Aric fell silent for a moment, his eyes locked on Victoria with an unreadable expression. More than anything, Victoria was far from unattractive. She was the jewel of Dewford City, and by any standard it was difficult to resist her allure.
At the same time, the intense way Aric’s gaze fixated solely on her only made her heart beat faster.
In a low, firm voice, Aric spoke, “Listen, I have no interest in being used as a shield by you or anyone else. And I won’t repeat myself.”
“Not even if you offered me all of the Reid family’s assets.”
Victoria stood in stunned silence, unable to find a response. Her gaze never wavered from Aric as if he held a magnetic pull that drew her in helplessly.
Aric continued, “I’m not a man you can buy or treat like a doll.”
Without waiting for her reply, the man turned and walked away.
Victoria stood frozen, feeling as if her st hope of avoiding an arranged marriage had just crumbled completely.
She knew Aric had a strong sense of pride and he was furious over what Calyse had done: deceiving and practically selling him.
‘Do I really have no hope left after this?’
A vivid image fshed in Victoria’s mind. She was wearing a long bck gown standing beside a man cloaked in darkness before an altar.
Once she married that man, she knew she would never experience genuine happiness. Unless she ended up drained of all her energy and left either insane or permanently broken.
Her fists clenched tightly. She couldn't just surrender to this cursed engagement.
‘Damn it, this is murder!’
‘My stepmother has lost her mind feeding me to that monster!’
Without another thought, Victoria ran after Aric, even though she knew he was enraged.
“Aric! Aric! Please, wait!”
“I know you're furious. But I swear, I had no idea you were Calyse’s husband!”
Her brows arched in desperation. “I’m sorry! I don’t have much time left!”
To Victoria, Aric may have seemed cold. But it was exactly his unwavering integrity, his refusal to be swayed by wealth or status, that made her feel he was the right person to become her contract husband.
Her voice trembled as she pleaded, “Please… help me!”
“I’ve pretended before, brought other men to fool my parents. But they always found a way to buy them off and those men always confessed I’d lied.”
“Aric, I really need you!”
Aric paused, gncing sideways at Victoria as if he were reconsidering her words.
Victoria took that small reaction as a sign to keep going. “I’m not hiring you just for fun!”
“I need you to save me!”
“This contract marriage. It’s critical!”
Aric said nothing, but his eyes stayed on her. He watched as her expression grew more anxious and eginning to glisten with unshed tears.
“If I don’t do this… Lord Cobra will make me his bride.”
Aric’s eyes narrowed at the name. One that stirred something unpleasant in his memory. He knew the filth that man was capable of. And more than anything, it reminded him of a woman he had loved dearly. Second only to his own mother.
His sister.
She had once rejected a marriage proposal from Lord Cobra. That decision had thrown his family into chaos for five whole years.
The fire in Aric’s chest, long buried, suddenly reignited.
Victoria noticed the shift in his expression from cold detachment to something darker. Anger and hatred.
She pressed on. “Aric, please. Be my contract husband. I’ll agree to anything you want.”
After a long pause, Aric finally spoke. “My decision hasn’t changed.”
“But as for Lord Cobra, I’m willing to help.”
Victoria didn’t know what kind of help he could possibly offer without the contract marriage, but it felt like a mountain had been lifted from her shoulders.
“Then… how will you do it?”
The woman once hailed as the most poised and confident businesswoman in Dewford now looked utterly distressed. Completely different from how she appeared in the media.
Aric said firmly, “I won’t help anyone who doesn’t believe I’m capable of helping them.”
“So, First of all, you and your parents need to be on my side.”
