C1 The Bride They Sacrificed

Vivienne sat quietly before the vanity mirror, staring at her reflection as she waited for the makeup artist to arrive. Suddenly, the door was pushed open, and Celeste walked in, her face filled with panic. The moment she saw Vivienne still wearing her loose grey cardigan, messy hair, and thick black-rimmed glasses, her expression darkened. “The Devereux family is already here! Why haven’t you even changed your clothes?” she snapped.

Vivienne pushed the black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose, her eyelids drooped, and she looked dazed. “Mom, do you really want me to marry my sister’s fiancé?”

Celeste’s face instantly turned pale. The Devereux family was waiting downstairs. One mistake now could destroy everything. Without hesitation, Celeste dropped to her knees before her daughter. “Vivienne... please.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Your sister deserves a better life. I am begging you to marry Rowan Devereux in her place.”

Vivienne’s lifeless eyes gradually became cold. Although Celeste was her biological mother, she gave all her love to the sons and daughters of her father’s dead ex-wife, while Vivienne had spent her entire life as an afterthought. Everyone knew Rowan Devereux’s reputation. The city’s infamous crippled CEO. A man rumoured to be hideous, cold-blooded, and incapable of satisfying a woman. That was why Celeste was willing to sacrifice her own daughter to protect her precious stepdaughter.

A maid’s anxious voice echoed from outside the room. “Madam, Miss... the Devereux family has come upstairs.” Vivienne did not reach out to help Celeste, but said indifferently, “Get up, I’m leaving.” After a long silence, she added softly, “I’ll marry him.” At that moment, she finally gave up on ever expecting love from the only family she had left.

As soon as Vivienne opened the door, she found a line of imposing bodyguards waiting outside. The Devereux family sent them to escort her away. There would be no grand wedding. No groom waiting at the altar. No exchange of vows. She was simply being delivered to the man she had been forced to marry. “Let’s go,” she said quietly, walking past them without another glance.

The Devereux family was the wealthiest and most influential family in Rostenvel. Its only heir, Rowan Devereux, had disappeared from public view after being kidnapped ten years ago. Rumour had it that the incident had left him horribly disfigured and permanently crippled. Since then, Rowan has not appeared in front of others. Some claimed he was a monster hiding behind closed doors. Others said he was ruthless, cruel, and mentally unstable and that every woman sent into his house did not come out alive. But to Vivienne... None of it mattered.

The day her own mother chose someone else over her, she stopped expecting life to be kind. Even if Rowan Devereux was the devil himself, she didn’t care. After arriving at Devereux’s villa, the bodyguards escorted Vivienne to a bedroom before quietly leaving. The room fell into complete silence.

Hours passed. It wasn’t until night had settled outside the windows that the bedroom door finally opened. Vivienne looked up. A tall man stepped inside. Without a word, He closed the door with his backhand and turned on the light in the room. The sudden brightness made Vivienne instinctively shield her eyes. After a moment, she slowly lowered her hand and then raised her head to look at the man. She froze. He wasn’t ugly nor was he terrifying. He was devastatingly handsome. A perfectly tailored black suit accentuated his broad shoulders and powerful frame. His long legs carried him across the room with calm, confident strides. His sharply sculpted features looked as though they had been carved by the hands of a master artist, flawless, cold, and breathtakingly handsome. Yet there was something about him that made the air feel heavier. An invisible pressure that demanded submission.

Rowan Devereux studied her in silence for several seconds and twisted his brows slightly. “You’re ugly.” His voice was calm and emotionless, as though he were merely stating an undeniable fact.

Vivienne quickly regained her composure. She paid little attention to his remark about her appearance. Instead, she looked at him cautiously. “Who are you?”

His dark eyes narrowed slightly, a dangerous glint flashing within them. “You don’t know who you married?” he asked, his deep voice low and steady. As he stepped closer, Vivienne caught the faint scent of cedarwood and expensive cologne.

His commanding presence made it difficult to breathe, yet she refused to retreat. Straightening her back, she met his gaze. “Of course I do. I married Rowan Devereux.” A flicker of surprise crossed the man’s dark eyes before quickly disappearing. So... She was just another woman who believed the rumours.

A woman willing to marry the infamous “crippled” CEO without even recognising his face. Instead of disappointment or fear, she remained unusually composed. For the first time in a long while, he found someone interesting. The corners of his lips lifted into a faint, unreadable smile. “I’m afraid you’ve mistaken me for someone else,” he said lazily. “I’m Adrian Devereux... Rowan’s cousin.” He took another step toward her, his eyes never leaving hers. “It’s your wedding night. Surely you don’t expect a crippled husband to give you a real wedding night.” He deliberately emphasised the words “crippled husband,” his deep voice carrying a low ending and with a hint of flirting. As he stepped closer, the subtle scent of cedarwood and expensive cologne surrounded her.

Vivienne instinctively took a step back. After a brief moment of hesitation, she believed him. After all, no ordinary person could walk into Devereux’s villa as if he owned the place. She lowered her gaze and said quietly, “He’s your cousin. You shouldn’t speak about him like that.” If even his own family looked down on him... Then Rowan Devereux’s life must have been lonelier than the rumours suggested. An unfamiliar feeling of sympathy stirred in her heart. Everyone envied the Devereux family’s wealth and power, yet no one knew what Rowan had endured over the years.

A flash of surprise flashed across Rowan’s dark eyes. He had no idea that this ugly woman would say such a thing. He couldn’t help but look at her again. The messy hair, the black-framed glasses and long cotton-padded clothes in the soil, the bangs on the cheek are so heavy that they almost cover her face, and there are a few small spots on the dark yellow face. It is really disgusting to look at it more. There is no doubt that this ugly woman is not his rumoured beautiful fiancée. The Virement family had gone as far as sending another daughter to the original bride’s place. As long as the bride was a woman who could take her sister’s place and secure the marriage alliance, whether she was beautiful or ugly made little difference to them. They wouldn’t object to replacing one daughter with another to them,

Vivienne was nothing more than a substitute. A dark glint flashed across Rowan’s eyes. Without warning, he reached out and pushed Vivienne onto the bed. His tone was provocative. “There’s no one else here. You don’t have to pretend anymore.” His gaze swept over her from head to toe before he sneered. “Looking like this, you must still be a virgin. I’ll consider it a favour to satisfy you.”

After speaking, he reached directly for her clothes. The soft, delicate touch of her skin caught him off guard, almost making him lose himself for a moment. “Smack!” Vivienne raised her hand and slapped him across the face with all her strength. “Don’t think everyone is as shameless as you,” she snapped. “Before your cousin gets here, get out. I’ll pretend none of this ever happened.”

Although Vivienne forced herself to remain calm, the faint tremble of her hands betrayed her. Before coming here, she had imagined countless versions of Rowan Devereux a hideous man, a cripple confined to a wheelchair, a monster everyone feared. But nothing had prepared her for this. The smile vanished from Rowan’s face. His expression turned frighteningly cold. A suffocating silence filled the room as an icy aura radiated from him, making the temperature seem to plummet.

“No woman has ever dared to lay a hand on me,” he said slowly, his voice dangerously calm. During the struggle, Vivienne’s glasses slipped from her face and landed on the floor with a sharp crack. For the first time, Rowan saw her eyes. They were startlingly clear, like moonlight reflected on still water. Her long lashes trembled ever so slightly, revealing the fear she fought so hard to hide. He stared at her for a brief moment. Something about those eyes didn’t belong on a woman who looked... like this.

Rowan remained still for a moment. For reasons he couldn’t explain, his heart softened for the briefest second. The unfamiliar feeling irritated him. He rose to his feet, straightened the wrinkles in his shirt, and shot her one last icy glance. “Stay here and keep waiting for that crippled husband of yours.”

Without another word, he turned and walked out. Bang!

The bedroom door slammed shut. Only then did Vivienne let out the breath she had been holding. The tension in her body slowly eased, but her racing heart refused to calm down.

Outside. Some bodyguards noticed the red mark on Rowan’s face and hesitantly asked, “Young Master... your face...”

Rowan touched his cheek and replied expressionlessly, “I walked into a door.” What kind of door could leave five clear fingerprints on someone’s face?

The bodyguard didn’t dare ask any further. Instead, he respectfully handed Rowan a file. “Young Madam’s personal information.” Rowan opened the file and his eyes fell on the name. Vivienne Virement. That ugly woman looked so plain and lifeless, yet she had such a beautiful name?

As he continued reading, his brows gradually knitted together. Vivienne’s biological mother treated her stepson and stepdaughter like precious treasures, yet was unbelievably cruel to her own biological daughter.

Moving on to the next page, Rowan frowned and asked, “Is she a fool?” The bodyguard nodded. Rowan said expressionlessly, “Check again.” When Vivienne spoke, her thoughts were perfectly clear. Besides, he had never seen a fool who could stay so composed... or slap someone that hard under those circumstances. At the thought of that slap, his expression darkened.

He threw the file into the bodyguard’s arms. “If you can’t find information that satisfies me, don’t come back.”