Nueva Esperanza was mine. The city bent to my will, its steel towers reaching for the heavens in silent homage to the Ramirez name. I had built an empire on precision, control, and ruthlessness, my every decision calculated, my every move a step ahead of the weak and sentimental. I had no use for emotions; they clouded judgment, turned men into fools.

Luis was the exception.

He was everything I was not—warm, compassionate, a man who saw the good in a world I had long abandoned as corrupt. He was the only person who could make me forget the weight of the Ramirez legacy, the only one I had ever allowed close enough to matter. He had no legal claim to the empire, no birthright to the wealth we inherited, but I had ensured he would never need it. As long as I lived, he would never want for anything.

Then Elara took him from me.

The news came like a blade to the gut—a car wreck, the metal twisted and burned beyond recognition. Luis, gone. Elara at the wheel. The whispers began before the wreckage had cooled, speculation turning to scandal, rumors staining the Ramirez name in the streets of Nueva Esperanza. They said she had been reckless, drunk, that she had killed him with her carelessness. Her family’s resources was quick to bury the truth, their wealth and influence silencing the right mouths before the facts could take shape. But I knew. I knew.

So I married her.

Not out of love, not out of obligation, but to make her suffer. To remind her, with every breath, that she lived while Luis did not.

At the altar, I lifted the veil, my expression unreadable. The guests saw a man honoring his family's legacy, unshaken by tragedy. They did not see the darkness coiled beneath my skin.

As the final vows were spoken, I leaned in, my breath warm against her ear. My voice was low, steady, laced with quiet venom.

"I vow to hate you for the rest of our days. I will never be your protector, never your defender. I vow to be the villain in your story."