Marrying Into the Family of My Fiancé's Killer

My mother?

The sky is already so dark when I drive my car into the driveway of my parents’ mansion. The sound of the gravels underneath the wheels is the only sound I can hear aside from the car engine. I park the car in front of the house, right next to the family’s car, before I turn the engine off and step out.

I am welcomed by the familiar silence as I step inside, which is not much of a surprise really. The spacious mansion has only been inhabited by both of my parents since I left, along with only a few housemaids to help around the house, the old head butler that opens the door and had let me in just now, and one driver who doesn’t live inside the house. With the lack of lightings being turned on, I can feel nothing else but the feeling of being so out of place, so foreign in the house where I grew up in. Which, again, isn’t a surprise, since I haven’t been living in this place for years.

I am currently living in a small quaint apartment at one corner of the big city, the place which I had chosen when I decided to live on my own and away from the fancy life which my family just can’t stay away from. Only coming home occasionally for family dinners and to sleep over at weekends.

I walk past the many rooms without looking away through them, already knowing where I will find my dearest mother that must have been waiting excitedly for her only daughter to come. And when I finally caught sight of her in the private lounge at the center of the mansion, I am not surprised to find the room exactly the same as the ones I passed by earlier.

It is dark, ominious, and quiet, with the only light illuminating the room coming from the fireplace, since the curtains on the large-sized windows across the room are closed shut.

My mother is standing in front of the fireplace, a glass of red wine in one of her hand, tilted in such a way as it lingers right in front of her lip, waiting to spill its liquid of amber to the tightly closed lips. While the other hand is resting across her body, right under her ribs. Her eyes are locked towards the dancing fire before her, the lights reflecting perfectly on her cold eyes as they stay unwavered.

I release a sigh as I take in again my mother’s sight. While me and my dear late fiancé strived to save the company since the very first day of its fate was decided and written, my mother took the painful blow to her heart. I am able to read every single thing she must endure for the last few years through the lines appearing on her face, the white strains in her hair, and her thinning body.

“Mother,” I call out to her, breaking the quiet and my mother’s trailing thoughts. She doesn’t flinch even just a little, the blink of her eyes becomes the only reaction you get before she turns her head and gazes away from the fire very slowly to look at my way.

“Oh, Alice, sweetheart. You’re here,” she speaks with a raspy voice and a smile that seems unable to reach her eyes. “How was your... meeting?”

The way she said the word ‘meeting’ causes me to flinch. But I refuse to let her see it, refuse to show her my hesitation, not when it will only cause problems. She has already been dreading my choice, and so close to not giving me her approval, if not for the need to have our family’s wealth and wellbeing back to how it was a long time ago. Therefore, she doesn’t need to see any sign of me having any second thoughts. Especially since she had already set out plans of her own on this matter.

“It went well, Mother. Just as planned. Everything will be set, and all I have to do is wait until he finishes all preparation. We barely have to do anything until―”

“Does it have a time limit?”

I look up the moment I hear her question, lifting my eyebrow and ask her for confirmation. “I’m sorry, Mother. But what do you mean?”

“The contract,” my mother said, with her body now turned to fully facing me. “Does the contract set any time limit for your... agreement? Before the deal will end?”

I shake my head to answer. “No, Mother. The contract doesn’t work that way. The marriage will not end unless we―”

“Then I will be the one giving you the time limit,” she cuts me off. “Three months. That’s all I give you.”

“What?” I stare at her with wide eyes, gasping at her out-of-nowhere demands. I take a few step forward towards her, with my hands reaching towards her hand to be able to reason. “Three months is too soon, Mother. I spent nearly three years to fight for father’s company with my fiance, and even with that amount of time, we couldn’t do so much. How do you think am I supposed to manage with only―”

“Fine, then I’ll give you six,” she said with a huff, already seething as if I just told her the most imprudent thing to her face. “I am giving you six months to save our company, to save our family, and bring them down in exchange.”

“Bu-But Mother, that’s not―”

“You have six months, Alice. Six months to bring down SLV Holdings, the entire company and every single one attached to them, along with every fortune and every single dime they have buried to the ground and to rot, just the way they did to us! That is the reason why we are doing this, and don’t you even for a second change your indecisive mind of yours after what you had promised me!”

My mother is now fuming completely before me, her hand clutching over the glass of wine so hard that it seems so possible that the glass could shatter to pieces only by her grip, while her other hand is clenching on her side, filled with anger.

“Avenge our fall, my daughter. Tear them apart into small rotting pieces. And if you can’t do this to your father and me, then do it for your dead fiancé. You know damn well that they owe him that much!”