Lena had never heard silence roar so loud.

The conference room atop Blackwood Tower was filled with reporters—at least fifty of them. Lights blazed from every angle. Camera shutters clicked like gunfire. Mics pointed like weapons.

And all of them were waiting for her.

She stood just behind the velvet rope, stomach churning. Every inch of her body screamed flight, not fight.

But Damien Blackwood stood beside her—unshakable, unreadable—offering his hand.

“This is the part,” he said under his breath, “where you become bulletproof. And you have me. Always.”

Lena let out a breath, and took his hand. She could do this.

Together, they stepped into the light.

The moment they crossed the threshold, the questions exploded, the reporters descending on them like vultures hungry for their next prey.

“Mr. Blackwood, is it true your ex is pregnant?”

“Who is the new fiancée?”

“Miss Carter, are you aware of the timeline of Damien’s previous relationship?”

“Is this marriage real or just damage control?”

Damien raised a single hand. The room fell silent like someone had cut the volume on chaos.

“Thank you all for coming,” he said, voice calm and commanding. “I understand the past twenty-four hours have created speculation. Let me be clear—my relationship with my former fiancé ended months ago. Any statements to the contrary are false.”

He turned to Lena, drawing her in with a subtle but intimate gesture.

“And as for this—” he laced his fingers with hers, slow and deliberate “—this is not a PR stunt. This is the woman I plan to marry.”

The cameras went wild.

Lena forced a smile. Tried to breathe.

Damien leaned in slightly and murmured, “Now, kiss me.”

Her eyes snapped to his. “What?”

“Smile. Laugh. And kiss me. Convincingly," he murmured, his lips barely moving.

“I—”

His hand touched her waist, guiding her closer. There was no escape. No time to second guess. So Lena did it.

She kissed him.

Or maybe—he kissed her.

Because the moment their lips met, the world faded. The cameras, the pressure, the lies—gone. Just heat. Just the press of his mouth against hers, confident and firm, like he was claiming her in front of the world. It was a brief kiss, too brief if she was being honest, the kind that left her wanting more.

By the time they pulled apart, applause had broken out. She felt dizzy, from the kiss, or from all that was happening around her, she wasn't sure.

“Perfect,” Damien whispered, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek like he actually meant it, his eyes a little hazy as he looked down at her.

And for a terrifying second, she wanted to believe it— believe that this wasn't a lie they had orchestrated for their own benefit, that the butterflies she had felt in her stomach when their lips had connected had been real. But reality came crashing down on her when Damien pulled away from her the moment the press cleared.

He cleared his throat. "I'll get you something to drink," he said, walking out of the room like he couldn't get away from her fast enough, not even waiting for her reply.

Lena deflated. So, all the things she had been feeling had obviously been one sided. She had clearly been imagining the look in his eyes when he had pulled away from the kiss, reading too much between the lines when there weren't any lines to begin with. And this was only the first day.

Stupid, stupid, girl. She chastised herself mentally for letting their kiss get to her head so much. It had all been just for show. Damien had simply wanted to show the world that she was his soon to be wife. Besides, the contract did mention that she couldn't say no to necessary public displays of affection. They were crucial to maintain their image as a crazy-in-love couple.

And that's all that kiss had been. Pretend.

Lena sat down in one of the chairs in the conference room, still trying to slowly wrap her head around everything that had happened moments ago. Her phone buzzed with texts from unknown numbers, and a million notifications from social media. She was already trending.

She leaned her head against the table to breathe.

That’s when she heard it, an all too familiar voice.

“Lena?”

Her blood ran cold.

That voice.

She looked up.

And nearly dropped her phone.

Standing ten feet away was Daniel Stewart—her ex.

The last man she ever wanted to see again.

The one who shattered her when her world was already falling apart.

He looked stunned. Confused. Maybe even, betrayed?

“What are you doing here?” she whispered.

“I work here. Blackwood Finance—floor seventeen. I didn’t know you were—” He gestured toward the conference room. “Engaged?”

Lena’s mouth opened—but nothing came out.

His eyes narrowed. “Are you really marrying Damien Blackwood?”

Before she could answer, a cold voice cut through the air.

“She is.”

Damien stepped into the room, a small water bottle in hand, his presence immediately suffocating the space.

“And you are?” he asked Daniel, eyes sharp.

Daniel straightened, clearly sizing Damien up as he moved in long, powerful strides until he was standing right next to Lena. “I’m an analyst. And her ex. We were together for three years," Daniel answered.

Damien smiled. It didn’t reach his eyes. “Ah. The one who left when things got hard.”

Daniel stiffened. “That’s none of your business.”

“It is now,” Damien said, slipping his arm around Lena like she’d always belonged there. “She’s my business.”

Lena blinked, caught between two storms.

Two men who knew her. One who hurt her. One who might be playing her.

And both of them now looking at each other like this was a war.

Before she could say anything, Damien held out his hand. "You must be tired, love. Let's go home, yes?" He said, his voice dropping to a low, intimate murmur, one that made a delicious shiver run down her spine.

Mentally scolding her traitorous body to stop responding to Damien like that, she gently placed her hand in his, smiling up at him like a lovesick fool. "Sure, babe," she said to him, mentally cringing at the term of endearment.

Damien's lips twitched for a second but he simply nodded before guiding Lena out of the room, leaving a rather awkward and stunned Daniel behind.