Chapter 2 - The Contract Written in Ash
Length: ~3,500 words
Within ten minutes, the mansion was completely empty of guests, leaving only the dripping rain, Julian, Seraphina, and Isabella in the cavernous ballroom.
Seraphina was on her knees, desperately clawing at the floorboards to find the diamond ring that had rolled into a heating vent. "You can't do this, Julian! The Vale and Clermont merger is finalized! My father owns forty percent of your shipping lines! If you humiliate me for a maid, I will ruin you!"
Julian didn't even look at her. He kept his grip on Isabella’s wrist, pulling her gently but firmly down the grand hallway toward his private study. Isabella tried to pull away, her heart hammering against her ribs.
"Let me go, Julian! You have no right!" she cried out, dropping the professional facade.
"Seven years, Isabeau," Julian growled, slamming the heavy mahogany door of his study shut behind them, locking out a screaming Seraphina. He backed Isabella against the door, his hands framing her face. "Seven years I searched for you. I went to every hospital, every ballet academy in Europe. I thought you were dead. I thought you were murdered. And you were here? Cleaning my fiancée’s floors?!"
"I didn't know it was your mansion until tonight!" Isabella screamed back, tears finally spilling over her lashes. "I work for an elite agency! They assign us anonymously! And why does it matter? Look at you! You're a billionaire. You're engaged to a woman who buys people for sport. The Julian I loved died in Paris!"
"He didn't die," Julian whispered, his forehead resting against hers, his scent of rain and expensive cedar enveloping her. "He just became ruthless because he had nothing left to protect. Why did you leave me, Isabeau? Why?"
Isabella bit her lip until it bled. She couldn't tell him. She couldn't tell him that seven years ago, his powerful, tyrannical father had threatened to cut off the life-support funding for her dying mother and blacklist Isabella from every ballet company in the world unless she disappeared. She couldn't tell him that she had sacrificed her entire life so that Julian could inherit his empire without a scandal.
"Because I didn't love you anymore," Isabella lied, her voice cracking. "I wanted money. I thought I'd find a richer man. But I failed. Now, let me go."
Julian stared at her, his eyes narrowing. He knew her. He knew the slight tilt of her chin when she was lying to protect someone. He didn't buy it for a second.
He walked over to his desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a thick document.
"You want money, Isabella? Fine," Julian said, his voice turning into that of the cold, calculating CEO the world feared. "My fiancée just humiliated you. My father’s board of directors expects a marriage next month to stabilize the Clermont stocks. I refuse to marry Seraphina. But I still need a bride."
Isabella gasped. "No. You're insane."
"I will pay off your mother’s remaining medical debts—all three million dollars of it. I know about the private clinic in upstate New York, Isabella. I found out tonight," Julian revealed, a dark smirk playing on his lips. "In exchange, you will sign this contract. You will be my wife for exactly one year. You will wear the diamonds, you will attend the galas, and you will force every single person who laughed at you tonight to bow to you."
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"And if I refuse?"
Julian stepped closer, his thumb brushing a tear from her cheek. "If you refuse, Seraphina’s father will make sure you are blacklisted from every employment agency in the state by morning. You won't even be able to get a job cleaning toilets. Sign it, Isabeau. Take your revenge. Or let them crush you."
