Mia's POV
Mia wakes up in a bed bigger than her entire apartment.
The room is white and gold and cold. Sunlight streams through windows that overlook Los Angeles. The view is beautiful and terrible and completely isolating. She's never been this alone in a place this big.
Her phone won't stop buzzing.
She reaches for it and sees forty-seven notifications. Texts from people she hasn't talked to in years. People who suddenly want to reconnect now that she's married to a billionaire. Foster siblings asking for loans. Old classmates wanting to get coffee. Strangers asking for money. All of them wanting something.
She blocks them all.
There's a knock on her door at seven AM. A woman in a black uniform stands outside holding a tray with coffee and fruit.
"Mr. Westwood requests you join him for breakfast," the woman says.
"Where?"
"The main dining room. Eight o'clock."
Mia nods. She showers in a bathroom that's fancier than anywhere she's ever lived. The shower has five different settings. The soap costs more than her weekly grocery budget. Everything whispers that she doesn't belong here.
By eight AM she's in a dining room with a table long enough to fit twenty people. Adrian sits at the head reading the newspaper like she's invisible. He's already showered and dressed in a suit. He looks like he hasn't slept.
"Morning," Mia says.
Adrian doesn't look up. "The media knows about the marriage. It's on every headline. Billionaire Marries Waitress in Shocking Arrangement. They're already calling you a gold digger."
Mia sits down. The food in front of her looks expensive and makes her stomach hurt. "Did you tell them?"
"No. But someone did." Adrian finally looks at her and his eyes are strange. Angry but also something else. Something that looks like hurt. "We need to get ahead of this. My publicist is working on a statement. We're going to say it was my idea. That I wanted to honor my father's wishes by marrying someone of his choosing. That it's romantic."
"Is it romantic?"
Adrian's jaw tightens. "It is if we sell it that way."
He goes back to reading the newspaper. Mia tries to eat but the food tastes like nothing. She keeps thinking about that sealed envelope. She keeps wondering what Adrian read in that letter after they left Patricia's office.
"Adrian, what was in the letter?"
He doesn't answer for a long time. Then he finally looks at her. His expression is closed off. Controlled. "Patricia said you'd both need to understand certain things. But not yet. Not until you're ready."
"I'm ready now."
"No, you're not."
Mia wants to push but something in his voice stops her. Something dangerous and sharp. So she just eats her expensive breakfast in silence while Adrian reads about their marriage being a scandal.
By noon, her phone is exploding again. News outlets want interviews. Tabloids want her story. Someone started a hashtag mocking her. Someone else made a Twitter account pretending to be her, saying disgusting things.
Mia locks herself in her new room and cries.
There's a knock around three PM. She doesn't answer until the person knocks again. When she opens the door, there's a woman standing there with shopping bags and a sympathetic smile.
"Hi, I'm Sophie," the woman says. "James's wife. I heard you needed help."
Sophie is beautiful in a way that looks effortless. Her clothes fit perfectly. Her hair is done. She looks like she belongs in this world. She also looks kind, which is the most shocking thing of all.
"I'm not sure what you mean," Mia says.
"You're marrying into money and chaos and high society cruelty. You need someone to teach you how to survive it." Sophie sets the shopping bags down. "I brought clothes. Adrian's team told me your sizes. I also brought coffee because the coffee here tastes like disappointment. And I brought myself because you look like you're about two seconds away from completely falling apart."
Mia is about two seconds away from completely falling apart.
"Why would you help me?" she asks.
"Because James is Adrian's best friend and he's terrified his friend is making a huge mistake. Because I met you for five seconds and thought you seemed like a good person. And because somebody should be nice to you right now." Sophie sits on the edge of the bed like they've been friends for years. "Plus, my mother-in-law is a nightmare and I remember what that felt like. So I'm going to save you from the worst of it."
They spend the afternoon together. Sophie teaches her things. Which fork to use. How to hold a wine glass. What to talk about at charity galas and what to never mention. Which families are important and which are pretending to be important. She's funny and patient and everything Mia needs right now.
"What's his deal?" Mia asks at one point. "Adrian's. Why is he so angry?"
Sophie considers this carefully. "His ex-fiancée cheated on him right before the wedding. With his business partner. It broke him. He decided nobody could be trusted. He threw himself into work and just became colder and colder."
"So he thinks I'm like her. Like I'm just using him."
"Probably," Sophie says. "But you're not. So you just have to prove that."
"How?"
"By being yourself. By being kind. By not giving up even when he's impossible." Sophie squeezes her hand. "It's not fair that it's your job to fix him. But sometimes that's what love is. It's choosing someone even when they're broken."
Mia doesn't say that she doesn't love Adrian. She doesn't say that this is a business arrangement. She just nods and lets Sophie believe in this marriage more than Mia believes in it herself.
By six PM, they're laughing about something ridiculous when Sophie's phone rings. She answers and her whole body goes rigid.
"What?" Sophie whispers. She puts the phone on speaker and turns on the news.
The headline hits like a punch.
SHOCKING EXCLUSIVE: BILLIONAIRE PAYS WAITRESS $10 MILLION TO MARRY HIM
Photos of the contract are everywhere. Blurred but readable. Numbers visible. The terms spelled out for the entire world to see.
Mia's stomach drops into her feet.
"No," she whispers. "No no no no no."
Sophie is already texting James. "Someone leaked the contract. The confidentiality agreement. Everything."
Mia's phone explodes. Calls. Texts. Messages. Notifications flooding in so fast she can't keep up.
Gold digger. Manipulator. Trash. Fake. User. Liar. The comments are vicious and endless and completely convinced she's exactly what Adrian thought she was all along.
Her door crashes open. Adrian stands there looking absolutely furious.
"Did you leak this?" he demands.
"No. I didn't. I would never."
"Because it makes you look exactly like what you actually are. A gold digger who trapped my father and now trapped me."
"Adrian, I didn't do this."
But he's already walking away. He doesn't believe her. Nobody will believe her. The entire world just saw proof that she married for money. The entire world just decided what she is and nothing she says will change it.
Sophie stands beside her, phone in hand, looking devastated.
"We need to figure out who did this," Sophie says. "Because whoever leaked that contract just made your life a thousand times harder."
Mia's phone buzzes with a message from an unknown number.
It's just one line.
"Congratulations on your marriage announcement. Welcome to the family."
No signature. No indication of who sent it.
But Mia has a terrible feeling she knows exactly who wants her to know they're watching.
And they're not happy about this marriage.
Not happy at all.