Page 3 of Hateful Games

Nova remains silent and still as a stone.

“She will do as she’s told,” says Dad in his dictator tone. “Besides, it’s just a formality. An unnecessary precaution. Your son is marrying my daughter just like we agreed.”

What the— Marriage?

To Nova?

I shudder violently.

My horrific and shocked gaze whips to his. And he’s fucking calm. No visible reaction. Nothing. Zilch.

“You can’t do this, Papa.” I hate the quiver in my voice. And I especially hate them seeing it. Vulnerability is for the weak. “I don’t consent to this.”

Dad’s nostrils flare at my open defiance in front of his rival, whose attention feels like hot coal on my back. I would cower in fear before my father, but this is my life we’re discussing. He’s treating me like a prized horse being sold in the market.

“Sign the papers, Rosalie.”

“No.”

“Rosalie!”

“Does Ma know?” I use my only saving grace. “She wouldn’t agree to this.”

A sharklike glint darkens my father’s eyes and my heart rate drops. His smugness reeks as if I gave him the upper hand. Any hope of pulling out of the situation dies. Yet I’m unprepared for the bomb he drops.

“It was your mother’s wish to marry you with Nova.”

“You’re lying.”

“Don’t believe me?” He flicks his hand in Danish’s direction. “Ask him. Your mother and I sat with him when she proposed to bind the two families.”

My gaze whips to the said man. The unspoken truth is written on his face.

“Now stop wasting our time and sign the papers.”

I sit in disbelief as he slides the marriage contract in front of me. I chance a glance at Nova, waiting for his objection. He couldn’t possibly want to be saddled with me for the rest of his life?

Only to be struck by his impassiveness.

The animosity is swallowed by coldness, sending chills down my spine.

The walls close in on me under the twisted games of the ruthless men in the room. Their rivalry has become my imprisonment and there’s no escaping it. Because the one person who could save me is the one who served me on a platter.

And she couldn’t even be here to witness it.

It’s either sign the papers or… I shake the memory.

Defeated and lost, I grab the pen and seal my fate with shaky fingers.

My future no longer my own.

Chapter Two

Rosalie

“How dare you disrespect me in front of them?” my father yells as soon as the men exit, leaving us alone. I stand while he stares me down from across his desk. The vein in his forehead popping frantically.

The last thing I should do is argue with him. Yet, my own anger flares at being left defenseless. His torment over me crossing a line I couldn’t have predicted.

---