The Widow’s Fate They Chose Was My Escape Plan Chapter 01
One month before my fiancé and I were set to get our marriage license, my three brothers gathered my adopted sister, Ivy, and me in our parents’ memorial room. They told us we were to draw lots to decide our husbands.
“Whoever draws the card with Hayden Grant’s name marries him,” Adrian said. “The other one signs a prenuptial agreement with Sebastian Quinn, the terminally ill heir to the Quinn family.”
Sebastian Quinn was dying. Marrying him meant becoming a young widow, bound to the Quinn family for life.
This time, I stepped back and let Ivy draw first.
The room filled with relieved sighs.
Adrian turned to comfort me. “You’re a true Sterling. Even if you’re widowed, you’ll still be able to make a suitable match.”
“But Ivy is different,” Julian added. “Her position in this family has always been delicate. We can’t rest easy unless we secure her future with someone we trust.”
Hayden chimed in. “If it comes to that, after Sebastian dies, I can maintain a marriage in name only with Ivy and keep you by my side. I’ll make sure you want for nothing.”
I didn’t argue. I didn’t make a scene. I just nodded.
None of them knew I had already discovered that both cards in the box had Hayden Grant’s name on them. Whoever drew first was guaranteed to get him.
They also didn’t know that after the wedding, the Quinns would move their entire business operation to Miami. Once Sebastian died, I would be silenced by their illicit family customs.
Later, on the day I was meant to return for a family dinner after the wedding, my three brothers waited outside for me.
But the car that was supposed to bring me home never arrived, not even after the New York snow piled past their knees.
…
“Lena, this is your fate. Don’t blame us.”
A flicker of guilt crossed Adrian’s eyes, but he still shielded Ivy without a second thought.
I said nothing, only lifted my head to look at our parents’ photographs in the memorial room.
In my last life, I never got the chance to light another candle for them. Not even at the end.
I reached for the lighter. The next second, a sharp pain shot through the back of my hand.
*Smack.*
My third brother, Ethan, slapped my hand away. “What do you think you’re doing?” he barked.
He planted himself in front of the memorial table, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
I knew what he was afraid of—that I would touch the box, that I would discover the truth of the draw.
The back of my hand burned. Nursing it, I said softly, “I just wanted to light a candle for Mom and Dad.”
Lighting it would be my final farewell to the Sterling family.
Adrian froze for a moment, then hurried to light the candle himself.
The flame trembled. Through the smoke, he said, “Sebastian is so ill he can’t even get out of bed. It’s impossible for anything to happen between you. Once he dies, you can end the prenup, make a clean break, and start over.”
I gave a quiet hum of acknowledgment.
Adrian seemed stunned by my compliance. Disbelief washed over his face.
He’d expected a fight. After all, I was the one hopelessly in love with Hayden, the one who had sworn I would marry no one else.
In my previous life, I was the one who drew the card with Hayden’s name on it.
But my brothers had immediately pulled out the other card from the box—and on it, too, was written *Hayden Grant*.
Julian, my second brother, had looked at me with cold contempt. “So both cards were the same. No wonder you were so desperate to draw first. Did you really think we wouldn’t check the other card?”
“We never should have brought you back,” Ethan had spat. “None of this would have happened if it weren’t for you.”
I couldn’t defend myself.
In less than a day, all of Manhattan’s elite had heard that I would stop at nothing to marry Hayden. My reputation was destroyed. They forced me into the marriage anyway, and in the end, I died of what the doctors called severe depression.
But this time, I would carve out a path to survival.
A drop of hot wax landed on my hand. The sting snapped me back to the present. I flinched, and the hem of my dress caught the edge of the card box, knocking it over.
It hit the floor with a soft thud. A single card, marked in red, slipped out.