The night was silent. Too silent.

Only the soft sound of dirt hitting wood echoed between the trees as Marlon Vaelthorne knelt at the edge of a shallow grave. Moonlight licked the edges of his sharp features, making his pale hands look nearly translucent as he filled the final pit.

Three bodies.

Three mistakes.

The first had once worn a ring meant for her—her ex-fiancé. The man had been trying to reach her, foolishly thinking time and absence had dulled Marlon's presence in her life.

The second and third were recent: colleagues. Ordinary men with ordinary hearts, but they made the fatal error of asking for her number. And worse... she had given it.

Marlon had smiled when he saw the messages. Not because he was jealous. No. Because it gave him reason.

He packed the soil tighter, cleaner, erasing any sign of the struggle. He moved with eerie calm, like someone folding a silk handkerchief.

Then he stood, brushing specks of earth from his black gloves before pulling out his phone. A faint glow lit up his face—expectant... hungry.

No new messages.

Strange.

Not even a tearful reply? No desperate voice note? Not a single plea?

He knew she had received the letter.

He'd rewritten it ten times until it felt like truth: a cruel message signed with another man's name, filled with rejection and twisted pain. It was meant to shatter her, to make her believe they never cared. That she had always been a burden. That no one wanted her.

But she was quiet now.

Almost too quiet.

Marlon stared at the screen for a few more seconds, then lowered the phone slowly. His lips curled into something between a smile and a threat.

"She's remembering," he murmured to the dark, like a lover confessing a secret. "My dove will want to fly again."

The moon slipped behind the clouds. And with a rustle of wind and silk, he vanished—leaving the forest in silence once more.

The grand gates of the Vaelthorne estate loomed like shadows carved into stone. Marlon moved through them without a sound, his tailored coat fluttering slightly with the night breeze. The mansion, ancient and regal, stood in perfect stillness... Until he saw her.

There, at the edge of the garden, his wife—the center of his entire existence—was moving quietly beneath the moonlight, her steps cautious, her breath visible in the cold night air.

She was trying to escape.

From the rooftop ledge, Marlon paused, watching her from above like a phantom perched in judgment. His eyes narrowed slightly, amusement flickering behind the fury.

She kept glancing over her shoulder, scanning the shadows for him.

Afraid.

Her expression said it all—terror, desperation, the unmistakable panic of someone who didn't know who to trust anymore. And still... even afraid of him, she was beautiful.

Marlon tilted his head, studying how she moved with care toward the outer wall, trying to climb over the stone boundary like a thief sneaking away from her own home.

Their home.

His smile faded.

Just as she lifted herself over the wall, fingers gripping the edge— A pale hand shot from the shadows and seized her wrist.

In a blur of movement, she was yanked backward—hard—until her body collided with the cold stone of the mansion. Marlon pinned her there, one arm across her chest, the other cupping her face with terrifying gentleness.

"You're not leaving me," he whispered, voice like velvet soaked in poison. "Not in this life... not in the next."

She fought. Of course she did. Her nails scratched at his sleeves, her breath sharp with panic. She shook her head, whispering his name like a curse, like a plea—anything to get away.

Marlon didn't flinch.

His crimson eyes locked with hers, glowing softly as a pulse of power spread through the air—thick, inescapable. His thumb brushed her cheek tenderly, and then...

Her mind slipped.

The terror vanished from her gaze. Her limbs grew weak. Her lips parted slightly in confusion.

And then she collapsed into his arms, unconscious.

He held her tightly, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"You always come back to me," he murmured, voice shaking with love and madness. "Even if I have to erase the entire world to keep you here."

Without another word, he lifted her like a broken doll and disappeared into the dark corridors of the mansion—the place she kept trying to escape.

The place she would forget... again.