One of them laughs, sharp and bitter. “Protection isn’t binding.” He leans forward, eyes glinting. “Marriage is.”
The room stills. The suggestion hangs heavy in the air, daring me to move, to choose.
My mouth opens before thought catches up. “She’s already my wife.”
The silence that follows is deafening. Every eye shifts to me, searching for the lie. My pulse pounds steady, my face unreadable.
A wife is untouchable. That’s the code. Kill her now and it’s an insult to me, to the order itself. To strike at her would be to strike at me.
Slowly, one of the older men nods. “Then it seems she’s no longer in question.”
The matter closes just like that. A single lie locking chains around both our throats.
***
Back at the house, the silence feels heavier. I unlock her door, step inside. She rises instantly, eyes flashing when she sees my face. She knows. She always knows.
“What did you do?” Her voice is sharp, cracking with fury.
I don’t answer fast enough. She crosses the room in two strides and slaps me, her palm cracking against my cheek. Heat blooms across my skin, but I don’t move, don’t stop her.
“You think you own me now?” she spits. “You think you can claim me, control me, cage me with your lies?”
My jaw clenches. “You’d be dead.” Her breath catches, but I keep going, voice low, steady. “They found out. They know who you are. They wanted you erased. A liability. A traitor’s daughter.”
Her face pales, but she doesn’t look away.
“I did what I had to do,” I finish.
Her silence cuts deeper than her slap. Her chest rises and falls, breath sharp, lips pressed tight, eyes burning with words she won’t say.
I step closer. She doesn’t retreat.
“You’re alive,” I murmur. “Because of me.”
Still she doesn’t answer. The silence between us stretches, jagged and raw.
She muffles a scream, spins on her heel and drops onto the bed with a gasp.
“Unbelievable,” she hisses. “Get the fuck out.”
I don’t move.
“You made me your wife without asking,” she says. The words are low, steady, sharper than any knife.
I stand across from her, hands loose at my sides. “I made you untouchable.”
Her laugh is bitter, breaking at the edges. “Untouchable? You made me your pawn. Do you understand the difference?”
I take a step closer, then stop. “You’d rather be dead?”
Her throat works, but she doesn’t answer. Silence fills the room, thick and merciless.
I lean against the desk, watching her, forcing my voice softer. “The Council won’t question it now. No one can touch you without crossing me. Without breaking the code. That’s all that matters.”
She shakes her head slowly, eyes wet though no tears fall. “You keep saying that like it’s a gift. Like I should thank you.”
I say nothing.
