The Contract We Broke

I thought signing a marriage contract with Martin Bryan would be the hardest decision of my life. Cold, commanding, and utterly untouchable, he made it clear—this wasn’t about love; it was about appearances. One year later his perfect wife and my mother’s medical debts would vanish. Simple. Or so I thought.

But nothing about Martin is simple. Not the way his eyes linger a second too long when he thinks I’m not looking. Not the nights when his touch feels more real than the lies we tell the world. And certainly not the secret I’ve been carrying since the night we broke all the rules.

I planned to leave when the contract ended, to walk away and never look back. But fate has a cruel sense of humor. Years later, standing in a crowded gallery, I see him again. And he sees... her.

Martins's gaze burns through me, but how his eyes lock on my daughter makes my breath catch. "Rina," he murmurs, voice low and lethal, "tell me whose child that is." And just like that, my carefully built life was on the verge of collapse.