The Bride Who Chose Her Own Kingdom

The night before the trial list was sealed, the DeLuca encrypted channel blew up."Lucas, are you kidding me? You really changed your rotation from Marseille to London? Weren't you supposed to go to the Rossi coastal lab with Evelyn?"Lucas DeLuca replied as if he had not tossed a match into gasoline."So I changed it. She has the key to my seal vault. Once she sees it, she'll change hers too."A few seconds later, he sent a voice message. There was a spoiled, lazy smile in his voice."My little shadow can't live without me. She's followed me since we were kids. When has she ever left me behind?"I stood by the floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor of the Rossi estate, phone in hand, and heard something inside me crack.My luggage was still open on the rug: black field boots, lab notebooks, the silver cuff links my grandmother left me, and the gift I had prepared for Lucas. It was a custom microscope pin, engraved on the back with the promise we made as children: Go where the sea

"Check everything one final time."The Council secretary stood on the chapel steps, his voice as cold as a sentence."Once sealed, the three-year trial cannot be changed privately. Anyone who withdraws forfeits their place in the line of succession. Anyone who breaks the contract will answer to family law."Everyone lowered their heads to review their seal pages. Noah leaned slightly toward me, his eyes on my file."Looks like we are both going to Marseille. You're leading the neurotoxin reversal project?"Before I could answer, a hand pressed down on my shoulder.Lucas stood behind me, fire trapped behind his eyes."Outside."I did not move.He grabbed my wrist and dragged me through the chapel side door.Night wind moved through the rose wall, carrying salt and tobacco. Lucas pinned me at the end of the corridor, his voice low and dangerous."Evelyn, are you done? You block me, then sit beside Noah. Are you trying to piss me off?"I looked up at him and realized that the face I had k

At eleven fifty, a pebble hit my window.It was our childhood signal. One stone meant he was here, two meant hurt, three meant he wanted to see me. Tonight, he threw only one.I opened the curtain and saw him beside the rosebeds. The man who had kissed Vivian in the club was now looking up at me with something almost pleading in his eyes."Evelyn." His voice was hoarse, as if he had been drinking. "Stop this. Be good. Change the seal. London is good too. I'll take you to the Thames, to the old theaters. If you want Marseille, we can fly there whenever you like."When I went downstairs, I smelled alcohol on him, and a woman's perfume too.He slurred his words, nothing like the untouchable DeLuca heir he liked to be. If only he had lowered his head earlier, told the truth earlier, and treated me like someone who could bleed. Leaving might have been harder.Thankfully, he had not."Little shadow, London really is good. You've never been away from me. You get upset if you don't see me for

My cold war with Lucas became so obvious that both families could no longer ignore it.Mrs. DeLuca came herself, in an expensive black dress, pearls in place, wearing the warm smile of an elder who had never been refused."Evelyn, what have you been busy with? Did Lucas upset you? I'll scold him for you."I invited her to sit and said nothing.She smiled and continued, "But young couples fight. That's normal. Take it too far, and you only hurt the relationship. Lucas has lost weight because of you. Whatever happened, the two of you are meant to marry. Does it really matter who lowers their head first?"I had planned to be polite for her age. After hearing that, I only wanted to laugh."Mrs. DeLuca, the Rossi family will formally request that my engagement to Lucas be suspended for Council review. From now on, he and I have no private relationship. And you don't need to imply that I am the one being unreasonable."Her face sank at once.Lucas walked in from outside. Clearly, he had been

Three years later, I returned to New York with a complete neurotoxin reversal model.That year, the Rossi lab stepped out of the underground and became an independent foundation. My name appeared on the first patent list and on invitations to closed-door medical conferences.At last, people called me Dr. Rossi instead of the DeLuca heir's fiancee.I liked that title. It was clean, sharp, and mine alone.Sofia was the one who told me what happened to Lucas.Vivian and he had become a disaster in London. She refused to be abandoned and refused to become the forgotten Miss Castor again. During one of their fights, she injured him. To bury the scandal, the DeLucas sent her to prison and removed Lucas from the core line of succession."A little tragic," Sofia said over her coffee, not sounding sorry at all. "But he had it coming."I turned a page in my report. There was no rush of triumph in my chest, and no pain either.Lucas felt like a lifetime ago.That evening, Noah came to take me to