Nova's POV
My heart pounded like a gavel in my chest.
Not the fluttery kind of heartbeat you get from a first kiss or an accidental brush of hands. No, this was the kind that meant danger. The kind that echoed in your ears and drowned out logic.
I stared at Leon, willing him to say anything—anything—other than what I feared. But his silence was confirmation enough.
The contract. The one we'd signed in the shadows of desperation and convenience.
It was out.
"I need you to tell me exactly what's in that leak," I said, my voice barely a whisper.
Leon exhaled through his nose and stepped back, scrubbing a hand through his hair like it physically pained him. "It's not just the contract," he muttered. "It's… all of it. The clauses. The timeline. The money."
My stomach dropped.
"The money?" I repeated, cold creeping into my limbs. "As in the payment for marrying you?"
He flinched. Just slightly. But it was enough.
I stumbled back a step. The balcony rail caught me, stopped me from falling ,not just physically, but emotionally. Because everything inside me was caving in.
"Tell me this isn't real," I said.
He looked at me then. Fully. Miserably. "Nova—"
"Tell me this wasn't all just a transaction. That what we've been doing… what we are… wasn't bought with a bank transfer and a forged smile."
"Nova, listen—"
"No." My voice cracked. "You listen. I walked into this thinking it was fake. But it stopped feeling fake weeks ago. You kissed me like you meant it. You said you cared about me. So why does it suddenly feel like I'm back to being nothing more than a name on a signed agreement?"
He stepped forward, but I moved away.
I couldn't look at him.
Because if I did, I might believe him again.
And if I believed him, I might break completely when the rest of the world turned on me.
Leon's POV
I wanted to scream. Break something. Undo the past.
I wanted to go back in time and rip that godforsaken contract into a thousand pieces before it ever touched her hands.
But I couldn't.
I couldn't change the deal that got us here.
I could only fight to change the truth we were now living.
"I didn't plan for this," I said quietly. "For you."
She turned to me, arms folded across her chest like armor. "That doesn't make this hurt less."
"I know."
We stood in silence for a beat. Then two.
Then she asked the one thing I wasn't ready for.
"Who leaked it?"
My jaw clenched. "We're still figuring that out."
But I had my suspicions.
And they all pointed to the same damn person.
My ex, Camilla.
Nova's POV
Camilla Smith.
Of course.
Leon hadn't said her name, but the venom in his voice gave it away. She'd been circling like a vulture since day one. Smiling with perfect teeth, asking questions that seemed too pointed to be casual.
She wanted this.
To see us fail.
To see me walk away from Leon with nothing but humiliation and tabloid pity.
And the worst part?
She might just win.
I crossed the room and grabbed the contract folder from the drawer. I hadn't looked at it since the first night. We'd agreed to keep it locked away. Forgotten.
But now it felt radioactive.
I opened it with trembling fingers. There it was. Page after page of neatly typed bullet points and clauses.
— Minimum public appearances: 3 per week
— No romantic relationships outside of marriage during the term
— Monthly payment: $50,000
— Termination clause: six months minimum, contingent on public behavior
And at the bottom of page three…
"Marriage must be portrayed as authentic in all social and corporate settings."
A bitter laugh slipped out. "Authentic," I muttered. "What a joke."
Leon's POV
I watched her unravel.
And it destroyed me.
"Nova…" I said again, this time with no defense in my voice, only desperation. "I know how this looks. But you need to believe me, I never meant to hurt you."
"Then why didn't you tell me this might come out?"
"Because I was stupid enough to think we could bury it. That if we acted like this was real long enough, it would become real."
She slammed the folder shut. "Well, congratulations. You got your empire back. Now all you have to do is survive the fallout when the world finds out your wife was for sale."
"Don't say that!" I snapped. Louder than I meant to. My voice cracked against the marble walls.
She blinked, startled by the suddenness of it.
I stepped back, breath ragged. "You were never for sale, Nova. Not to me. Not even for a second."
But I could see it in her eyes.
She didn't believe me.
Not fully.
And the terrifying part was I didn't blame her.
Nova's POV
That night, I didn't sleep.
I sat in the guest bedroom. Not because Leon had asked me to leave the master suite, but because I needed space. The walls in that room still whispered with everything we'd said everything we'd done and I didn't know how to separate what had been real from what had been scripted.
In the quiet, I drafted a press statement.
Not because I wanted to.
But because I had to prepare for war.
My phone buzzed.
A text from Justin ( my friend and PA).
"Brace yourself. TMZ has the full contract. Someone leaked every page."
I didn't cry.
I didn't scream.
I just felt… hollow.
And then, just when I thought things couldn't get worse, another ping.
This time, from an unknown number.
A photo.
It was grainy, but clear enough.
Leon. With Camilla. Outside her building. At midnight.
The caption was simple.
"Looks like the Hale marriage is as fake as their smiles."
I stared at the photo, heart pounding.
What the hell was Leon doing with her?
Leon's POV
I returned home to silence.
Not cold, angry silence.
The worse kind, the emptiness that tells you someone isn't just mad... they're done.
I found her phone face down on the kitchen counter.
When I picked it up, the screen lit up.
My photo with Camilla stared back at me.
And suddenly, I understood.
This wasn't just a leak.
This was sabotage.
Nova thought I'd betrayed her again.
And unless I moved fast…
I was going to lose her for good.