I was standing at the very edge of disaster.
“We’ll be ruined! Ruined!” I wailed, diving into my bed.
There was no longer anyone to admonish me that a lady of my station shouldn’t behave like this, for you see, as I’d just mentioned, my family was on the verge of ruin. All our servants were gone. A noble house without a single servant to its name was unheard of, but that was our reality at present. Even those who’d said they would stay had been dismissed.
At the risk of sounding repetitive, the reason was that we were on the brink of financial collapse. We simply couldn’t afford them.
And if being out of funds wasn’t bad enough, we also owed a large amount. At this point, there was only one way out of this mess.
I had to marry into money. There was no alternative.
“And yet! A suitable partner eludes me!” I cried out as my gala gown turned into a crumpled mess.
The door to my room opened, and there stood the lady of the house, the baroness.
“Brianna?” she asked upon seeing the state I was in. The baron, head of the house, was behind her. “Um, you don’t have to keep trying if it’s so taxing on you,” the baroness said with a melancholy furrow of her brows. “Don’t worry about us.”
I sat up abruptly. “No, mother!” I protested. “I’ve only just begun!”
This was no time to be discouraged! So what if I hadn’t been able to find myself a partner at the most recent ball? I would simply have to try harder at the next one!
The two of them looked troubled by my words. Ah, I hadn’t meant to make them feel that way—I simply had to find myself a rich man and repay their kindness!
My determination renewed, I clenched my fist.
✦ ✦ ✦
I’d been living in this house for twelve years. Truthfully, I wasn’t this couple’s biological daughter; I was but a lucky girl, plucked from an orphanage, born to unknown parents. But although the baron and baroness weren’t my parents by blood, they had raised me with such love and care that it felt as if they’d been my parents all my life.
They hadn’t been blessed with children, you see, and so they’d chosen to take me in as a young girl, simply because they wished for a daughter. And also because, in this country, women were allowed to inherit noble titles.
Thanks to them, I grew up in a loving environment and was educated as an heiress. And since I was to be a baroness—a low-ranking noble—they’d even told me that they would allow me to marry a commoner, as long as I loved the man. And so, I had lived in blissful, unambitious ignorance, thinking I could simply take a good-natured man of common stock as a husband one day.
Reality was not quite so gentle. Everything had turned on its head about two years ago.
Father was conned out of all of his wealth, taken advantage of for his kindness. In a flash, our family was reduced to a mere title and a pile of debt.
Seeing my adoptive parents in tears, weeping over the end of their noble house that had endured for generations, I made a decision.
I would marry a man of means.
Fortunately for me, I was young, and had developed voluptuous curves; the plan, then, was to find a man who would be attracted to my assets. Indeed, I had been courted by several men. My adoptive parents, however, weren’t having it.
“Don’t be a second wife! Or a mistress, for that matter!” they’d scold me.
You see, the offers of courtship I had received were mostly from older men in their fifties or sixties, saying they would give me as much money as I needed, but that they wouldn’t take me as their primary wife, only as a side piece.
Who knew having such a voluptuous body could have such harmful side effects?
My parents loved me. They would’ve rather died than seen me sell myself like that. And truthfully, I too had dreams of marriage. As such, my family collectively agreed that I shouldn’t rush into becoming someone’s second wife. Instead, I was to take my time in finding a partner.
And yet, two years had passed in the blink of an eye, and I was now nineteen—the upper limit of marriageable age. The situation had grown dire. Ruin was at hand.
Besides managing our lands, I had been able to pay interest on our debt using my side income, which I’d been earning for that express purpose. Thus, the debt collectors had been quite patient with us, but at last, they had made an ultimatum: either we paid what we owed in six months, or it would all be over.
Honestly, I’d been naive. I was young and attractive, and that had gotten to my head. I’d been so certain that I’d find a man to save our family.
But reality was harsh.
Most decent men kept their distance due to our debt. When someone approached me in hopes of inheriting our title, they’d see the amount our family owed and balk, saying that such a low-ranking title wasn’t worth it. They’d say, “I would have considered it, were this at least for the title of count.”
“Ugh!” I groaned, pounding my bed in frustration. “And I was so sure I’d landed the crown prince!”
Like something straight out of a fairy tale, His Highness had chosen me as his companion for the ball. Why, I’d been more than delighted to attend. But, as it turned out, I’d been nothing but a pawn in his little love game with his fiancée.
How cruel. Here I’d been, thinking I’d found myself an honest man who saw beyond my breasts—and the crown prince, no less!—only to be used as nothing but jealousy material. Cruel indeed.
“I should’ve charged him for my services as a pawn,” I grumbled.
He might’ve paid if I’d asked, actually. Perhaps it wasn’t too late. I could simply send him an invoice.
“U-Um, Brianna?” my mother said, confused.
Oh. Right. My parents. At the door.
I coughed in an attempt to hide my embarrassment at being seen in such a state by my beloved family.
“Um, you’ve received an invitation to a ball,” she continued, handing me the envelope.
“Thank you, mother,” I replied with a smile.
Looking somewhat relieved, my parents left the room. I opened the invitation, and written on it was a rather unexpected name.
“Nadir Dorman,” I read aloud.
That was the name of the older brother of the true love—now wife—of the crown prince who had used me as a pawn.