Semua Bab He Chose a Vampire Heir，I Stepped Into the Sun: Bab 1 - Bab 8

Shouting erupted down the hallway.“Get the physician! Now! Something’s wrong — if anything happens to her, it’s on all of you!”Someone hammered on my door so hard the frame shook. “Lord — the east wing. Vivienne’s in pain. She’s bleeding. You need to come. Now.”Alaric was gone before the word “bleeding” finished.He pushed me aside on his way out. He didn’t mean to — he just forgot how strong he was. My back hit the edge of the bed frame, and the impact knocked the air out of my lungs.He didn’t look back. He was already through the door, moving faster than I could track — the curtain lifted, then settled. “Get the physician. Take my car. Go.”The door slammed.The room went dead quiet. Just the hum of the wiring in the chandelier overhead.And her perfume. Still hanging in the air.I grabbed the bed frame and lowered myself to the floor, waiting for the pain to pass.Rose found me there. She didn’t ask questions. She helped me up, braced me against the mattress, and pressed careful

Vivienne moved into the Blood Chamber the next day. Her people went in and out all morning. Boxes lined up down the hallway.After that, she stopped pretending. The staff started saying “Ma’am” to her before they said it to me. The day’s menus went through her first. She kept Alaric glued to her side every minute and made sure he was never alone with me.The only time I saw him was the daily check-in with Elaine. And every time, Vivienne hijacked the conversation — how many kicks today, what the physician said, how a pureblood pregnancy was different from a normal one — and soaked up every second of attention from Alaric and Elaine both.I stood at the edge of the room like a piece of furniture nobody had bothered to move.Two months went by like that. My packed boxes sat under my bed in the staff room, untouched. The encrypted channel carried one exchange a week.The date was set. My birthday.That afternoon, Alaric found me in the garden. I was trimming roses — a grounds crew job I’d

The town I picked was out west, three days from the nearest vampire territory.I had cash — the dowry, liquidated. And I had what my mother taught me. Hartley women can cook, run a household, and survive. Three things a vampire House has zero use for — and the human world can’t get enough of.I rented a storefront on the main street. Chose it for one reason: a full wall of east-facing windows, morning sun all the way back to the counter.I opened a bakery.Fresh bread, fruit tarts, butter pastries. Things I used to make before I married into a vampire House. My hands still remembered how.The town took to it fast. First week was curiosity. Second week there was a line. Inside a month, we were making enough to support three people.I fire up the ovens at five every morning and watch the sun come up the street, turning the flour on the counter gold.At night, I sleep.Meanwhile, back in the city, House Ashford was falling apart.After news of my death spread, Vivienne declared herself La

The day Alaric got back to the city, Vivienne was waiting at the Ashford gate with the baby in her arms.She rushed him. “Alaric! Look — your son. I brought him to meet you.”He looked at her. Nothing moved in his face. “The households are split. You have your own place. What are you doing here?”“He’s your son! A pureblood! How can you just pretend he doesn’t exist?” She pushed the baby forward. The baby slept through all of it.“You said he’d inherit the House. You said he was the heir. You promised!”“You’re still waiting for Maren? She’s not coming back! I’m the one who gave you what you needed! Me!”When he didn’t react, her voice changed pitch.“If you won’t claim him, I’ll smash him on these steps. Let him die at your door.”Elaine came through the gate, hands pressed to her chest. “Alaric, what is wrong with you? Vivienne gave you everything! That Hartley girl couldn’t even conceive! I never liked her! You’d throw away your own pureblood son for a dead human—”“You’d hand the H