Elara’s Pov

“ I would rather die!”

“ I would rather be burnt alive and die than marry that monster” I said so furious, my head was burning

“ You have no choice and it is not up for debate” My father said so calmly I almost cowered

“ It’s the only way to save your mother’s foundation”

“No! There has to be another way just give me time.... please”

Every choice is supposed to have another answer. My father made sure mine didn’t. I turned over for what felt like the hundredth time before reaching for my laptop again. The last email I sent to a potential investor was still unanswered. The donor who promised to call yesterday never did. I opened the foundation’s account anyway, hoping the numbers had somehow changed while I wasn’t looking.

They hadn’t.

The education foundation my mother built was running out of time. I pulled another file from the stack beside my bed and read through the proposal one more time. It looked strong enough to deserve another chance, but every company on the list had already turned it down. The only thing waiting for me at the bottom of the page was another name to cross off.

A knock landed softly against my bedroom door.

“Elara?” Martha called from the other side. “Your father asked me to tell you breakfast is ready.” I closed the file without answering.

“Miss Elara?”

“I’m coming.”

I spent the whole night trying to save my mother’s foundation. Morning came, nothing to show for it. I walked downstairs expecting the usual sound of staff moving through the house. But no one even stopped to say good morning. The silence followed me downstairs until I reached the dining room and Dad was already seated.

He wasn’t reading anything. He wasn’t drinking the coffee beside him either. The conversation we had yesterday rang in my mind. The papers in front of him stayed exactly where they were, untouched.

It wasn’t like him.

He looked up when I walked in.

He didn’t smile.

He didn’t frown.

He was simply waiting.

That worried me far more than if he had been angry.

“Morning.”

His voice was calm.

“You’ve been awake this early?” I asked, pulling out the chair opposite him.

“You’ve been pacing your room since midnight.”

That caught me off guard.

“You could’ve told me.”

“You wouldn’t have stopped.”

He wasn’t wrong.

I looked from him to the folder on the table.

“What is all this?”

“Breakfast first.”

“Dad…”

“Sit.”

I didn’t like that answer but sat anyway.

Then the doorbell rang.

Dad lifted his eyes toward the entrance before looking back at me.

“He’s here.”

My fingers froze on the edge of the table.

“Who?”

The butler stepped lowered his head. “Mr. Reid Harrington is here, sir.”

My hand stopped halfway to my coffee.

Reid… Harrington?

I wondered if I heard the name wrong.

“What did you say?” I asked.

The butler looked at me. “Mr. Reid Harrington is here to see Mr. Blackwell.”

I turned to Dad who looked like he has been expecting him.

“Show him in.”

I stared at my father. “ We agreed you would give me more time.”

“ The luxury of time isn’t what we have Elara”

“You didn’t at least give me a heads up instead of bombarding me this way”

Dad reached for his coffee at last.

Reid Harrington walked in carrying a black document case tucked beneath one arm. He wore a dark suit without a single crease, but nothing about him looked like the victory parade I imagined for the man whose family watched mine fall apart.

“Mr. Blackwell.”

Dad rose to shake his hand.

“Thank you for coming.”

I looked between them. The tension was thick between them. Father looked satisfied almost victorious while Reid wore the expression of a wounded animal still trying to put on a front

“ I believe you remember my daughter?”

Reid’s attention shifted to me for only a moment.

There was no satisfaction. Just a brief nod before he looked back at my father.

“Yes I do”

It wasn’t the reaction I spent years preparing myself to hate. My father had brought out a document from under his desk.

“ The contract has been drawn up”

Reid did not hesitate to sign the papers which shocked me. He must have been sent a draft before. I took a look a the contract. What did benefit form this contract?

Pulling me out of my thoughts Reid said “My father’s final request.”

His father’s final request?? Why will his father request a marriage that doesn’t benefit his son in any way. We stood to gain, all the money for my mother’s foundation and Reid?.... Nothing but his “ father’s final wish” that was very hard to believe

I leaned forward trying to catch a glimpse of the papers between his hands.

“What does Victor Harrington have to do with us?”

Neither of them answered.

The only sound left in the room was the slow turning of each page.

“So do we have an agreement?” Father asked.

“We do.”

“I’ll leave the papers with you.”

“You’re not staying?”

“My answer was never the one that mattered.”

He turned toward the door and walked out the same way he had come in.

Dad waited until the front door closed before looking at me.

“The answer is yours.”

“What answer?” I frowned.

He turned the folder around and pushed it across the table.

“Tell me another way to save your mother’s foundation.”

“I’m working on it. You promised more time, father. What does that have to do with Reid Harrington?”

“Answer the question.”

I looked away first.

“We’ll find another investor.”

“Who?”

“I’ll keep looking.”

“You’ve been looking.”

“I’ll ask the board.”

“The board already refused.”

“I’ll find another bank.”

“They turned us down.”

The room went silent.

“So I’ll ask you again,” he folded his hands together and continued. “Tell me another way.”

I opened my mouth but no words came out.

Dad pulled another folder towards me.

I recognized every document before he opened it.

Letters from investors. Loan applications. Rejected proposals. Cancelled partnerships.

One after another, he placed them on the table until there wasn’t any space left between us.

“I didn’t stop you from trying.”

He slid the last letter across the table.

“I waited until you finished.”

The rejection carried yesterday’s date.

“You knew.”

“And you let me keep trying.”

“I needed you to see it for yourself.”

He closed the final folder.

“There isn’t another bank.”

Another paper followed.

“There isn’t another donor.”

Then another.

“There isn’t another investor.”

Nothing remained on the table except the contact

He rested one hand on the contract

“ You will sign the contact and you will get married. Do not deluded yourself into thinking you have a choice so I’m giving you one day as a formality.”

“And if I don’t?”

“I sign it.” He said coldly

He stood.

Dad picked up the folder and walked out, leaving me alone in the dining room. I stared at Reid Harrington’s name until the letters blurred together. There’s no way in hell I was going through with that marriage. I need to do something and do it fast. I’d rather lose everything than marry the man whose family destroyed mine.

I just didn’t know which of those losses would find me first.