Chapter 1

Spencer looked at the plate in front of her. Her mother had put all her love and hard work into that meal, she could tell. They never ate such extravagant food. She had given her the most tender piece of meat, which she probably cooked to comfort her, but she couldn't eat it. Not even one bite. Her stomach turned in all directions. She felt nauseous.

Her father just dropped a bomb on her . She was told that she was to marry someone she had never met before. Someone she didn't love. Someone that was a pariah to society. The 'one-handed monster' that's what the people in town called that someone.

A man that was known as Kristof Sutherfield.

Besides that, being famed for being a freak, he was also well-known for being the wealthiest man in the country.

Kristof wasn't liked by the people of class, for he had no class like they did. He held no title, like a mayor or a vice president . He gained his fortune by earning it with his own hands, or better yet, single-handedly.

The man only had one hand! His left hand was missing. He also had a big scar on his face. A flaw.

Running from his eyebrow, all the way down. It reached almost to the corner of his mouth.

The people in town told all kinds of tales about the man's missing hand. They said the devil ate it himself. Or that when Kristof was disobedient as a child, his own mother chopped it off with an ax!

However, nobody really knew the true story…

Though the people cruelly talked about Kristof's appearance behind his back all the time, he was also loved by them up to a certain degree. He helped them financially, even when their own mayor wouldn't. They loved him for his money and praised him for that. But that's all they really wanted from him.

"I will not do it, I won't marry him," Spencer spoke softly.

It was just so surreal to her.

"Yes, you will!" her father commanded, not tolerating any backtalk from his daughter . His firstborn.

Theo was offered a large amount of money for this arranged marriage. Of course, he didn't want his daughter to be unhappy, but the family was financially struggling and he had more children to take care of.

His daughter had always been popular and lots of people wanted to marry her. The beauty of spencer, now twenty-one years old, was known all over the town.

Theo had always refused proposals, but this time the amount of money that was offered was so huge, he just couldn't refuse.

"Kristof is a fine man. Wealthy, kind, generous, and somehow willing to marry a disobedient brat like you."

"A fine man? Do you know what the people in town say about him? How can I marry someone like that? Mother,tell him! Tell him I can't and I won't do it!" Spencer referred to her mother, screaming.

Her mother desperately looked at her. She had tears in her eyes and her lower lip was trembling, but she couldn't talk back to her husband because she also knew they had more children to take care of. So she said nothing.

Spencer’s younger brothers and sister were in the kitchen too, where the atmosphere was thick with tension. Their faces were crestfallen, all they could do was look down. She felt betrayed by her own family.

"I'm going to Roan," she announced, no longer able to sit with these people anymore.

She needed air.

"Be back here tonight or I will hunt you down, Spencer. The marriage will be in two days. Kristof himself will pick us up tomorrow evening."

"What?!"

"You heard me."

Two days her father had said? Spencer couldn't believe it. As she pushed away from the table with heavy stomps, her breathing came with difficulty.

Swinging the door open, she left the somber home without closing the door behind her. She started running towards the forest.

She wanted Roan. That was the man she did love. She cursed that man named Kristof. Not only in her mind, but she screamed it through the forest while running. She hated the man even before she ever met him.

The small house ahead of her was Roan's.

While watching through the window, spencer saw Roan eating with his family. She knew it was rude to intrude on their dinner time, but she waved through the glass hoping that Roan would catch a glimpse of her. Her lover did. Roan signed something at her, and she knew immediately what he meant.

Their secret place... It was at an old abandoned house. Almost a ruin.

Spencer waited there and when she saw Roan making his way to their secret place, she ran into his arms.

Roan looked sad when spencer told him everything.

"Let's run away together, please leave with me. We can be happy, Roan!" Spencer said while tears poured down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, spencer,but I can't just leave my family behind."

Roan seemed to be only a little sad. Spencer had expected him to be heartbroken, mournful, bitter, angry. Not this. If it was Roan in this position, spencer would surely elope with him! Did Roan not love her ?

She now knew that her love for Roan was greater than Roan's love for her. Still, she whispered, "I want to sleep with you.

"What?" Roan asked.

"I want to sleep with you...tonight, before I leave with Kristof tomorrow. I don't want my first time to be with that man. I want it to be with you, the one that I'm in love with."

Even though she loved Roan more than Roan loved her, she wanted this.

Spencer looked at her lover. In her eyes, a mix of love, despair, sadness, and longing, and Roan didn't have to think twice about spencer’s invitation…

Spencer lay on her bed, in her room. She couldn't sit because it hurt too much.

Her first time was different from what she had imagined. It wasn't satisfying and it didn't feel nice at all, it only hurt.

Roan had guided Spencer to lay down on the soft grass and then he had pulled her pants off. After widening spencer’s legs and positioning himself in between, he took her! He didn't even take off the rest of their clothes!

He took her, right there on the grass, without any kissing or hugging or loving. It took maybe one minute ... Spencer didn't even come.

She couldn't understand why her friends always talked about sex like it was a life-altering experience. In fact, it did not feel good at all. Not even with someone you loved dearly. It was nothing, but a minute of thankless pain. Just a hapless moment to celebrate the eve of her weddingday…

'Maybe it was befitting,' Spencer mused miserably,

'A wretched tryst to match her ill-fated future.'

Roan had thanked Spencer and said it felt like heaven. At least Roan enjoyed it.

Despite accepting that she loved Roan more than he loved her, she could not help but be disappointed in her lover. All she wanted was a night of passion to bid adieu to her beloved and her spinsterhood .Yet she could not have that either. To make it worse,it was at the hands of the man who she loved with everything in her. She felt tears rolling down her temples, and at this very moment, she just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up again.

She didn't want tomorrow to come.

KRISTOF POV

Kristof stood in front of the mirror. He had just screwed his leather-covered wooden hand onto his arm cuff. He always wore black leather gloves when he was around other people, so he could cover up the wooden prosthetic hand.

The large scar on his face, however, was always present. He couldn't cover that up. And so, every day when he looked in the mirror he was reminded of that fateful day.

He could remember it as if it was yesterday, and not twenty-five years ago.

"Mommy, daddy, what are we going to do? Where are we going?" Little Kristof asked while he looked outside the car window.

His mother and father had a surprise for him.

They said they would go somewhere nice for this special day.

"Well, my sweetest little Kris, it's your birthday today! So we're gonna go somewhere special. Oh, I can't believe my baby boy is already seven years.

"He is big now, aren't you, Kris? You're not a baby boy anymore." Kristof's father laughed at his wife's silly behavior.

"I am, mommy. I'm almost as big as daddy already," Kristof spoke proudly.

"Haha. Oh, yes you are my love."

All of a sudden, the car came to a quick stop and little Kristof fell off his seat. Permeating the car and flooding his ears, was a lot of noise.

People were talking loudly and screaming could be heard.

Kristof saw his parents looking at each other with wide and frightened eyes.

"Kristof, you must leave. You must be safe," his mother whispered as she slowly pushed open the door and shoved her son out.

Coming out of the car were menacing-looking men.

All little Kristof could see was blood everywhere. It filled his gaze and flooded his nostrils. Screams from the security drivers tore his eyes away from the gruesome sight on the ground. The screams were followed by a rancorous cackle from one of the depraved man's wicked lips.

"Run Kristof, now, run," his mother and father whispered to him.

But the bad men saw them.

"Run, now! Please, Kristof, do it. We love you!" His parents screamed, they did not bother hushing their words, knowing that the men had seen them anyway.

Everything seemed to happen so fast, prompted by his parents' desperate cries for him to flee, his legs finally agreed to cooperate and ran from the scene. While he ran, he could not help looking back. He saw one of the bad men grab his mother by the hair and stabbed her with a knife.

She screamed, his father wailed in horror, and little Kristof's heart hammered inside his little chest.

He ran through the forest as fast as his legs could take him, but then he slipped and fell into a deep ditch, rolling over sharp rocks and branches. He was not sure which of those things did it, all he knew was that something cut his face and the memento was a scar for life.

Everything went black after his fall.

When he woke up, he learned that an older lady found him at the bottom of the ditch. The rocks had fallen and slammed on his little hand. It was so wounded that the lady couldn't save his hand anymore.

But she could save little Kristof. And she did.

Kristof snapped out of his memory when he heard a knocking on his door.

“Come in.”

"You wanted to see me?" Adam asked, coming into the room.

Adam was one of the few friends that Kristof had.

They knew each other from way back and Adam worked for him now.

"Yes, please I need your help. I got a call from the mayor. An invitation to his place . I can't refuse the mayor even if I wanted to. It's planned for tomorrow, the day I would

meet Spencer and bring her here."

"I understand. I will go, don't worry. I'll explain it to her . I'm sure Spencer will understand."

“Thank you, Adam.”