Chapter 2

Vance's smiling face loomed larger in Elissa's vision, bringing back the suffocating weight of that night eight years ago. All the air vanished from her lungs. She clapped a hand over her chest, a choked gasp tearing from her throat as cold sweat soaked through the back of her dress.

Her vision blurred. She instinctively stumbled backward, desperate to put some distance between herself and the man standing before her. Her bare heel caught against the edge of the carpet, and she lost her balance.

She stumbled straight into someone behind her.

A chest as hard as iron stopped her fall. Before she could hit the floor, a large hand clamped around her wrist and pulled her upright.

Gasping for air, Elissa jerked her chin up and looked straight into a pair of icy blue eyes.

Kurt Stewart towered over her, his sharp brow furrowing beneath dark brown hair as his gaze swept over her pale, sweating face. The instant he recognized who he was holding, his jawline locked. His eyes darkened, and while he moved to shove her away, his fingers tightened around her thin wrist instead.

Kurt Stewart now ran the Stewart Consortium, one of the most powerful financial empires in the country. He and Elissa had known each other since childhood, their families having moved in the same elite circles. What had once been a familiar acquaintance had long since deteriorated into bitter rivalry. To Kurt, Elissa was the disgraced, unstable girl everyone whispered about. To Elissa, he was another man who had always judged her without knowing the truth.

Burned by the heat of his palm, Elissa flinched and twisted her arm.

"Let me go, Mr. Stewart."

Kurt didn't release her. Instead, he stepped forward, pinning her between his chest and the oak-paneled wall.

"What kind of trick are you pulling now, Crawford?" he asked, his voice dripping with disgust.

As Elissa struggled against his grip, the heirloom biometric band she had worn on her left wrist for years came into direct contact with the custom Patek Philippe smart-watch Kurt wore on his right wrist. Both devices were more than expensive accessories. Each contained a concealed legacy authentication chip, passed down through their respective family lines and designed to recognize a specific counterpart.

The moment the two devices touched, a sharp electronic beep sounded from their wrists. A thin blue light flickered across the surfaces of both heirlooms, followed by a series of rapid pulses. Their embedded chips had recognized each other's inherited credentials and initiated a dormant partnership protocol.

A small holographic display projected from the face of Kurt's watch, while Elissa's wristband lit up in response. A flat mechanical voice emerged from the two devices in synchronized bursts.

"Biometric match confirmed."

Kurt's pupils shrank. He whipped his head toward the glowing display, his expression stiffening as the words registered.

"Elissa Crawford and Kurt Stewart, legacy trust mandate activated," the system announced. "Designated marital partnership confirmed."

Elissa's eyes went wide, the blood freezing in her veins. She shook her head hard.

"No... that's impossible. The system is broken!"

The Stewart family's founding trust had been established centuries earlier to protect the family's controlling assets and preserve its succession line. Its most controversial clause required a designated heir to enter a legally recognized marital partnership with the person whose inherited biometric credentials matched the trust's hidden founder-level records. Once activated, the mandate bound the designated heir to fulfill the marriage requirement or risk losing his inheritance and controlling interests.

Kurt flung her wrist away as if she were covered in filth and took half a step back, glaring at her with murderous rage.

"You actually dared to tamper with the trust system's core code just to get close to me?"

Elissa slumped against the wall, her chest heaving as she let out a bitter laugh.

"You think way too highly of yourself, Mr. Stewart. I'd rather die than be tied to you!"

The two heirloom devices continued emitting synchronized electronic pulses. At the same time, an encrypted alert was automatically transmitted through the Stewart family's private trust network, notifying the senior members of the family that the founder's legacy mandate had been activated.

Kurt pressed his fingers hard against his temples, rubbing in tight circles. As the head of the Stewart hedge fund empire, he knew the three-hundred-year-old trust mandate better than anyone. Once triggered, no one on the board, and no one in the family, had the authority to undo it.

Heavy footsteps pounded down the corridor. Several family committee elders and security guards rushed around the corner, blocking both ends of the narrow hall. Hayward shoved his way to the front. When he read the marital lock on the holographic screen, the color drained from his face, and he pointed a shaking finger at Elissa without a word.

Right behind him, Alysia froze. The gentle mask slipped from her face for a split second, revealing twisted jealousy before she clapped a hand over her mouth. Stepping forward with tears pooling in her eyes, she reached for Kurt's sleeve.

"Kurt, what is going on?" Alysia whimpered. "Didn't you say... didn't you promise you would only ever marry me?"

Her words exposed what everyone in their social circle already knew: Alysia and Kurt had been a couple for years, and their marriage had been considered inevitable. Alysia had spent years preparing to become the future Mrs. Stewart. Now, in a matter of seconds, an unknown trust provision had placed Elissa in that position instead.

Kurt didn't look at Alysia. His icy eyes stayed pinned on Elissa as he barked at the elders.

"Shut the system down. Now."

A white-haired trust attorney stepped forward, wiping cold sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.

"Mr. Stewart, this is the founder's base code. Once a biometric match is locked, no one on the board has the authority to revoke it."

Elissa stood barefoot on the rug, her stomach twisting. She had no idea why her mother's old heirloom had reacted to Kurt's watch, let alone what the trust mandate meant. She had spent eight years keeping her identity and financial affairs hidden. The last thing she needed was another secret dragging her into a world she had fought so hard to escape. She pressed her lips shut and wrapped her arms tightly around her chest, walling herself off from the crowd.

Whispers broke out among the guests crowding the doorway, turning the bizarre pairing of Wall Street's king and the disgraced mental patient into the joke of the century.

Kurt spun around and drove his right fist straight into the oak paneling. The wood cracked, and bright red blood oozed from his split knuckles. Turning his head back toward Elissa, he looked at her as if she were already dead.

"I will never marry a notorious lunatic," Kurt ground out between his teeth. "Kill that hope right now."