I never imagined my life would be tethered to a man like Caesar Alexandrovich Sergeyev—an enigma cloaked in luxury, power, and danger. The arrangement wasn't born out of love or even convenience, but necessity. My family's debt to his syndicate left us with two choices: ruin… or alliance. ⌑ So here I am, dressed in the finest silk, sitting across from a man who could crush me with a word, yet speaks with a voice that disarms. ⌑ He calls me "my dove." I call him "the storm." ⌑ Every glance from him feels like a test. He watches me not with affection, but calculation. I'm not sure if he sees me as a pawn, a prize—or something more dangerous: an equal. ⌑ And yet, behind those steel-gray eyes, I catch glimpses of something deeper. Something scarred. Something... human. ⌑ The mansion is gilded, but the walls are cold. I wander its halls wondering when this arrangement becomes a war, or a surrender. ⌑ And worst of all? ⌑ Part of me is starting to wonder what it would feel like to choose him.