The pen trembled in her hand as she finished the last stroke of her signature.
Damien took the document and folded it with surgical precision, like he'd done this a hundred times before.
It wasn't a proposal. It was a transaction.A merger—between power and desperation.
"Congratulations, Mrs. Blackwood," he said, his voice like winter rain. "The ceremony will be tonight."
"Tonight?" Aria's voice cracked. "That's impossible."
"You're already wearing the dress," he said, lips curling into a smirk. "No sense wasting it."
She should've slapped him. Instead, she forced herself to stand straighter.
"You'll regret this," she said.
He stepped closer. "I already do."
Before she could fire back, his phone buzzed. He glanced at it and then back at her.
"Your father's debts are cleared. Your mother's treatment will continue. Your family's reputation will recover—slowly, if you behave."
"And if I don't?"
Damien's expression turned to stone. "You'll wish you had."
That night, the news exploded across the internet:
BREAKING NEWS: Aria Lancaster Marries Billionaire CEO Damien Blackwood in Private Ceremony—Just Hours After Being Abandoned at the Altar
The world thought it was scandal.
Only Aria knew the truth.
Inside Blackwood Tower, the private ceremony was cold, clinical—witnessed only by lawyers, a judge, and Damien's ever-silent assistant.
No vows.No rings.Just a kiss to seal the deal.
And even that—Damien didn't offer.
Instead, he looked her in the eyes and said, "From now on, you will smile when I need you to, disappear when I tell you to, and obey when I command you to. Understood?"
Aria smiled.
It wasn't sweet.
"I may be your wife on paper, Damien Blackwood," she said, eyes blazing, "but I'll never belong to you."
He tilted his head, something flickering in his cold gaze.
"We'll see."
Later that night, Damien handed her a keycard. "You'll live in the penthouse. Guest room. Do not enter my study. Do not go through my phone. Do not ask questions you don't want answers to."
"Like what?"
He paused at the door. His back to her.
"Like why I chose you."
And then he was gone.
Leaving Aria alone, in a glass palace built on secrets.
But she wouldn't be a pawn in his game. No matter what it took, she would uncover why Damien had chosen her… and what he was hiding behind those steel eyes.
Because in this marriage…
One of them would fall first.
And Aria didn't plan to lose