Olivia's POV
The pen is heavy in her hand.
Olivia stares at the signature line. Three years. She repeats it like a prayer. Three years and her family is saved. Three years and her mother gets medicine. Three years and her brother goes back to school. Three years and her father stops looking like a ghost.
Three years of pretending.
Three years of living with a man who looks at her like she's invisible.
She puts the pen to paper.
Her hand shakes so badly the signature comes out messy. Not the neat signature she practiced. Something jagged. Desperate. Like her whole body is screaming that this is wrong.
But she keeps writing anyway.
Olivia Chen. Wife. On a contract instead of a marriage license. Bound to Adrian Kess for three years by words on paper instead of words spoken in front of God.
When she finishes, she sets the pen down.
Adrian watches her. His expression doesn't change. He's been watching her this whole time, just waiting for her to make it official. Waiting for her to sign away her freedom so he can collect on a debt he's been keeping score of for fifteen years.
Adrian reaches across the desk and takes the contract from her.
Their fingers almost touch.
He pulls back deliberately. Like even that small connection is too much. Like touching her might break the rules they just made.
The contract disappears into his hands.
"You can't tell anyone the truth," Adrian says. His voice is flat. Business-like. "Not your parents. Not your friends. Not Sophia. Not even yourself, if you can."
Olivia nods. She can't speak. Her throat is closed.
"For this to work, the world needs to believe we're real," Adrian continues. "They need to see a couple who fell in love. Fast and unexpected. But real. Can you do that?"
She nods again.
"I asked you a question, Olivia."
"Yes," she says. Her voice is barely a whisper. "I can do that."
Adrian stands and walks to the window. The city below them doesn't care about contracts or promises or lives being rearranged. It just keeps moving.
"Your things will be moved to my penthouse tonight," Adrian says without turning around. "I'm having the room next to mine prepared. It has its own bathroom. Its own entrance. Everything you need for privacy."
Olivia tries to imagine living there. In Adrian's world. In his penthouse. Three doors away from a man who warned her not to love him.
"You start Monday," Adrian continues. "The charity gala is Friday. You'll need to look at me like you've loved me forever. Your family will be there. They'll be watching. So make sure you're convincing."
Olivia stands to leave. She needs to get out of this office. Needs to breathe air that doesn't taste like Adrian's cologne and business deals.
"Wait," Adrian says.
She turns. He's still facing the window.
"Thank you for coming to me instead of the press," Adrian says quietly. "That showed character. Your father wouldn't have made that choice."
The words hang there. A compliment and an insult mixed together. She's better than her father. She has integrity. She came to her enemy instead of running to the media with a story.
She chose dignity over desperation.
And somehow that makes everything worse.
Because Adrian respects her. And that respect is going to make the next three years even harder than she thought.
Olivia walks out of his office on legs that feel like they don't belong to her.
The elevator ride down feels eternal. She watches her reflection in the polished steel walls. She looks different already. Like something inside her aged. Like three years just got carved into her face in the time it took her to sign her name.
By the time she hits the street, her phone is already buzzing.
A text from an unknown number. Adrian's assistant, Victoria.
"A car will arrive at your home at six PM. Pack light. We'll buy you a new wardrobe. Your old life doesn't fit anymore."
Olivia reads it twice.
By six PM her things will be gone. By Monday she'll be living in Adrian's penthouse. By Friday she'll be pretending to love him in front of her entire family.
She walks through Manhattan in a daze. People bump into her. She doesn't feel it. The world is too bright. Too loud. Too real.
She goes to work. She tells Sophia she can't stay for the full shift because of a family emergency. Sophia doesn't ask questions but she holds her hand tight when they hug goodbye.
Olivia gets home at five thirty.
Her mother is in the kitchen. For once, she's not in bed. She's making dinner. Real food. Smiling.
"Your father got a call," her mother says. "From Adrian Kess's office. They want to discuss a partnership opportunity. Olivia, they want to work with him again. Maybe everything is going to be okay."
Olivia's chest breaks.
Adrian did that. He called her father. He's pretending this is a real partnership so nobody has to know the truth. So her father can feel like a businessman again instead of a broken man.
He's giving her father back his dignity.
And she just signed away three years of her life to a man who's capable of that kind of kindness.
At six PM, the car arrives.
The driver doesn't say much. He just loads her things into the trunk while her mother watches from the doorway, confused but hopeful. Olivia tells her parents she's moving in with a boyfriend. Someone she met recently. Someone serious.
Her mother cries happy tears.
Her father nods like he understands. Like he's relieved that someone else is going to take care of her now.
The car pulls away from her childhood home.
Olivia watches it disappear in the window and realizes she's never going back there the same way. That house was her past. Adrian's penthouse is her future. Three years of pretending to be his wife. Three years of living with a man who looks at her like she's invisible.
Three years of falling in love with him while he explicitly told her not to.
The car drives through Manhattan. Through neighborhoods she knows. Through the world she used to live in.
Finally, it stops in front of a glass tower.
The driver opens her door.
"Mr. Kess is waiting," he says.
Olivia steps out of the car and into her new life.
She's officially his wife now.
Just not in any way that matters.
Not yet.