The first morning in the mansion came too quickly.
Selene awoke to a soft gray light spilling through the massive windows, illuminating the room she now called home, or prison. For a few seconds, she lay still, disoriented, clinging to the fragile hope that everything had been a nightmare. That she would sit up and find herself back in her small apartment, the familiar hum of the city outside her window, her life still her own.
But the silence was wrong.
It was too complete, too heavy. No traffic noise. No distant voices. Only the faint hum of air conditioning and the subtle awareness that the walls around her were thick, reinforced, and unforgiving.
Reality settled in.
She had barely slept. When she had drifted off, it was shallow and restless, filled with half-formed dreams of locked doors and unreadable contracts. The mattress beneath her was expensive, firm, designed for comfort, yet it had offered none. The air in the room felt cold against her skin, calculated rather than comforting. Every corner of the room seemed to whisper the same truth.
She was no longer free.
Selene sat up slowly, pulling the sheets tighter around herself as her eyes swept the room. Everything was pristine. Perfect. The furniture gleamed, untouched. The curtains hung in precise folds. Even the glass of the windows looked polished to perfection, reflecting her image back at her. She barely recognized the girl staring at her now. Pale. Tense. Alert in a way she had never needed to be before.
Her mind raced, looping back to the moment that had changed everything. The black leather folder. The pen resting between her fingers. The steady, unblinking gaze watching her every move.
Adrien's words echoed in her head, each syllable pressing down like a stone on her chest. She could still feel the weight of the pen, the scratch of ink against paper, the finality of it. She had known, even as she signed, that she was crossing a line she could never uncross.
And yet, despite the fear that curled tightly in her stomach, there was an undeniable fascination she could not ignore.
Adrien had claimed her life. But he had also claimed her attention, her thoughts, her awareness. She hated that she kept replaying his voice in her mind. Hated that her body reacted before her logic could catch up.
A soft click broke the silence.
Selene's head snapped toward the door. Her muscles tensed instantly, every nerve on edge. The door opened just enough for a man to step inside. A guard. He moved with quiet efficiency, dressed in black, his expression blank and unreadable. In his hands was a sleek black folder, identical to the one that had sealed her fate the night before.
No smile. No greeting. No explanation.
He placed the folder neatly on the table and stepped back, positioning himself near the door as if he were part of the furniture.
Selene swallowed hard. The presence of the guard was a reminder she did not need spelled out. She was being watched. Always.
Moments later, Adrien entered the room.
She felt him before she fully saw him. The air seemed to shift, the atmosphere tightening around his presence. He wore another impeccably tailored black suit, crisp and unwrinkled, as if the night before had not existed for him at all. His expression was calm, controlled, his dark eyes scanning her with deliberate focus.
"You've settled in," he said, his voice smooth and even, though there was an edge beneath it that made her stomach twist. "Good."
Selene opened her mouth to respond, but no words came. Her throat felt tight, constricted, as though speaking might unravel something she was barely holding together. She stood frozen, clutching the sheet around her, painfully aware of how exposed she felt under his gaze.
Adrien took a few steps closer, his shoes barely making a sound against the floor. He stopped a short distance away, close enough that she could feel the warmth of him without being touched.
"Do you understand what you agreed to yesterday?" he asked.
She swallowed, her heart pounding. "I… I signed the contract," she said. Her voice was barely a whisper, trembling under the weight of the moment. "I didn't really have a choice."
His eyes narrowed just slightly. "Exactly. One signature. No escape. That is the deal."
He moved closer still, his presence overwhelming. "Your family's safety depends entirely on your compliance. One mistake. One attempt at disobedience." His voice lowered, smooth and lethal. "And there will be consequences."
Fear surged through her veins, hot and sharp, mingling with a flare of anger she could barely contain.
Consequences? I barely know this man, and yet I obey him.
The thought made her stomach churn. How had her life narrowed so completely, so quickly, into this moment, this room, this man?
"You're not just a signature on paper," Adrien continued, his gaze never leaving hers. "You're mine now, Selene. Not because of law. Not because of money. Because I choose it."
Her breath caught painfully in her chest.
She wanted to scream at him. To tell him he was wrong. To demand her freedom back. But her body betrayed her. Every instinct froze in the face of him. He did not raise his voice. He did not touch her. He did not need to. His presence alone was enough to hold her still.
He was a storm contained in a black suit, calm on the surface, devastating beneath.
Selene's thoughts spun wildly. How could one man have this much control? One signature. One moment. And my life is no longer mine.
She forced herself to speak, clinging to the smallest shred of defiance she could find. "And if I tried to leave?"
Her voice shook, but she held his gaze.
Adrien tilted his head slightly, studying her as if she were a puzzle. "Try," he said.
The single word hung in the air, heavy and deliberate.
"And you will learn that contracts are more than paper," he continued. "They are law. And I enforce them personally."
The weight of his words crushed down on her chest. Her thoughts scattered, fear gnawing at the edges of her mind. She wanted to laugh hysterically, to cry, to panic, but none of it came. Instead, there was only a cold clarity.
Escape was not an option.
Not in this city. Not in this mansion. Not in his world.
Adrien stepped back, his gaze never leaving her face. "Do not test me, Selene," he said softly, his voice almost gentle. "One mistake, and I guarantee you will regret it."
The city outside the windows felt distant, muted, irrelevant. Her heartbeat roared in her ears, loud and unrelenting. She had signed her freedom away with a pen, but Adrien already owned more than just her signature.
She sank onto the edge of the bed, her strength suddenly gone. Burying her face in her hands, she tried to breathe through the fear twisting in her stomach. Beneath it all, something darker pulsed. Fascination. Awareness. A pull she did not want to acknowledge.
She hated herself for it.
Minutes passed in tense silence. The guard remained by the door, unmoving. Adrien watched her quietly, as if assessing her limits.
Then he spoke again, his tone almost conversational. "You will eat when told. You will sleep when allowed. And you will obey the rules. The guards are your constant companions, and they will ensure compliance. Do you understand?"
Selene nodded slowly. "Yes."
He studied her for a moment longer, as if weighing the truth of her answer. "Good."
He stepped closer one last time. "Remember this," he said quietly. "Your family is alive because of your compliance. Forget that, and you forget at your peril."
Then he straightened, turned, and walked out of the room. The door closed behind him with a soft, final click.
Silence rushed in.
Selene rose on unsteady legs and walked to the window. Pressing her forehead against the cool glass, she stared out at the sprawling city below. Cars moved like tiny specks of light. People lived their lives, unaware of the dark pact that had just been sealed behind these walls.
Inside, everything had changed.
Every thought. Every action. Every breath.
She was watched. Measured. Controlled.
Selene shivered, not from cold, but from the truth settling deep in her bones. She was not just trapped by the contract. She was not just trapped by the mansion.
She was trapped by him.
And yet, somewhere deep inside her, a spark remained. Small. Fragile. Defiant.
She would survive this. Somehow.
And when she did, she would learn the truth about Adrien. About the man in the black suit who had claimed her life so completely.
But for now, she had no choice.
She would obey.