Chapter 1: The Birthday Gift I Never Wanted

The first crack in my perfect life didn't appear the day I found the blood-written scroll.

It had actually begun five years earlier, on the day before I was supposed to marry another man.

Back then, I believed heartbreak had limits. I believed that no pain could possibly be worse than watching your future collapse before your eyes.

I was wrong.

Five years ago, the cathedral was glowing beneath the afternoon sun. White roses decorated every aisle, candles flickered softly, and colorful light poured through the stained-glass windows.

It was supposed to become the happiest place in my life.

The following day I was meant to marry the man I had loved for seven years.

I had come early simply to imagine myself walking toward the altar.

Instead, fate decided I needed to witness something else.

At first I heard laughter.

Soft laughter.

Then whispers.

Then desperate gasps.

I smiled, assuming decorators were finishing the preparations.

But then I heard a familiar voice.

"God... Isabella..."

My entire body froze.

My breathing stopped.

Very slowly, I pushed open the heavy wooden doors.

Everything inside me shattered.

There, on the sacred altar where we were supposed to exchange our vows, my fiancé was wrapped around my stepsister.

Their clothes were scattered across the marble floor.

The flowers I had personally chosen were crushed beneath them.

The veil I had spent months designing had fallen into the dust.

"No..."

The word escaped my lips before I even realized I had spoken.

They both turned toward me.

Isabella didn't look ashamed.

She smiled.

It wasn't the smile of someone who had been caught.

It was the smile of someone who had won.

"Well," she said lazily, "looks like she finally found us."

My fiancé sighed as though I had interrupted something important.

"Selena..."

"How long?" I whispered.

"How long has this been happening?"

Neither of them answered.

Their silence was more painful than any confession.

"Tomorrow is our wedding."

"Was your wedding," Isabella corrected with a laugh.

"Not anymore."

She casually wrapped herself in my wedding veil.

"Take it off," I said quietly.

"Why?"

"Because it belongs to me."

"Just like he used to," she replied mockingly.

Something inside me snapped.

I slapped her across the face.

The sound echoed throughout the cathedral.

For a brief second, complete silence filled the room.

Then my fiancé grabbed my wrist violently.

"Enough!"

He shoved me backward.

I crashed into one of the wooden pews, pain shooting through my shoulder.

"You're defending her?"

"I'm tired of pretending," he answered coldly.

"I love Isabella."

"I always have."

"Then why did you propose to me?"

"Because marrying you was convenient."

Convenient.

One single word erased seven years of memories.

Every promise.

Every kiss.

Every dream.

Gone.

"Get out," he ordered.

"I don't want to see you again."

Outside, dark clouds gathered overhead.

Within seconds rain began pouring from the sky.

I stumbled down the cathedral steps, unable to breathe through the tears flooding my eyes.

The future I had imagined no longer existed.

I kept walking through the storm without knowing where I was going.

The rain soaked my dress until it clung heavily against my body.

Cold wind cut across my skin.

Eventually my strength disappeared.

My knees gave out beside the empty road.

I collapsed into the mud.

For several minutes I simply lay there, staring blankly at the gray sky.

"Maybe... this is enough," I whispered.

"Maybe I don't have the strength anymore."

Just then, the rain suddenly stopped falling on me.

Confused, I slowly opened my eyes.

Someone stood above me holding a black umbrella.

He was unlike anyone I had ever seen.

Tall.

Elegant.

Dark hair framed a face that looked almost unreal.

His crimson eyes seemed ancient, carrying centuries of loneliness.

Despite the storm, not a single drop of rain touched his clothes.

"You're freezing," he said softly.

"You'll get sick if you stay here."

"Leave me alone," I muttered.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I cannot ignore someone who's suffering."

He removed his coat and gently wrapped it around my shoulders.

It was surprisingly warm.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Selena."

He repeated it quietly, almost reverently.

"Selena..."

"My name is Alistair."

The name meant nothing to me at the time.

I had no idea the man standing before me was the Vampire Prince himself.

He crouched beside me and carefully brushed the wet hair away from my face.

"Who hurt you?"

I couldn't answer.

The tears came instead.

Without another word, he lifted me effortlessly into his arms.

"You don't have to face this alone anymore," he whispered.

"As long as I'm here, no one will ever make you cry again."

Those words became the beginning of a completely different life.

Within weeks, the supernatural world knew my name.

Alistair introduced me as the soulmate he had searched centuries to find.

Kings congratulated him.

Witches blessed our union.

Werewolves respected me.

Even the ancient Vampire Council bowed before me.

For five years I believed every word he ever spoke.

I believed every kiss.

Every embrace.

Every promise of forever.

Until today.

Until I opened the hidden chamber beneath our castle.

Until I found the blood-written scroll.

The very first name written on it wasn't mine.

It was Isabella.

Beneath her name, written in Alistair's unmistakable handwriting, were words that destroyed everything I believed.

"Absolute priority. Above all else."

I quietly returned the scroll exactly where I had found it.

No tears escaped.

Not yet.

Alistair would return soon, and he always sensed even the smallest change in my emotions.

I couldn't let him know I had discovered the truth.

Tomorrow was my art exhibition.

The day after tomorrow was my birthday.

Everyone expected the Vampire Prince to celebrate his beloved wife.

But I had already decided on my own birthday gift.

I would disappear.

Forever.

And this time, not even the most powerful vampire in existence would ever find me again.