Accidentally married to the Right Von Duvall
(Trigger warning: this book has some elements of dark romance with an unhinged ML)
"Would you give me your surname or better take mine then? Will you be the lucky man?" I blurted out having no idea of what I was saying. My head was already in the clouds and blinded by his smile. It calmed the storm in my mind.
He laughed. Those dark abysses were truly alluring when they sparkled.
His fingers grazed my cheeks, wiping off my tears, before cupping them in his callous palms. "If you love my surname so much."
A foolish smile graced my lips, oblivious of the fact that he wasn't joking. "You can't back down now, hubby. You just got a wife."
I thought I lost everything when I walked away from Sinclair. I never imagined I'd end up as Alaric Von Duvall's wife.
*******
Her life was written in stone. A perfect life one she always dreamt of.
Everything Cassandra wanted was within reach until one night revealed the love she'd trusted was a lie. Betrayal and deceit from those she trusted the most made every belief she had crash down.
What she didn't expect was to stumble into a stranger's arms, into his bed and wake up married. Alaric gave her what she thought she wanted; now she can't take it back.
One reckless mistake became a wedding vow. Now she's trapped inside Alaric's empire of lies. Married to a stranger who knows more than he's letting on
He's dangerous. He's charming. And in front of everyone, he claimed her as his
.
Caught between Sinclair's obsession, Alaric's shadowy intentions, and her family's betrayal, Cassandra doesn't know if this marriage will be her downfall... or her salvation.
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Chapter 5
Cassandra's POV
"The engagement is off." The flames raged beside me. Mum shrieked, ordering the maids to put on the fire. The room was plunged into chaos.
Amidst the chaos, I slipped out of the dressing room to my bedroom. I don't even know if they could save the dress.
I slumped on the bed and picked up my phone to text my best friend, Becky. There were several messages in my DM from her worried after I disappeared last night.
Drained, I tossed my phone. I never knew a day like this could come. My entire life revolved around marrying Sinclair. We have known each other since secondary school and got engaged in our freshman year. This wedding had been planned for years, even the dress I burned was personally customised for me.
"Don't cry Cassie, it isn't worth it," I muttered. The door was unceremoniously opened, and I didn't even glance at who it was.
"Enough of this Cassie. I can't put up with all this." Sinclair's annoying voice sneered as he tossed what was left of my burnt dress.
I refused to look at him. "You don't have to. Marry your Aurelia and you won't have to force yourself to fuck a woman you aren't sexually attracted to." I shrugged hoping he would leave.
The bastard didn't leave, he marched towards the bed. He tried to hold my hand, but I evaded him, moving far away. My glare was sharp. His gaze flickered with pain.
"Why are you doing this?!" He blurted.
I snorted, crossing my hand under my bosom. "I am not as spineless as you thought. The wedding is off from today, we are strangers." I repeated in case he didn't hear me earlier.
"CASSANDRA!!!" How untimely I heard Dad screaming my name from down the hallway. Sinclair's fist clenched, his eyes burned. "If that's how you want this to be. One day you will regret it." He said, then stormed away, unable to bear the humiliation.
At the door, he ran into Dad. "What do you think you are doing? Are you on drugs?" Father threw accusations at me.
"Maybe ask your perfect daughter, Aurelia, who was hooking up with Sinclair." I retorted and then picked up my phone. Pretending to scroll on it. I was scared of my father's fury.
Like a storm, he got to the edge of my bed. "Aurelia would never do such a thing." He declared. Even I wouldn't have believed the same thing if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.
"Believe what you want. I am done with Sinclair." We had a face-off, and no one was ready to give up.
"Fine, just know if you break up this engagement, there is no place in the Sterling family for you..." My very own father said, instead of probing why, I suddenly changed my mind.
To say I was heartbroken was an understatement. "Daddy..." I blurted. He gritted his teeth. "We have a lot of investment with the Von Duvall family and we can't afford to get on their bad side."
He was choosing business over his daughter. What did I expect? "Fine. I guess this family has no place for me." He was dumbfounded.
Under his gaze I packed my bag, anything I could put my hand on. He didn't stop me. "Goodbye, father." We stared intently at each other. I swallowed a lump then stormed off.
"Cassandra, where are you going?" I heard mum's startled voice from down the hallway. I didn't give her a reply and continued leaving.
Maybe it was best I took a break from everyone. That day, I ignored my mother's cries and pleas. I hailed a taxi and left home. Dad didn't even beg me once. The entire ride I cried out my heart.
********
The doorbell rang, and I stood at the door sniffing, trying to fight the tears. The door was pushed open and Rebecca stepped out dressed in her bridesmaid's dress.
"Cassie," she gasped, surprised at my appearance. Her eyes fell on the luggage. I swallowed a lump. The dress made my heart burn. "Rebecca," I whimpered and she immediately pulled me into her hands
"Everything will be fine." She assured me. Her words broke me. "There isn't going to be a wedding. I hate that bastard." I cried into her arms. She just held me
It's been weeks and I haven't stepped out of Rebecca's apartment. She was nice enough to give me a roof when my life was falling apart. Until now, I haven't told her exactly what happened that night.
I didn't want to relive it again. Rebecca understood not to pry too much. She tried her best to cheer me up while I was wallowing in depression.
For the first time in weeks, I was starting to breathe again, so I decided to check my old emails that I had checked in weeks. Bundled under an old blanket, the TV was playing in the background. There wasn't anything particularly important at first.
My hands stopped. My eyes narrowed on the screen. "Marriage registration." I read out an old email sent a few days after the wedding was called off.
Curious, I clicked it open, and my fragile world collapsed. "What!!!!" I screamed my lungs out, unable to believe my eyes. Who the hell was Alaric Von Duvall? Why was that gigolo's surname similar to Sinclair's!!
I thought my life could get some normalcy after the failed wedding, but fate has another one coming at me.
I walked through the door of a five-star hotel, a bit confused whether this was indeed the location. Why did he bring me here? My face scrunched up remembering the man I was married to was a gigolo.
But it was still a mystery as the event of that day was a haze in my mind. I pulled out my phone to send a text to Alaric informing him that I have arrived. The email contained his contact, and I contacted him on WhatsApp to meet in person.
He agreed and directed me to come here. My phone rang with a notification.
Alaric: Someone will be with you in a minute.
It was a simple reply, and right on cue, a strange voice called out. "Mrs Von Duvall." My brows furrowed, "pardon!!" I found it weird remembering that Sinclair has a similar surname. It gave me a bad memory.
A man dressed in a tailor suit approached, "Pardon me for the address. Ma'am Cassandra. Sir Alaric is expecting." He politely said. It still felt weird but I politely accepted. "Please lead the way."
Under his lead, we headed to the elevator. The man kept on giving curious glances, but averted his whenever I caught him. He selected the floor and soon we arrived with the elevator dinging open.
Loud classical music drifted to my ears. Was there a party going on? I glanced at the escort to question him. He didn't give me the chance when he marched out of the elevator.
I was left with no choice but to follow after him. We arrived at a pair of large doors which were pushed open. The blinding lights and loud music welcomed me
Still dazzled, the escort excused himself. "Sir Alaric will be with you shortly. " He walked off immediately. I was left breathless staring at the lavish hall filled with people. Some I recognised from high society.
How did Alaric get into this crowd? Was my ' husband.' dating a big shot? I wondered.
Growing up in wealth should've made me immune to grandeur, but the hall still managed to steal my breath. Every detail was intricate and screamed wealth.
I was still admiring the delicate chandelier which hung in the middle of the room from the spot I stood, when a familiar voice I didn't wish to hear sneered, drawing my attention.
"Guess who finally crawled out of her hole. If it isn't my dear sister Cassandra." My eyes snapped to Aurelia, who was dressed glamorously, fitting the occasion, a far cry from my simple dress. Alaric didn't tell me the nature of the event
After the engagement was called off, the trending videos were all taken down to protect the Von Duvalls' reputation, leaving the past a mystery that still plagued me.
"Aurelia," I blurted. My hands clutched my purse trying to hold myself together. She stood holding her wine glass with a disdainful gaze just when I thought this couldn't get any worse. I heard that voice which still plagued me.
.
"Cassandra, what are you doing here?" Sinclair asked slowly, approaching me. His gaze was still carrying that hurt look which always left me puzzled.
"Please, can we talk things over?"He pleaded, but Aurelia's face turned rather ugly. Sinclair left me baffled, looking broken like the break-up had affected me. He wanted to hug me.
But before he could get close an arm appeared before him blocking his way. "You should avoid carelessly touching a married woman, especially one who is my wife." A dried-out voice heavy with tension slowly said.
My head bobbed up to meet his dark gaze, those abysses I remembered. It was him. "Alaric," I whispered. Was he always this charming?
"Hi, Cassandra. It's been a while." He gave me a soft smile and I felt my face heating up. His hand curled around my waist protectively, pulling me closer.
Sinclair just watched us unable to move. He wasn't the only one stunned. Alaric guided me to the middle of the room and then raised his glass.
The entire hall went silent.
"Thanks for coming tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the reason for our celebration tonight." He chimed then gazed down at me with the sweetest smile.
"Meet my wife, Cassandra Von Duvall, the newest member of the Von Duvall family "My heart started to thud. Everyone's eyes were on me. What was going on?
A sharp voice cut through the tension. Sinclair rushed towards me, then grabbed my arm. "What do you mean by your wife? You can't marry my fiancé, uncle. Cassandra is mine."
Wait, they were truly related!!!
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7.1
I sat alone at my long marble dining table, staring at a plate of cold truffle risotto. My husband, Jere, was late again, claiming he was stuck in a "war zone" of a board meeting for a multi-billion dollar merger.
A single Instagram notification shattered the silence. It was a photo of a candlelit birthday dinner, featuring a man's hand resting on a white tablecloth. I recognized the slight veins, the jagged scar on the thumb, and the navy-faced Patek Philippe watch I had spent six months tracking down as a wedding gift. Jere wasn't in a boardroom; he was celebrating his ex-girlfriend Irina's birthday while texting me to "don't wait up."
The next morning, I followed him to a VIP hospital wing. I watched through a cracked door as my husband cuddled a five-year-old boy and whispered tender promises to Irina. When he came home, he tried to buy my silence with a rare pink diamond bracelet, but I found the receipt: he had bought two identical ones. He had branded his wife and his mistress with matching jewelry, using hidden trackers to keep us both on a leash. When I confronted him, he didn't flinch. He coldly reminded me that he owned my father's massive debts and could send him to prison for insolvency fraud with one phone call.
"Stop with the attitude, Deliah," he said.
I felt like a ghost haunting my own life, trapped in a gilded cage by the man who paid for my mother's heart surgery while keeping a secret family across town. The humiliation peaked at our rescheduled anniversary dinner when Jere received a text, threw a stack of hundreds at me like I was a stranger, and abandoned me in a crowded restaurant to rush back to her.
"Pay the bill," he commanded before walking out.
Standing in the wreckage of a shattered crystal vase back at the penthouse, I realized my silence was the only thing keeping his empire standing. I pulled the crumpled divorce papers from my purse and signed my name with a steady hand. I wasn't just walking away; I was calling his sister to help me burn his perfect world to the ground.
8.3
I woke up in a bedroom that screamed old money, but the body I occupied felt sluggish and fragile. I was now Chris Olson, a man known as a pathetic failure who spent his marriage groveling at his wife's feet for a single look of approval.
Elizabeth didn't even wait for me to clear my head before she threw the divorce papers on the nightstand. She stood there in her silk robe, eyes cold as ice, demanding I sign them before breakfast so she could finally go public with her "White Moonlight," Greg.
"You're walking away with nothing," she snapped, her voice full of the disgust she'd harbored for years. She reminded me that my family had disowned me and that I'd be on the streets within a week without her charity.
As I sat up, a metallic, garlic-like scent on my breath confirmed a terrifying truth: the Olson family hadn't just disowned me; they had been micro-dosing me with arsenic for years. They wanted me weak and mentally unstable so they could split the inheritance without a fight.
The original Chris would have cried and begged for her to stay, but I just looked at her like she was a target. I realized then that my "loving" family and my "faithful" wife had been watching me die in slow motion, and neither of them had lifted a finger to stop it.
I signed the papers without reading a single line and walked out with nothing but a duffel bag and a rusted sedan. I didn't need her alimony; I had already called her greatest rival, Adelia Cherry, to discuss a merger that would rock the city.
"I'm not here to save this marriage," I told Elizabeth as I moved into the mansion right next door to hers. "I'm here to bury it, along with everyone who thought they could poison me and get away with it."
7.4
Tonight was supposed to be Cordelia's grand engagement party, the night she finally secured her future.
But an hour before the banquet, she received an anonymous video. Her fiancé was in the hotel's penthouse, tangled in the sheets with her stepsister. They had even paid off her trusted staff to keep her isolated.
Cordelia didn't shed a single tear. She walked onto the grand stage, hijacked the screens, and broadcasted their betrayal to hundreds of New York's elite. She tore up the multimillion-dollar prenup and threw the pieces in his face.
"The engagement is canceled. My legal team will seize your family's assets by tomorrow morning."
But instead of support, her own father violently grabbed her wrist, furious that she ruined their reputation. Her stepmother tried to slap her for the cameras, and her ex-fiancé threatened to completely destroy her career. Surrounded by the people who were supposed to be her family, she was treated like the villain.
Just as she was cornered, Justice Duncan, the most ruthless billionaire on Wall Street, stepped out of the shadows.
He offered her absolute protection and capital, but only if she signed a five-year contract marriage to mother his four-year-old heir.
But when Cordelia finally met the little boy, her blood ran completely cold.
The boy was the exact baby she was told she had miscarried four years ago. And the billionaire handing her the marriage contract was the same stranger who had taken him.
7.2
My family went bankrupt overnight, leaving me to face a mountain of predatory debt.
Instead of standing by my side, my billionaire fiancé's mother threw a five-million-dollar check on the marble table, demanding I take the money and disappear from her son's life forever.
Meanwhile, my former social circle mocked my downfall. They secretly took photos of me meeting with ruthless loan sharks, waiting for me to come crawling back to beg for charity.
I didn't give them the satisfaction. I legally took on my father's massive debt, threw the check back, and ruthlessly dumped my fiancé.
To stop my heartbroken mother from worrying, I lied and told her I had already found a new, reliable boyfriend.
But the lie was a ticking time bomb. My malicious rival even forced her way into my cramped apartment, demanding to meet this mysterious man, laughing that he must live in a dumpster.
I was suffocating under the pressure. I had nothing, and I had no idea how I was supposed to magically produce a husband to get these toxic people off my back.
Until a dying stranger I helped in the park made a final wish.
His grandson—my cold, aloof high school upperclassman, Caleb Barnes—handed me a watertight prenuptial agreement at the hospital.
"Marry me," Caleb said flatly. "I get to give my grandfather peace. You get a shield against your family."
I picked up the pen and signed my name.
8.8
After three years together, the man who had once promised to marry me, Babur Caldwell, threw me out the moment he got into Redmont University.
"Valeria, a pretty little fool who only knows how to dress up, how could you ever be worthy of someone like me, a future elite of Gilded Row?"
Later, when I, Valerie Quinn, became the Financial Queen admired by thousands, he knelt in front of me, sobbing, begging for another chance.
Holding the bouquet Kearney Smith had sent me, I answered in the same tone he had once used. "Sorry, Babur, someone as short-sighted as you isn't worthy of an elite like me."
9.8
Adeline's stepmother had secretly drugged her for years, turning a child genius into a drooling, mentally disabled laughingstock just so her stepsister could steal her life.
But when her greedy father sold her off to Griffin Herring—a violent, untouchable billionaire psychopath—to save his company, things took a deadly turn.
Before the wedding, Griffin attacked her in a dark alley, nearly snapping her neck before stealing her grandfather's silver necklace.
That necklace held a micro-drive with her family's deepest secrets, and without it, she had nothing.
Back at the estate, her situation only worsened. Her stepsister Damaris paraded around in the Herring family's diamond engagement gifts, trying to force-feed Adeline wet dog food on an Instagram live stream.
When Adeline's calculated "clumsiness" ruined the video, her furious father locked her in a damp, rusted basement.
"Give her to the psycho," her stepmother hissed through the door. "Let him lock her away forever."
Listening from the shadows, Adeline's fists clenched until her palms bled.
Her supposed mental fog wasn't a tragedy—it was a calculated assassination of her mind. They had destroyed her childhood and were now throwing her to a monster just to keep the billions.
The dull, empty look in Adeline's eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a razor-sharp, chilling clarity.
She pulled a thin surgical needle from her messy bun and picked the heavy iron padlock in ten seconds. It was time to break into the billionaire's penthouse, take back her necklace, and tear them all apart.