I never imagined my first night as a wife would begin with a contract.
The paper lay on the glass table between us—clean, white, and cruel. My name was already printed at the bottom, as if my fate had been decided long before I stepped into this luxurious office.
"Read it carefully."
His voice was cold. Calm. Powerful.
I lifted my eyes slowly.
He was sitting across from me, legs crossed, wearing a perfectly tailored black suit. His face was sharp and unreadable, his dark eyes holding no emotion—like I was just another business deal.
This man… Adrian Blackwood.
The CEO of Blackwood Group. The richest man in the city. And the man offering to become my husband.
For one year.
"I don't have much time," he added, glancing at his watch. "Either you sign, or you walk away."
My fingers trembled as I picked up the contract.
One-year contract marriage.
No love. No emotional involvement.
Publicly married, privately strangers.
Divorce after twelve months.
Payment: One million dollars.
One million dollars.
Enough to save my mother's life. Enough to clear my father's debt. Enough to stop the men who had been knocking on our door every night, threatening us.
I swallowed hard.
"You'll pay the hospital bills… immediately?" I asked quietly.
"Yes." His answer came without hesitation.
"And my family will be left alone?"
"They won't be touched," he said flatly. "As long as you follow the rules."
Rules.
I looked up at him again. "Why me?"
For the first time, something flickered in his eyes—but it disappeared just as quickly.
"You're suitable," he replied. "You have no background, no scandals, no connections. You're invisible."
Invisible.
The word hurt more than I expected.
I was twenty-two years old, poor, exhausted, and desperate. Invisible to the world—except tonight, when a billionaire decided I was useful.
I lowered my gaze and kept reading.
Clause 7:
The wife must appear affectionate in public events.
No physical intimacy is required unless mutually agreed.
My cheeks burned.
"Don't worry," Adrian said coldly, noticing my reaction. "I have no interest in forcing anything."
That should have comforted me.
But somehow, it didn't.
I thought of my mother lying in the hospital bed, tubes attached to her fragile body. I thought of my father, broken and ashamed. I thought of the empty fridge at home.
I had no other choice.
Slowly, I reached for the pen.
"This marriage," I said, my voice barely steady, "ends after one year. No matter what."
"Yes," he replied. "Clean and simple."
I signed.
The moment the pen left the paper, my heart dropped.
It was done.
Adrian stood up and pressed a button on his desk. "My assistant will take you home. Tomorrow, you move into the Blackwood residence."
"What?" I stood up in shock. "Tomorrow?"
"You are my wife now," he said, looking at me like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We can't live separately."
I wanted to argue. To scream. To run.
But I remembered the contract.
"I understand," I whispered.
As I turned to leave, his voice stopped me.
"One more thing."
I looked back.
"In public," he said, his eyes dark and sharp, "you smile. You act in love. You don't embarrass me."
I nodded. "And in private?"
"In private," he replied coldly, "we are strangers."
That night, sitting alone in the backseat of a luxury car, I stared out at the city lights.
I had sold my freedom for survival.
Signed my name to a loveless marriage with a man who didn't even look at me like a human being.
I didn't know what scared me more—
Living with a cold CEO for one year…
Or the dangerous feeling that this contract would change everything.