Later that afternoon, the silence of the Grefo estate settled into the walls of Jannah’s room. Damian, who had spent the entire morning meticulously tending to Jannah’s medical needs and ensuring her vitals were stable, had finally gathered his medical kit and departed for his demanding duties at the Upper District Hospital.

With his calming presence gone, the atmosphere in the spacious room shifted.

Jannah lay propped up against a mountain of pillows, her eyes fixed on the ceiling. The boredom of being trapped in the luxury of the estate was starting to eat away at her nerves. But that mild boredom instantly dissolved into irritation when the door swung open.

Guron Grefo walked into the room, his towering frame instantly dominating the space. Walking a step behind him, with his usual cold, untouchable posture, was Dorrent.

Jannah didn’t even try to hide the heavy sigh that escaped her lips. Just looking at Dorrent’s stoic, arrogant face made her blood boil. She adjusted herself slightly on the mattress, her body stiffening as the two Alphas closed the distance and stood right beside her medical bed.

Guron looked down at her, his expression unreadable but his voice carrying that booming authority that demanded an answer. "How are you doing, Jannah?"

Jannah kept her voice flat, matching his directness. "I am doing better. The doctor told me that the plaster cast on my right hand will finally be removed tomorrow morning."

Guron nodded, a slight, approving grunt escaping his chest. "That is much better. That is very good news indeed."

The older man paused, his sharp eyes shifting from Jannah to his son, and then back again. The silence stretched between them for several tense seconds before Guron leaned in slightly, his gaze narrowing. "Tell me, Jannah... now that you have spent some time under our roof, what do you honestly think of my son, Dorrent?"

Jannah didn’t hesitate. She didn’t care about politeness, and she certainly didn’t care about the immense power the Grefo family held over her life. She turned her head slowly, casting a sharp, biting look straight at Dorrent.

"He is not a likable person at all," Jannah delivered ruthlessly, her voice cutting through the quiet room like a blade. "He is incredibly rude, unbelievably arrogant, and very manipulative. He thinks he can pull everyone’s strings just because of his name."

Instead of getting angry, Guron let out a chuckle. He nodded his head in agreement, casting a brief glance at his son. "That is all true. He is exactly all of those things. I will definitely have to make sure he changes that terrible attitude of his moving forward."

Guron then stepped a bit closer to the edge of the mattress, his eyes tracking her facial expressions with lethal precision. "But tell me about his physical appearance, girl. How does he look to your eyes? Is he physically appealing to you?"

Jannah immediately locked her gaze onto the bedsheets, completely refusing to look at Dorrent. She knew the reality. Dorrent was a handsome devil—he possessed the kind of sharp, flawless jawline, striking eyes, and commanding physical symmetry that made people stop and stare in awe. But she would rather die than give him the supreme satisfaction of knowing that she found him attractive. She kept her eyes glued down, her jaw clenched tight.

Guron watched her stubborn silence for a split second, and a knowing smirk spread across his handsome face. He understood her silent reaction immediately.

"Well, since you clearly don’t find him that ugly," Guron stated, his voice dropping into a chillingly calm, matter-of-fact tone, "you should know that you are going to get married to him very soon."

The heavy words hit the room like a physical explosion.

Jannah’s entire body jolted with shock. Her breath gasped out of her lungs, and she scrambled backward against the headboard so violently that she almost fell off the edge of the bed. Her heart pounded frantically against her ribs as she stared at the older man with wide, terrified eyes.

"What... what did you just say?!" Jannah shrieked, her voice cracking with disbelief.

Dorrent stepped forward then, his tall frame blocking out the light from the window. His handsome face was completely devoid of any warmth, his eyes looking down at her frantic state with an icy, unyielding calm.

"You heard my father perfectly clear, Jannah," Dorrent told her, his voice smooth and completely unbothered by her panic. "Just as you’ve heard."

"No! Never!" Jannah shouted, her chest heaving as a terrifying wave of panic gripped her throat. She shook her head, her voice rising in pitch as she looked between the two men. "I will never agree to this! This is completely insane! Damian is my boyfriend! I love him, and he loves me! Only my cold, lifeless corpse can ever get married to a monster like you, Dorrent! You cannot force me into this nightmare!"

Guron stepped in, his voice instantly cutting through her frantic screams, trying to settle her down with material promises. "Listen to me, Jannah. There is no need for this useless screaming. Dorrent will give you absolutely everything you could ever want in this life. You will have a grand, luxurious life, boundless wealth, and anything else your heart desires. You will never have to step foot in the filth of the slums again. You do not need to worry about your future or your comfort ever again."

"I don’t want any of those worthless things from him!" Jannah spat back, her eyes flashing with hatred. Tears of rage pricked the corners of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall in front of them. "He can buy me the entire world, he can buy me a whole planet, and I still won’t agree to sign a single piece of paper! I despise him!"

She gripped the bedsheets with her good hand, her mind racing as she tried to find a logical escape from the trap closing around her. She looked up at Guron, her voice turning desperate. "And besides, this makes absolutely no sense! Dorrent already has a beautiful fiancée! He is engaged to Joanne, the famous beauty queen from the highest tier! Everyone in the city knows about them! Why have you suddenly changed your mind like this? Dorrent was supposed to marry Joanne, a woman of his own status, not a poor healer from the lower sectors like me!"

Guron’s expression didn’t soften for a single fraction of a second. He stood tall, his eyes cold as ice. "We will simply break off the engagement with Joanne. It is a minor matter. It will be handled by the end of the week."

"No! Do not do that!" Jannah begged, her voice trembling with a mixture of terror and fury. "You cannot just ruin people’s lives like this! I never asked for any of this! I came to this estate for one reason and one reason only—I came here to act as Dorrent’s healer, to use my herbal knowledge to fix his condition! I came here as an herbalist, not a wife! If this is the sick game you are playing, then I am done! I will stop being his herbalist right this second, and I am leaving this facility immediately! Let me go!"

She began to swing her legs over the edge of the mattress, desperate to stand up and flee from the suffocating pressure of the room.

But before her feet could even touch the floor, Dorrent moved with lightning speed. He stepped into her personal space, his hand coming down firmly onto her shoulder, effortlessly anchoring her body back down onto the mattress. He leaned down, bringing his handsome face dangerously close to hers, his eyes locking onto her panicked gaze with a terrifyingly calm smirk.

"You need to calm down right now, my soon-to-be little wife," Dorrent murmured, his voice sending a cold shiver of dread straight down her spine. "There is no point in fighting this anymore. Your grandfather, Duro, has already agreed to this marriage."

Jannah’s entire world instantly ground to a horrific, freezing halt. The blood drained from her face, leaving her completely pale and breathless as the ultimate betrayal shattered her mind.

"What?!"