Aliyah's Pov
Marriage wasn't a happy ending. It was a trap.
I signed the papers on Tuesday, the wedding was on Saturday. That gave me four days to pack a bag and say goodbye to Mom and my little brother Ethan like I was going to war. Maybe I was.
Uncle Marcus drove me to the courthouse. There was no pretty dress, no church and no family, just a judge and two people he found to watch us. One was a secretary who looked like she did this all the time. The other was a man in a suit, looking like he worked for Hayden's family.
Hayden came late.
He was taller than I thought. His hair was dark and his eyes were a cold gray that made me feel like he wasn't really looking at me, but right through me.
He wore a suit that was probably more expensive than everything I owned altogether. When he shook my hand, it was firm but cold. There was nothing warm about him.
The judge said some words. We said yes, it was done. I was married to a stranger.
Hayden drove me to his big mansion. His car was black and quiet inside. I sat in the front seat, watching the city go by, nobody talked. I looked at him a few times, but he never looked back. His hands held the wheel tight. His eyes stayed on the road and his face showed nothing at all.
"The rules are simple," he finally said after ten minutes of silence. "You stay inside the house, you don't go outside unless I say you can.
You don't make phone calls without asking me first. You don't talk to anybody about this marriage unless I say it's okay, you come to events when I tell you to. You smile in pictures, you act like you're happy. That's all. That's your job."
I wanted to ask if there was more to the job, if there were things I didn't know yet but I didn't say anything. I just listened.
"Do you understand?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Good," he said.
The mansion was huge. The three floors tall was made from light-colored stone that looked expensive. There were big gates at the front and cameras I could see and maybe others I couldn't. Guards stood by the doors. They didn't smile when Hayden brought me inside.
A woman waited in the entryway. She looked about sixty and wore all black, like she was at a funeral.
"This is Margaret," Hayden said. "She manages the house, if you need anything, ask her. She'll tell me, she'll tell you what I approve. That's how it works."
"Yes sir," Margaret said. She looked at me with empty eyes, like I was just a chair delivered here and she was noting the color.
"I'll show you to your room," Margaret said.
Hayden walked past us and went upstairs. He didn't say another word to me, he just left like I wasn't there.
Margaret took me to a bedroom on the second floor. It was bigger than the little apartment Mom and I had after we lost our house. The bed had too many pillows, the walls were light blue. There was a window but bars covered it outside, bars that keep you trapped no matter how they look.
"This is your room," Margaret said. "You can do what you want here, you can read, rest and sleep. But don't leave without permission."
"Permission from who?" I asked.
"From Mr. Westbrooke," she said. "Or me if I'm told to give it or from no one, which means stay put."
She put my bag on the bed and left.
I sat on the bed's edge and waited for something to feel real, but didn't. It felt like I was watching myself in a movie from far away. The person in the movie was me, but I wasn't really there. I was somewhere safe, where bad things couldn't reach.
That night, Margaret brought me dinner on a tray. Chicken with vegetables and bread, it looked good, but I wasn't hungry. I pushed the food around on the plate and thought about Mom and Ethan eating whatever they could now. Maybe better food since my marriage was paying bills but I wondered if they ate alone. If Mom thought of me locked in this blue room.
I tried my phone. Hayden gave it to me that morning, he said it was so his people could reach me. I looked up Mom's number but I couldn't remember it. I always used my old phone for that, now that phone was gone. On the day I signed the papers, Uncle Marcus told me I didn't need it anymore. "New life," he said. "New phone."
I scrolled through the new phone. Only numbers were for Margaret, Hayden, and some woman named Elena I didn't know.
I tried guessing Mom's number but it went to someone else. I hung up.
I put the phone down.
I lay on the bed in the room that wasn't mine. Wearing clothes I had picked when I still thought I had a choice about my future. Outside the window, the sky got dark. The bars made scary shadows on the wall.
Around midnight, I heard voices outside my door.
Hayden talking with someone else. A deep, older man's voice.
"How is she?" the man asked.
"Fine," Hayden said. "She's exactly what we needed."
"And she doesn't know?" the man asked.
"No," Hayden said. "We told her it's about saving her family, she believes that."
I moved close to the door but didn't open it. I just listened.
"You need to be careful with her," the man said. "Her uncle said she's smart, she'll start asking questions."
"She won't ask if she knows what's good for her," Hayden said.
"Don't be too harsh," the man said. "At first, let her think she's free. Let her feel like part of this, it makes things easier. Better if she cooperates without forcing."
"She will," Hayden said. "One way or another."
"Hayden." The man's voice turned sharp. "This is business, but it's about respect too, be kind to her. People will notice if you're cruel. We want it to look real. We want her to look happy."
Hayden was quiet.
"How long?" he asked.
"Maybe six months," said the man. "Until the merger is done and your families are fully connected. Then it won't matter."
"And after that?" Hayden asked.
The man made a soft sound, like a shrug, maybe a smile too.
"After that, you can do whatever you want," he said. "She's just a girl, Hayden, she's not important. This is about business remember."
They walked away. Their voices got smaller and then stopped.
I sat on the floor by the door, in the dark blue room behind the pretty bars on the window, and I understood something.
I understood nothing was like I thought, I wasn't saving my family.
I was being used, but I didn't know what for and that scared me most.
Not knowing what would happen next, not knowing if Mom understood what she gave up for me.
I went back to bed but couldn't sleep.
I lay in the dark, listening to the quiet house around me. I thought about signing my life away to a man who didn't see me as a person.
A man who wanted me to only obey.
Someone who didn't care about what I wanted.
I was business. Something to be managed.
Something to be discarded when no longer useful.
I was a prisoner.
And I had walked into the cage myself.