Wife?
Landon Hawthorne froze at the word, then erupted in fury. "Where did this madwoman come from? Throw her out!"
The roar brought the butler, Uncle Carter, rushing over. He explained frantically, "Mr. Landon, this is Miss Aria Sterling. She is, in fact, your wife. Here is the marriage certificate."
'They already got a marriage certificate?'
Snatching the marriage certificate, Landon Hawthorne glanced at it before throwing it in Aria Sterling's face, absolutely livid. "I got married? How come I didn't know?"
"Mr. Landon, this marriage was arranged for you by the old master." Uncle Carter picked up the marriage certificate, his tone calm and patient as he tried to reason with him.
He then moved closer and whispered in Landon Hawthorne's ear, "The old master also instructed that you are to get your wife pregnant and produce an heir as quickly as possible."
'For someone to actually be tempted by the Hawthorne family's money enough to marry Mr. Landon... that was a miracle in itself, a true blessing from the ancestors.'
Landon Hawthorne just about lost it.
'It was bad enough that the old man was constantly throwing women at him, desperate for a grandchild. But to go and get a marriage certificate without his consent was crossing a line.'
'This woman looked so plain, practically a child.'
He was so furious he immediately called his father. "Dad, you've gone too far this time! Getting a marriage certificate without my consent? You have no respect for me at all!"
"If I listened to you, the family line would die out," the old man cut in, not bothering with pleasantries. "I've seen her photo. The girl's not bad looking. You'd better..."
Landon Hawthorne hung up before the old man could finish.
Without sparing Aria Sterling so much as another glance, Landon Hawthorne snapped at Uncle Carter, "I want her gone by nine tomorrow morning!"
He turned to leave, but unexpectedly, Aria Sterling stepped into his path, blocking his way.
She raised a hand, offering him a small, scented sachet. "A first-meeting gift. I hope we get along."
"Get lost!" Landon Hawthorne snarled, roughly shoving Aria Sterling aside and stalking upstairs.
Aria Sterling didn't seem the least bit embarrassed that her gift had been rejected. She simply put the sachet away.
It was Uncle Carter who explained, "Madam, please don't take offense. Mr. Landon's temper is just a bit foul, but he's not a bad person at heart."
"I know," Aria Sterling replied, her smile not reaching her eyes. "He probably... didn't mean it."
'A bit foul?'
'Not a bad person?'
'The rumors said that this Landon Hawthorne had a bizarre personality and a violent temper, that he was prone to fits of madness, and that when his episodes hit, only drinking human blood could pacify him.'
'On top of that, Landon Hawthorne was said to jinx his wives. Two of his former fiancées had been jinxed to death, and three others had been scared away.'
'That made her, his new wife, the sixth.'
'In short, the Hawthorne family's famed Mr. Landon was insane and a wife-jinx.'
'This was precisely why the Jennings family, despite their greed, had been absolutely unwilling to let their own Iris Jennings marry him.'
'How could they bear to let Iris Jennings be tormented like that?'
'But she was a different story. If she died here, it would be the perfect way to conceal the fact that the Jennings family had an unpresentable, cast-off daughter.'
Seeing how understanding Aria Sterling was, Uncle Carter nodded and had a servant show her to her room.
He also offered Aria Sterling a word of warning. "At night, no matter what you hear, pay it no mind, Madam. And you must not, under any circumstances, leave your room."
Aria Sterling's room was right next to Landon Hawthorne's.
A single wall separated them, but it couldn't stop the chilling, sinister aura that seeped through it.
Aria Sterling sat on the sofa, her gaze fixed on the wall between their two rooms.
With a flick of her wrist, a pale yellow talisman shot from her hand and stuck fast to the wall.
But almost instantly, the talisman turned to dust.
Aria Sterling frowned.
"No wonder this whole manor is steeped in such a cold, sinister aura. So, you're the source of the problem."
Aria Sterling then did a quick divination for Landon Hawthorne. "The Palace of Yang is over-abundant, encroaching on the Palace of Yin. It repels all things Yin... a fate destined for loneliness until death."
"This astrological chart..." Aria Sterling's eyes narrowed, a cold light glinting within them. "...is a beacon for the most vicious Fiends!"