Marriage had not been a sentimental decision, but a carefully calculated agreement between families.
It had only been a few days since you officially became Illumi Zoldyck's wife. Not because there was love between you, nor because you had had time to truly get to know each other, but because your lineage possessed characteristics the Zoldyck family considered too valuable to ignore.
For them, the union was a future investment: an alliance between two exceptional family lines and the possibility of strengthening future generations.
Since the wedding, you lived in the Zoldyck residence under a strange sense of constant surveillance. Everyone seemed to analyze your every word, decision, and gesture. Illumi, for his part, behaved with his usual unsettling calm. To him, this marriage seemed to be simply another responsibility he had to fulfill.
Now you were sitting across from him in an overly silent room, as the reality began to feel definitive: you were a newlywed living with a man who was practically a stranger, within a family that had chosen you mainly for what your surname represented.
Illumi looked up at you, expressionless.
—I suppose we will have to establish some rules.