Maria POV
The emptiness of Alexander's room lingered in my mind long after I returned to my own. Something was wrong.
I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at the shawl I had thrown over the chair. The silence of the house wasn't just unsettling—it was deliberate, like the walls were keeping secrets.
He was gone.
I didn't know how or why, but the packed suitcase left behind felt like a message. I just didn't know what it meant yet.
The questions swirled in my mind, pulling me to my feet. I wrapped the shawl around me and slipped into the hallway again, my steps quieter this time. The servants had long since retired, leaving the house dim and empty, shadows stretching across the walls.
I needed answers.
The Von Grimm mansion was as cold as it was vast.
Every hallway was lined with imposing portraits of ancestors whose names I didn't know, their painted eyes following me like silent witnesses to my unease. The grandeur was suffocating—the polished marble floors, the gilded chandeliers, the heavy velvet curtains that swallowed what little light dared to enter.
I hated it here.
It wasn't just the house. It was the people in it.
Leonardo—the man I thought was Alexander—was as distant as the farthest wing of this place. He'd barely spoken to me since the wedding, his presence commanding but cold, like a storm that never broke.
I sat on the edge of the window seat in my room—our room, though it felt anything but shared. The view outside was bleak, a sprawling garden shrouded in mist. The loneliness of it matched the emptiness gnawing at my chest.
Where was he? He'd disappeared without a word two nights ago, slipping into the shadows of this cursed house like a ghost.
I wrapped my shawl tighter around me, the chill of the room creeping into my skin. There were whispers in the halls, servants who exchanged glances and fell silent when I approached. Something was happening, but no one would tell me.
And Leonardo… He'd left me in the dark.
The knock at the door startled me.
"Come in," I said, my voice steady despite the unease coiling in my stomach.
The door opened slowly, and there he was—Leonardo Von Grimm, my husband in name alone.
He stepped inside, closing the door behind him with deliberate calm. His blue eyes swept over the room before settling on me.
"Maria," he said, his voice low, smooth, and carefully measured.
"Where have you been?" I asked, rising to my feet. "And how am I sure you're even the real Leonardo?"
He tilted his head slightly, as if considering how much to reveal. "I had business to attend to."
"Business," I repeated, my tone sharper than I intended. "That's all you have to say."
He raised an eyebrow, his expression cool and detached. "Because that's all you need to know."
The anger bubbling in my chest spilled over. "I'm your wife. Don't I deserve more than vague excuses and cold silence?"
Leonardo's lips curved into the faintest hint of a smirk, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Deserve?" he repeated, his tone cutting. "You seem to misunderstand your place here, Maria."
His words hit like a slap, but I refused to let him see it. "Then enlighten me," I said, my voice trembling with defiance. "What is my place?"
He stepped closer, his presence filling the room like a stormcloud. "Your place is to secure this alliance. To serve the family. Nothing more."
The fire in his eyes burned colder than I'd ever seen, and for the first time, I realized just how dangerous he could be.
"So that's all I am to you," I said quietly, my voice breaking. "A tool for your family's games."
He didn't respond, his silence heavier than any answer.
The tension in the room was suffocating. I wanted to scream, to throw something, to break the unshakable mask he wore. But I didn't.
Instead, I stepped back, my hands clenching into fists at my sides. "Why did you marry me if you were never going to treat me as your equal?"
Leonardo's smirk vanished, his expression hardening. "Because you were necessary."
The finality of his words stole the breath from my lungs.
Alexander POV
The governor's blood still stained my hands, though I'd scrubbed them raw in the alley before slipping back into the car.
The streets of Berlin disappeared behind me as we sped toward the private airstrip, the driver silent as he maneuvered through the narrow roads.
The mission had been clean, precise. The governor was dead, and my father's agenda would move forward unhindered. I should have felt accomplished, proud even, but all I felt was numb.
Maria's face haunted me. Her betrayal and hurt lingered in my mind, louder than the sound of the shot I'd fired just hours ago.
When the jet touched down near the Von Grimm estate, I stepped out into the cold night air, the towering silhouette of the mansion rising before me.
I didn't belong here.
Leonardo's orders had been clear: return quietly, remain unseen. He would take over where I left off.
But as I slipped inside through the servant's entrance, a knot formed in my stomach. Pretending to be Leonardo had been easy in public, formalities, handshakes, rehearsed lines. But with Maria…
She wasn't a formality.
The mansion was quiet as I made my way through the back halls, avoiding the main staircase. When I reached Leonardo's study, he was already waiting, his sharp gaze meeting mine as I stepped inside.
"It's done," I said simply, closing the door behind me.
Leonardo's lips curved into a faint smile. "I expected nothing less."
I dropped the small leather pouch onto his desk, the governor's signet ring, proof of the mission's success. Leonardo picked it up, examining it briefly before setting it aside.
"And Maria?" I asked, the words leaving my mouth before I could stop them.
Leonardo's smirk widened. "She's adjusting."
My chest tightened at the coldness in his tone. "Adjusting?"
"She knows her place," he said, his voice casual. "And soon, so will you."
The warning in his words wasn't subtle, but I ignored it. "What if she doesn't?"
Leonardo's gaze sharpened. "That's not your concern."
I clenched my fists, the tension between us thickening. "She's my wife, Leo."
"No," he said, his voice cutting. "She's my wife. And you'd do well to remember that."
The room felt smaller, the weight of his words pressing down on me like a vice.
"Go," he said finally, dismissing me with a wave of his hand. "Rest. You'll need your strength for the next mission."
I didn't argue.
But as I left the study, the knot in my stomach tightened. I'd completed my mission, but something told me the battle I'd truly have to fight was only just beginning.