📖 **CHAPTER TEN — "The Marriage Contract"**
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### 💌 Author Note — From Aish L'Inarrestabile:
> *"Miei amori ossessionati (my obsessed loves)... Some couples sign love letters. Others? Marriage contracts forged in threats, silk, and temptation. But this man? This man stops her before the blood drops. Because even obsession bows when she's hurt. Welcome to the chapter where kings protect with paper, but vow with soul."*
> — *Aish L'Inarrestabile*
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### 🔄 **Recap from Chapter 9 — "The Unwanted Ring":**
Aira threw her wedding ring into the pool.
Yuvraj dove in, retrieved it, and put it back on her finger.
> "You can throw it a thousand times, amore… I'll still find it."
> That night, he didn't touch her.
> He watched her. From the couch.
> And whispered:
> *"Your war is home now."*
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**AIRA**
The marriage contract sat on the table like a quiet threat.
Gold ink. Black leather binder. Custom-typed clauses.
Clause 1: Full legal claim.
Clause 2: Loyalty to the Malhotra syndicate.
Clause 3: No escape. Ever.
Yuvraj hadn't asked me to sign it yet.
He'd simply placed it on my desk with a single white rose tucked inside.
I stared at it for ten minutes before pulling the drawer open and grabbing the dagger hidden beneath my old diary.
If I was going to sell my soul, I might as well sign it in blood.
But just as I turned the blade toward my palm—
**The doors slammed open.**
He walked in like a goddamn storm.
Black shirt. Hair wet. Jaw locked.
And when he saw the dagger in my hand—
He snapped.
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**YUVRAJ**
She had the dagger.
My dagger.
The one I kept tucked away for ritual kills.
But this girl—this impossible, infuriating, too-beautiful-for-her-own-good girl—
She held it like a pen.
About to cut her own skin.
To sign a piece of paper.
> "Aira," I growled, striding across the room.
She didn't flinch.
She just whispered, "Isn't that what you want? My name. My blood. My obedience."
I reached her in seconds.
Took the dagger from her hand so fast it barely nicked her.
Tossed it across the room.
And grabbed her jaw gently.
> "You don't sign it with blood, amore."
> "Because I can't stand giving you even the smallest pain."
> "Not even a scratch. Not even for this."
> "You're my wife, not my sacrifice."
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**AIRA**
I hated how my heart melted just a little.
How his voice sounded like thunder muffled in velvet.
How his hands, which had ended empires, held my chin like I was a glass goddess.
> "You gave me war," I whispered.
> "And now I'll give you peace. Even if I have to kill the world for it."
He reached into his pocket.
Pulled out a Montblanc pen.
Twisted the cap off.
And placed it in my hand.
> "Sign it with this, amore mio.
> Not because I own you.
> But because I already belong to you."
I stared at the pen.
Then at him.
Then at the place where his heart should've been frozen.
And signed.
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**YUVRAJ**
Her signature looked like poetry on a battlefield.
And when she looked up at me—
Eyes fierce. Lips parted.
I knew.
It was done.
She was mine.
Not because of ink.
Not because of rings.
But because she looked at me like she hated that she loved me.
And that kind of love?
**Never dies.**
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**Later that night, Yuvraj found Aira asleep on the couch.**
The contract still sat on the desk.
Signed. Sealed.
And on the last page?
She had added one line of her own.
In red ink:
> *"I'll be your wife, Yuvraj.
> But never your weakness."*
He smiled.
And whispered to her sleeping form:
> "Too late, amore.
> You already are."
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### 💌 Author Note — From Aish L'Inarrestabile:
> *"She signed with ink, but he already signed in soul. Chapter 11: The Mafia Wedding is next. And if you think the legal ceremony was powerful — wait till you see how the underworld crowns its queen."*
> — *Aish L'Inarrestabile*
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