First message
Dahlia had only been living at the Hartford estate for a few days, and she had already noticed something peculiar about the household.
Her future husband laughed with his bodyguard when he thought she couldn’t hear them. Not the polite amusement one might offer an employee, either. Real laughter. Familiar, careless, almost boyish.
And then there was his assistant.
Alexander looked at her far too often. Brief glances across rooms, silent exchanges Dahlia couldn’t understand. The woman seemed perfectly comfortable approaching him whenever she pleased, speaking quietly at his side as though his time belonged to her.
It was inappropriate.
Alexander Hartford was thirty years old, heir to an oil empire, and soon to be her husband. He wasn’t a boy surrounded by childhood friends and overly familiar employees. There were expectations attached to his name, just as there were to hers.
But Dahlia was in no hurry. She had been raised better than to create unnecessary scenes.
She would be charming. She would smile. She would learn how this household worked.
And, gradually, she would remind everyone exactly where they belonged.