Bound by vows

“Elena,” he said smoothly, his voice deep, controlled, the kind of tone that didn’t need to be raised to demand attention. “You know why we’re here.”

“Excuse me?” she whispered, her voice betraying her with a tremor.

His eyes lingered on her, too long, too piercing. “Marriage. Six months. You wear my name, stand by my side, and I keep your father’s legacy alive. After six months, we dissolve it. Clean break. You get your company, I get what I want.”

The conference room felt more like a courtroom. The long mahogany table stretched endlessly, polished to the point that she could see her own reflection staring back at her. She avoided it, though. Her reflection was the last thing she wanted to confront—tired eyes, lips pressed too tightly, and the shadow of defeat that no amount of designer clothes could disguise.

The board members of Hart Enterprises sat stiffly in their leather chairs, pretending not to watch her, but she could feel every gaze pressing against her skin. Their voices had gone quiet the moment he walked in—Adrian Blackwell.

He wasn’t just any man. He was the man—the one whispered about in hushed tones across Wall Street and beyond. Billionaire. Corporate predator. A menace dressed in tailored suits. His presence swallowed the air the moment he entered the room, his cold blue eyes cutting through the tension like shards of ice.

She was taking a bold step to save her father’s company, she needed to, that was her legacy, her only inheritance

“Can’t he not request for something else, maybe a huge some of money from her, why he marriage, of all things, MARRIAGE!”

Her jaw tightened. “You’re asking me to chain myself to you for half a year.”

“Not chains, Elena,” Adrian corrected softly, almost mockingly. “A contract. Six months isn’t forever.”

Elena felt her chest constrict. She wanted to scream, to slam her fists against the table, to tell him she would never sell herself this way. But her father’s face flashed in her mind. Her father who had always believed she was strong enough to protect what he built. Her father who had begged her, with his last breaths, to never let Hart Enterprises fall into the hands of predators.

Predators like Adrian Blackwell.

She was doing this, not just for herself, but for the legacy her father left behind. She was going to come out syringe as she thought to herself before starring down at the papers he slid towards her across the table. The marriage contract. Already drafted, already waiting for her signature in sleek, black ink.

Her hand trembled as she picked up the pen.

“You’ll regret this,” she whispered, her voice breaking slightly.

Adrian leaned forward, his gaze never leaving hers. “I don’t regret. I collect. And you, Elena, are about to become mine.”

The pen scratched against the paper as her name carved her future in ink. The finality of it echoed in her chest like a death knell.

The boardroom was silent as she set the pen down, her breath shallow, she had his signed six months of her life with a man she barely knows and don’t believe in love. Six months of her time, six months as being addressed as Mrs. This was going to be the longest six months of her life.

He extended his hand, as though sealing a business deal. “Mrs. Blackwell,” he said smoothly, testing the title on his tongue.

Elena’s chest tightened painfully as she placed her hand in his. His grip was firm, unyielding, possessive.

Six months. Six months to endure him. Six months to protect her father’s legacy. Six months to prove to herself she could survive Adrian Blackwell.

But in her heart, she already knew—six months would change everything.