The rain fell hard against the glass walls of the café, blurring the city lights into soft streaks of silver.
Lina Chen tightened her fingers around the warm cup in her hands. She had rehearsed this moment a hundred times in her head—but now that he was sitting across from her, calm and unreadable, every word felt heavier.
Lina stared at the signature on the page, her name looking strangely small beneath the bold letters of his.
"One year," she repeated softly.
"One year," Ethan confirmed.
Outside, the rain continued to fall, steady and relentless, as if the world had already made its decision for her.
She thought of the hospital bills stacked neatly on her kitchen table. Of the phone calls she had stopped answering. Of how close everything was to collapsing.
"This doesn't mean anything," she said finally. "After the year is over, we go back to being strangers."
"That is the arrangement," he replied.
She picked up the pen again, turning it slowly between her fingers. For a moment, she wondered what kind of man could speak of marriage with such distance—such certainty.
And what kind of woman agreed to it.
The pen touched the paper.
Ethan watched carefully as she signed, his expression unreadable. When she finished, he took the contract and slid it back into the folder.
"Good," he said, standing. "I'll have my assistant contact you."
Lina rose as well, her legs unsteady.
As he turned to leave, she spoke without thinking. "Do you ever regret your decisions?"
He paused, hand on the door.
"I don't make decisions I can't control," he said.
The door closed behind him.
Lina remained where she was, the weight of the choice settling slowly in her chest.
She had just agreed to change her life.
And she had no idea what it would cost.