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Chapter 1 - CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.

"He wants what?"

My voice came out cracked, like I'd swallowed glass.

Across from me, Leon my father's oldest friend and the closest thing to a family lawyer we had left didn't flinch.

He just slid the contract across the table.

Marriage License.

Non-Disclosure Clause.

Duration: One Year.

To: Damien Blackwood.

My fingers shook as I gripped the paper. "This is a fucking joke, right?"

Leon's jaw tightened. "It's the only deal he'll make. Either you marry him, or your brother dies."

Forty-eight hours ago, my little brother was kidnapped outside a nightclub.

This morning, his severed pinky arrived in a black velvet box.

An hour later, Damien Blackwood sent his lawyer.

The same Damien Blackwood who ruined my father.

The same man who bought our company in a hostile takeover, sold it off piece by piece, and left my family broke, disgraced, and hunted.

The same bastard whose cold gray eyes followed me once at a charity gala… like he already knew I'd be his someday.

And now he wanted me in a white dress.

Not because he loved me.

Not because I was special.

But because he could.

"You have until midnight," Leon said. "After that I can't guarantee your brother stays alive.

That night, I stood in front of Blackthorn Tower, Manhattan's coldest, tallest skyscraper, wearing the same black coat I'd worn to my mother's funeral.

The elevator rose with a soft hum. My stomach didn't.

By the time I reached the top floor, my heart was a drum in my throat.

The doors opened… and there he was.

Damien Blackwood.

In a black suit like sin, hands in his pockets, lips curled into something dark and pleased.

"You came," he said, voice smooth enough to drown in. "Good girl."

I hated how that stirred something low and hot in my stomach. I hated how beautiful he was. I hated how calm he looked like he knew owned me already.

"I'm not your good girl," I snapped.

He smirked and stepped closer. The scent of expensive cologne and danger hit me like a drug.

"Not yet but You will be."

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