by john1208·Translated by Novel AI Studio
I, Stasya Voronova, was never meant to be a bride. I was an archivist, a keeper of dying traditions. But to save my family's crumbling archives from the encroaching grasp of the Zima Corporation, I agreed to marry their heir, Alek Zima - a man who looks at me and sees only the ghost of a woman he can never have. The sprawling, silent Zima estate, known as The Permafrost, is my new prison. It is a house of whispers and watchful portraits, ruled not by the dying patriarch, but by his unfailingly loyal butler, Krystof. He is the family's shadow, its memory keeper, and its most venomous secret. The family thinks I am a decorative, inconvenient pawn in their succession games, a simple girl easily managed. They don't know that my knowledge of old rituals, forgotten poisons, and the delicate art of cyanotype printing is the key to unlocking the truth they've all chosen to forget. But as I begin to develop the faded picture of their past, I have to wonder: is the truth a weapon that will set me free, or is it a poison that will consume us all?
