The offer

"You… you were the one who… gave me the… red wine last night…!" She exclaimed, mortified and confused.

Adrian let out a dark chuckle, though there was no amusement in his expression. His eyes, once warm and full of adoration for her, now burned with quiet fury.

"Sharp as ever, aren't you?" he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Took you long enough to figure it out."

He took a step closer, the air around him thick with barely contained hostility. She didn't realize when he had crossed the distance between them and held her right wrist.

"Why…?" She breathed out in disbelief, while he dragged her away from there to his office, away from everyone's eyes. Her head spinning, unable to wrap her head around what's happening. He lightly pushed her inside the room and closed the door.

Adrian, her ex-boyfriend, first ever lover. He married her with tricks? Why?

"Why? You are asking me why?" His voice lowered, dangerously quiet as he took a step toward her. His question was sharp, laced with an old wound that had never fully healed, only festered beneath the surface.

Her lips parted as if to say something, but he wasn't done.

"You left me," he hissed, his control slipping for just a moment, raw pain seeping into his tone before he masked it again. "You walked away, as if everything we had meant nothing. WHY?"

He exhaled sharply, shaking his head as if disgusted…at her, at himself, at whatever twisted hand of destiny had forced this moment upon them.

The office was still, its silence pressing down on her like an iron cage.

Seraphina barely registered the grandeur, the dark mahogany desk, the floor-to-ceiling windows showcasing the Manhattan skyline, the meticulously organized space that screamed of control.

All she saw was him.

Adrian Thornfield.

The man she once knew.

The man she had left behind.

But the person standing before her now…

This wasn't the Adrian she remembered.

He is taller. Broader. His sharp black suit clung to him with ruthless precision, the crisp white shirt beneath emphasizing his lean, powerful frame.

His once unruly dark hair was now tamed, styled with an air of effortless authority. His face was sharper, more angular, his cheekbones prominent, his strong jawline tense as he looked at her.

And his eyes—

They were still the same deep, piercing gray. But there was something colder there now.

She slowly raised her eyes to meet him, her eyes cloudy with confusion. She took her wrist out of his hold which he let go reluctantly. Her feet almost lost balance, forcing her to take a few steps back. Her back hit his table which she held onto to regain her balance.

For a second, just a fleeting second, his gaze flickered—

Barely there. Almost imperceptible. But Seraphina saw it.

The quick flash of concern as his eyes roamed over her.

She must have looked like a mess.

Her pale skin, her sunken eyes, the exhaustion clinging to her like a second skin.

He had expected her to show up.

He had been waiting for her.

But not like this.

Not like a ghost of herself.

Not so broken.

His fingers curled slightly before he quickly masked it, his expression smoothing into something unreadable.

Seraphina took a shaky breath, forcing herself to meet his eyes.

"You," she whispered, barely breathing. "You are my husband?"

Adrian's jaw tensed.

His lips pressed into a thin line before he exhaled through his nose.

"What does the paper in your hand say?"

She tightened her grip on the marriage certificate.

It was real.

Legal.

Signed and sealed.

The proof was right in her hands, yet she still felt like she was standing in a nightmare.

She lifted her gaze back to him, her chest tightening with something sharp.

"Why did you marry me? Playing such a dirty trick!" She snapped in a shaky voice. Her voice came firmer than ever.

She doesn't know what his intentions are. She doesn't know how she ended up married to him. She just knows that this marriage is a mistake which messed up her life, which put her daughter's life at stake. She cannot tolerate that.

He raised an eyebrow at her in mockery.

"Why are you complaining? You are lucky that I married a girl like you." He sneered at her arrogantly, making her fist her hands in anger.

"Why? Why am I lucky? Because you are very rich now?" She taunted looking around the room in disregard, fuming in anger by then. She has had enough of the guys playing her as they want.

He gritted his teeth. As always, she only thinks about money, doesn't she? She has never loved him, that's why just marrying him wasn't enough for her to feel lucky.

She disgusts him!

He took a step toward her and stood dangerously close to her. Her ever so soft sweet scent blocked his senses for a moment. He closed his eyes briefly to get a hold of himself before looking deep into her eyes.

"Not only rich, my love. So filthy rich that I can buy that lover of yours a thousand times." He spat in an insulting tone, making her frown.

"What lover?" She asked, genuinely confused. He glared at her, seeing her audacity of still acting innocent.

"Dorian Lancaster, for whom you left me!" He growled, the pain and rage of betrayal dripping with his words. The realization then settled in her.

Right… She left him four years ago because 'she found someone rich'. And he thinks it's Dorian? She wanted to laugh at the joke- her life.

Suddenly something came to her mind. He thinks of her as a cheap, low class, gold digger woman, huh? So, she doesn't have anything to lose. Hence she said the words that would shatter everything than it already was.

"Then fulfill your 'husband duty'."

Her voice was hollow.

Flat.

Distant.

He looked at her with a frown. Unable to recognize her suddenly, just like 4 years ago.

"What duty?" He asked in a confused tone.

"Give me money. A lot of money."

Adrian stilled.

His eyes darkened, something shifting behind his impassive gaze. His jaw clenched so tightly she could see the muscle tick.

A tense silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating.

He had expected anger. A demand for answers. A confrontation over the wedding she didn't remember.

But this?

It unsettled him.

She had already accepted that she was nothing in his eyes. She had already given up. She didn't even try to act. Has she always been this cheap? This greedy?

Adrian inhaled sharply through his nose, his gaze narrowing.

Then, in a voice like steel, he said, "Then you fulfill your 'wife duty'."

Seraphina's breath stalled. A dangerous shift crackled in the air. Adrian took a slow, deliberate step toward her.

"Wh-...what do you mean?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. His eyes were piercing, unwavering.

His next words shattered the ground beneath her.

"Sleep with me."