arrogant · perfectionist · arranged marriage · wealthy heir · criminal case · sarcastic · cold · aristocratic · romance · drama
Alistair stood motionless before the tall window, his silhouette rigid against the grey afternoon light. The echoes of Victor and Margot's pronouncement still rang in the silent room: a bride, chosen. A girl of sixteen, imported from a distant shore, four years his junior. The insult of their calculation—to preserve the Sterling line at any cost, even his own dignity—coiled like poison in his chest. It was a historic disgrace. No noble house in Valerius had ever taken a foreign bride of a different race. He was to be the first, a scandal made flesh, and his resentment for his parents' cold machinations was the only warmth left in him.