wanted to lock this down.

Years ago, when the sole heir of the Ashford family was at the height of his glory, Richard had rushed to arrange a marriage between their families. He had intended for Chloe to marry him, securing a good husband for his younger daughter.

Who would have known that a tragic accident would turn the Ashford heir into a vegetable.

He couldn't bear to see Chloe suffer, which is when he remembered that Vivian was also his daughter...

Vivian waved a dismissive hand behind her back, the click of her high heels on the marble floor as sharp as a slamming door.

Just as she grasped the doorknob, Richard's voice came from behind her again. "I can understand you wanting money, but aren't you the most attached to Elias? Why are you willing to give him to Chloe?"

Vivian's fingers stiffened.

She didn't turn back. She took a shaky breath, refusing to let the tears fall.

That name was a thorn, stabbing deep into the softest part of her heart.

She shoved the door open, shutting Richard and his question behind her.

It was late when she returned to her apartment.

As Vivian walked up the stairs in her heels, she heard a suppressed sound coming from Elias's room.

The door was slightly ajar. She glanced inside, and her eyes fell upon a scene of shocking clarity.

Elias was leaning against the headboard, his long fingers holding a photograph.

His eyes were closed, his Adam's apple bobbed, and a low, deep voice escaped his lips. "Chloe... baby... good girl..."

It was a picture of Chloe.

It was taken at last year's Thanksgiving party. She was wearing a white dress, her smile pure and innocent.

Vivian's nails dug into the leather strap of her Hermès bag, leaving deep crescent marks. In her heart, she finally answered Richard's question.

*Because, just like you, he only loves Chloe.*

The answer churned inside her, a searing knife in her chest.

She had first met Elias three years ago, on the day she was selecting a bodyguard.

Among a lineup of tall, brawny men, her eyes had locked onto him instantly.

The reason was simple.

He was impossibly handsome.

Six-foot-two of pure muscle, broad shoulders tapering to a narrow waist, sharp features that looked as if they were carved from marble.

But it was his eyes that truly captured her―deep, sharp, and as cold as winter steel.

Vivian was the notorious heartbreaker of the Upper East Side. She had intended to just flirt with him for fun, but after three years―

She'd gotten drunk on purpose and fallen into his arms, but he had simply held her by the scruff of her neck, like a kitten, and placed her back on the sofa.

She'd worn a slinky nightgown and knocked on his door in the middle of the night, but he had wrapped his suit jacket around her and politely escorted her back to her room.

She even pretended to drown in the pool, and while he did jump in to save her, he didn't even touch her waist.

No matter how she teased him, he remained unmoved, always addressing her distantly as "Miss Vivian." Yet, somehow, she had fallen for him.

She didn't know how it happened.

Perhaps it was because, after her mother's death, she had been so incredibly lonely.

When she was seven, Richard's affair came to light, and he brought home an illegitimate daughter.

Her name was Chloe, and she was only three months younger than Vivian. It turned out that in his ten years of marriage, he had been cheating for nine of them.

That day, the happy, peaceful family she thought she had was shattered completely.

At the time, her mother was nine months pregnant with Richard's second child, just days away from giving birth.

Her mother loved Richard desperately. She questioned him hysterically, crying until she fainted. After being rushed to the hospital, there was no time for the operating room. She died, along with Vivian's unborn baby brother.

From that day on, Vivian hated Richard, and she hated Chloe.

She moved out of the Holloway mansion, went to school alone, ate alone, and grew up alone. It wasn't until she became so beautiful that the rich heirs in her circle wouldn't leave her alone that she considered getting a bodyguard.

Elias was her first.

From then on, she wasn't alone anymore. Elias was with her for everything.

Her feelings for him grew from admiration and flirtation to genuine love. But in three years, over a thousand days and nights, he had never even batted an eyelash for her.

She thought he was just naturally cold, until the day she saw him pleasuring himself to Chloe's photo, and then watched as he finished and answered a call―

"Elias, how long are you going to play this bodyguard game? You're the number one heir in Manhattan, you can have any woman you want. If you've got a thing for Chloe, just go after her. Why are you taking this roundabout way, being a bodyguard for her sister just to see her?"

Elias's voice was cool. "I've looked into it. Chloe is the illegitimate daughter, she had a rough childhood and feels insecure. Pursuing her directly would scare her. I want to take it slow."

"I thought with Vivian throwing herself at you every day, you might have been tempted. I'm telling you, she's the biggest heartbreaker on the Upper East Side. The line of guys waiting for her stretches from Fifth Avenue to Brooklyn..."

Elias seemed to chuckle, but his next words plunged her into an icy abyss.

"Really? I don't feel anything. Compared to Chloe, she's not even close."

Every word was a knife, stabbing deep into Vivian's heart.

In that moment, she stopped loving Elias, too.

She didn't know how long he had been at it inside, but for some reason, Elias was taking a long time to find release tonight.

Seeing this, a cold smile touched her lips, and she violently pushed the door open.