“Deal.” Her voice was calm and firm, filtering through the hallway like a ripple across the shore.
Eloise and her husband exchanged a victorious glance, and Morgan clapped his hands, thoroughly thrilled and relieved.
But Sylvia didn’t find it funny.
She had just traded her life and future for her grandmother.
So she had to make sure it wouldn’t be in vain.
And as for this family she once thought was a home, it was no longer home to her.
Reliving her memories of this home, Sylvia couldn’t shake the feeling that she had been the only one living in that dream of a happy home while everyone else had only thought of themselves.
Her parents and her sister… They were really the same kind of people.
She couldn’t help but think that if her sister had truly regarded her as family, she wouldn’t have made her plans without considering her.
She wouldn’t have treated her so wickedly for a problem she didn’t create.
Sylvia had never been the one who asked Morgan to make that choice in her place.
Now, she was the one paying the price.
Well, as long as her grandmother was fine, what was a little pain?
Her eyes were cold… ice-cold and emotionless as they locked onto their smiling faces.
“You might as well ask the nurse to let her go.” Eloise smiled.
“No worries, my daughter.
The moment you agreed, she was already let go,” she said with a fawning smile.
Sylvia had always thought her mother had the most beautiful smile—a chocolate-colored complexion, radiant white teeth, and a tiny gap between them—but seeing her face now, she felt nothing but disgust.
Eloise closed the distance and stretched out her hand toward her, but Sylvia avoided it, leaving her hand hanging in the air.
She walked past her and back into the room.
The smile on Eloise’s face froze for a brief moment, but the next instant it returned as she slipped back into that perfect mask of gentleness.
Sylvia found it unbelievable.
One moment, she was the fierce, heartless mother pushing her own daughter into a pit of fire; the next, she was the perfect mother every child would dream of.
Sylvia’s skin crawled.
It was quite clear she never truly knew her parents.
At that moment, everything she thought she knew about them had been rewritten.
Back in the room, Sylvia sat before the mirror, and the stylist, who seemed to have appeared out of the blue, began applying her makeup.
Everything seemed to be happening in a blur.
It was never her wedding, never the vows she wanted to take.
It was a wrong marriage, yet she had no way to change her fate.
She could only accept it.
Sylvia shot a quick glance at the mirror.
She wasn’t even sure the woman staring back at her was really her.
“My lady, is there anything else you would like me to take care of?” the stylist asked after she was done.
Sylvia glanced at the woman and stood up from the stool without answering.
Being stuffed into another person’s wedding gown was the only thing that needed to be taken care of… but she couldn’t change it.
Sylvia walked around the chair and stopped before her mother.
Eloise’s eyes widened in surprise, then praises slipped from her lips, crawling against Sylvia’s skin.
“Sylvia, you are really beautiful.
The gown seems to have been made for you.
It looks perfect.” Sylvia looked down at the gown.
It only felt heavy, just like the responsibility and reality of her decision.
Even the tiara didn’t make her feel like a princess.
Instead, it felt like a heavy burden resting on her head.
But this time, the truth was clear… she had been sold off in exchange for a capital injection.
Ironically, she wondered how much she was really worth.
Was she worth a few thousand dollars, millions… or billions?
Sylvia’s fists clenched.
For this betrayal, she swore she would make them pay.
Moments later, Morgan stepped forward to lead her down the aisle.
Sylvia recoiled at his touch.
But it only made Morgan’s lips curl into a smile.
“My dear Sylvia, you wouldn’t want to walk down that long aisle without me beside you… are you planning to embarrass the Evercrest family?” Sylvia swallowed, anger and disgust churning in her stomach.
Morgan gently took her hand and led her out and into the grand hall.
The moment she stepped into the hall, a loud gasp cut through the air.
Several of the guests rose to their feet in awe.
Beneath the veil, she let her eyes take in every detail of the hall, and her heart sank.
The Evercrest family had truly made it a high-profile wedding.
The hall was filled with distinguished guests, all watching and waiting.
Sylvia’s fists clenched tightly.
She forced herself to maintain her composure as her father left her at the altar.
The officiating minister was already there, and the Evercrest patriarch stood beside the altar.
His eyes were stern, and his expression was cold.
But the groom…There was no one in sight.
Sylvia couldn’t help but wonder, Had the groom also absconded like her sister?
If so, why was the wedding still going on?
Then her parents’ anxious faces at the thought of losing that money made everything clear.
The opportunity was simply too good to miss.
“Miss Quinn,” the voice of the old man standing beside the altar cut through her thoughts.
“We are sorry our son couldn’t be present to complete the wedding formalities with you.
I hope you don’t take it to heart.” Sylvia blinked behind the veil.
Was that an apology?
It was really too shallow, she thought, but she simply nodded.
“Let’s proceed,” the old man said.
The officiating minister stepped forward.
“Miss Leslie Quinn, do you accept Damian Evercrest as your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to cherish, in health and in sickness, for richer or poorer, for better or for worse, till death do you part?” Sylvia felt the air leave her lungs.
Every word of the vow stabbed straight into her heart.
The vow wasn’t supposed to be hers.
A vow to a crippled and visually impaired man.
Her eyes reddened beneath the veil.
Her fingers curled tightly around the bouquet in her hands as her heart pounded violently against her chest.
“Miss Quinn, your response, please.” The old man’s voice remained calm, but the faint smirk tugging at his lips didn’t escape her notice.
Sylvia swallowed.
“I…
I…
I…” she stammered, her head lowered.
The old man’s hand tightened slightly around the velvet box he held.
Her parents forgot to breathe.
The hall fell into pin-drop silence.
At that moment, her words would be the final verdict.
Her parents weren’t sure she would continue following their arrangement.
Even Morgan tried to catch her eye, silently warning her.
But Sylvia never looked at him.
She didn’t spare either of them a single glance.
The old man cast a brief look toward the Quinn family.
Just as Eloise was about to rise from her seat, Sylvia’s calm, quiet voice broke the suffocating silence.
“I do.” The Evercrest and Quinn families exhaled in relief almost at the same time.
Smiles instantly spread across their faces.
Meanwhile, the guests remained baffled by the entire arrangement.
Some had expected the ceremony to be conducted by proxy.
Instead, none of the Evercrest family members had been willing to stand in for their blind and crippled son.
“You may exchange the rings,” the minister announced.
The old man stepped forward and opened the velvet box in his hand.
Inside lay a pair of rings that glittered beneath the lights.
Through her veil, Sylvia studied them carefully.
One was a pure gold ring with a medium-sized diamond, clearly meant for a woman.
The other was a plain matching band for a man.
A bitter smile curled on Sylvia’s lips.
Even in a forced marriage, she still had to put on her own wedding ring.
“I have to trouble you to put it on yourself, since he isn’t here,” the old man said calmly.
Sylvia nodded.
She had already spoken the vows without hearing any from the groom.
What difference would it make if she put on the ring herself?
With that thought, she stretched out her trembling hand, picked up the diamond ring, and slowly slid it onto her ring finger.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the minister declared.