✍🏽 Chapter 1: The Deal
I didn't expect my life to end in a boardroom.
Yet there I was, sitting across from a man who looked like he had never been told no.
"Read it carefully," he said, sliding the document toward me. His voice was calm, cold even. Like this was just another business transaction.
I stared at the papers, my hands trembling despite my effort to stay composed. The words blurred together, but one sentence stood out like a slap.
Marriage contract.
I laughed softly, gave him a disgusted look. "You can't be serious."
His dark eyes lifted to mine, unreadable. "I don't joke about business."
Of course he didn't. Men like him never did.
Jackie Blue . Multi Billionaire. CEO. The man who had just bought the company my father worked for,and now threatened to shut it down.
"This is insane," I said, pushing the papers back. "You can't just buy people's lives."
"I'm not buying your life," he replied calmly. "I'm offering a solution."
A solution that came with conditions.
A ring.
A lie.
I swallowed hard,my throat swollen . "And if I refuse?"
Silence stretched between us. Then he leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled. "Your father loses his job. The company closes. The debts follow."
My chest tightened.
He watched my reaction closely, like a man used to watching numbers rise and fall on a screen. Detached. Controlled.
I hated him in that moment.
"It's only on paper," he continued. "Two years. You play the role of my wife. Public appearances only. No emotions. No expectations."
No love.
I looked down at my hands. At the cheap ring on my finger from a life that was already falling apart.
This wasn't a fairy tale.
This was survival.
I Slowly, I pulled the contract back toward me.
Jackie lips curved slightly. Not a smile. More like satisfaction.
"Welcome to the deal," he said.
And just like that, I signed my freedom away