I stood in the grand ballroom, watching the woman my guardian was about to marry. The woman he had chosen over me, over everything he had promised my parents. “No,” I whispered. “You can’t do this.
Please. ”
“We will talk about this later,” Anson snapped. “Just shut up now. ”
I was gone before the music started.
I ran through the rain, soaked and shaking, until I collided with a stranger outside. A man with cold, calculating eyes. He looked at me like he saw right through my panic. “You’re not fine,” he said.
“I’m fine,” I lied. “Dallas,” he said, handing me something. Something that could save me. “Take me away from here,” I begged.
“Please. ”
“If you leave with me, Eliza, you can never come back to this house. ”
“Good then. Get me out.
”
He was the only man Anson was afraid of. I knew it the moment I saw them together. And I knew the only loophole in my father’s will was sitting right in front of me. “Marry me,” I said.
“You’re drunk. ”
“And you’re the only man he’s afraid of. It’s the only loophole in my father’s will. ”
The contract was signed before I could second-guess myself.
A marriage agreement. My escape clause. When I woke up the next morning in a room that wasn’t mine, I realized what I had done. I had married Dallas Cohn, a man I had known for less than an hour.
The days that followed were a blur of new cars, new clothes, and a new life. Anson was furious. He tried to cut me off, to control me, to drag me back. But Dallas had already transferred all my assets into my independent control.
I was free. I wasn’t just free. I was Dallas Cohn’s wife. “Spill,” my new stepdaughter Azalea demanded.
“You’re married. For real. I need a name, Eliza. ”
“Promise you won’t scream.
”
“Try me. ”
“It’s Dallas. Your father. ”
Azalea laughed so hard she nearly fell over.
“You’re my stepmom? Oh my god. Anson’s going to have a stroke. ”
But Azalea wasn’t the only one who had questions.
Dallas’s business partner, Zane, was skeptical. “Marriage? You? They call you the Monk.
”
“She gains leverage over Hyde’s sectors,” Dallas said flatly. “She’s terrified of you. You need to woo her. Flowers, dates, talking.
”
“I don’t woo. I acquire. ”
But Dallas did more than acquire. He canceled board dinners to eat pasta with me.
He sent Azalea away so we could have privacy. He noticed that I hated raw onions. He had a garden of my mother’s favorite flowers planted at a lake house I hadn’t been to since my parents died. “Why these flowers, Dallas?
” I asked, standing among the impossible blooms. “Because they are resilient. They survived the frost, like you. ”
“This wasn’t about a business deal, was it?
You didn’t marry me for a deal? ”
“I married you because I couldn’t watch you break anymore. Welcome home, Eliza. ”
He gave me the deed to the lake house.
He filed it with the state registry. It was legally mine. No one could take it from me. Not even Anson.
But Anson never stopped trying. He showed up at the lake house, tracking Dallas’s helicopter. He grabbed me, begged me to come back, threatened me when I refused. “I CAN forgive you,” he screamed.
“Just say you made a mistake. Just say you want to come home. ”
I slapped him. “Get off my land.
”
When Dallas saw Anson touching me, something in his eyes went cold. He left without a word, taking the helicopter back to the city. I thought I had lost him. But he came back, soaked by the rain, his eyes burning with something I hadn’t seen before.
“I got to the pad, but I couldn’t leave what’s mine unguarded. ”
“Is that all I am? Just something you own? ”
“You were with him.
By the lake. I saw him touching you. I saw you crying. ”
“I’m not crying for him.
I’m crying because you left. Because you think I’d choose him. ”
He pulled me into his arms. “I am tired of being the gentleman, Eliza.
”
The contract said I was his wife. And that night, he made sure I knew exactly what that meant. I tried to set boundaries after that. Rules.
Walls. No entering the bedroom without knocking. No confusing behavior. But Dallas simply smiled.
“I enjoy a challenge. ”
Things were changing between us, becoming something real. But I was terrified of falling too deep, so I did the one thing I thought would protect us both. I started taking birth control pills, hiding them in my morning routine.
When Dallas found them, his eyes turned to ice. “A child is a complication? ” he asked. “For a fake marriage?
Yes! ”
He picked up the blister pack and looked at me with a coldness that made my blood run cold. “Remember this moment, Eliza. You hesitated.
Because next time, there will be no pills and no contracts. ”
I thought I understood him then. A cold corporate machine. But Azalea told me the truth.
“He’s not crazy, Eliza. He’s just terrified of losing things. Since the war, he came back different. He gets intense about control and safety.
If he feels like he’s losing control of a situation, he snaps. ”
I was dealing with a volatile man with a damaged soul. And somehow, despite everything, I was falling in love with him. Then Anson’s mother, Victoria, called.
“Anson and Claudine’s engagement gala is this Saturday,” she said. “You will attend. ”
“I don’t think I should go. ”
“You will do as you’re told.
Or I will destroy your mother’s journals. ”
She had been holding my mother’s journals hostage. The only pieces of my past I had left. And she was using them as leverage.
“Anson’s engagement party,” I told Dallas. “I’m invited. I have to go alone. ”
“I am your husband.
I don’t let my wife walk into a hostile room unescorted. ”
“If you walk in with me, Anson will turn this into a media circus targeting you. I will not let you become his headline. ”
“Fine.
Go alone. ”
The night of the gala, Dallas marked his claim on me. He kissed me until I couldn’t breathe, until my strapless gown had to be adjusted. “Go to your party.
But remember what is under that dress. And remember who you belong to when you see him. ”
“You. ”
The gala was everything I expected and worse.
Claudine greeted me with a special cocktail, custom-crafted just for me. “It’s rude to refuse the bride, Eliza. Just a toast. ”
I hesitated.
I knew it was a trap. But I refused to make a scene, refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing me break. “Fine. Congratulations.
”
I drank. “Imported Philippine mango extract,” Claudine whispered. “I hope you have your EpiPen, you pathetic bitch. ”
Mango.
I was allergic to mango. I looked at Anson, hoping he would stop her, would say something, would save me. He just watched. He heard her say it, and he just watched me drink poison.
My throat closed. I couldn’t breathe. I collapsed on the ballroom floor, gasping for air that wouldn’t come. And Anson stood there, doing nothing.
Dallas appeared out of nowhere, shoving through the crowd. He hit me with the EpiPen, right in the exact right muscle group. He breathed for me when I stopped breathing. “Step back.
WE’VE GOT IT FROM HERE. I’m taking her. Clear the way. ”
I woke up in a hospital bed, my throat raw, my thigh throbbing.
“Why did you drink it? ” Dallas demanded. “You knew what it was. I saw your hesitation.
You knew. ”
“To shut them up. To leave with dignity. If I made a scene, they would have won.
”
“You almost died, Eliza. You went into respiratory arrest. You stopped breathing. For his ego?
”
“He didn’t stop her. He knew I was allergic and he just watched. ”
Dallas laced his fingers through mine. “I am the one holding your hand.
I am the one who breathed for you. ”
My heart monitor betrayed me, beeping faster and faster. “Your heart agrees,” he said. “It’s the medication.
Epinephrine causes tachycardia. ”
“Liar. Rest. I’m not leaving.
”
Anson tried to visit, but he was on the restricted list. Dallas had made sure of it. When Anson finally got in, I told him the truth. “There is nothing left to fix.
There is absolutely nothing left between us. We are not family. We are not friends. We are less than strangers.
”
He declared his love, he begged, he threatened. But when Dallas told him the truth, he crumbled. “She is my wife. We are legally married.
She is Mrs. Cohn. ”
“You married him? The enemy?
Why? ”
“I married a man who knows how to use an EpiPen. ”
I was discharged, and Dallas carried me through a crowd of reporters, shielding me from their cameras and their questions. Once I was home, I knew I needed to build my own life.
I applied for a job at S&D Design, the best restoration firm in the city. I wanted to do it on my own merit, no handouts. “I want to do this on my own merit, no handouts,” I told Dallas. “Please, no calls.
I need to know I’m good enough on my own. ”
“As you wish. ”
But Anson had poisoned that well too. He had called the HR manager, Gavin Ross, and told him I was volatile and unstable.
“We’ve decided not to move forward,” Gavin said. “S&D requires discretion. Your public profile is too messy. ”
I was defeated.
Humiliated. Every door was being slammed in my face. Then Augustina Koch walked in. Dallas’s business partner.
She looked at Gavin like he was dirt. “Mr. Ross, why are you harassing my candidate? ”
“Mrs.
Koch, she isn’t qualified. I was just protecting the firm’s reputation. ”
“Her portfolio came highly recommended. I’m looking forward to discussing it with her.
”
She hired me on the spot. “You have talent. Raw, but real. You’re hired.
”
Dallas admitted he had recommended me. “You got the interview on my recommendation. You got the job on your merit. Augustina doesn’t hire charity cases.
”
I finally felt like I was building something of my own. But Victoria called again, claiming Anson was dying. “Eliza, Anson is in a very bad state and he might die. It is a total emergency.
He refuses to go to the hospital unless you tell him to. ”
“This is just another trick to make me come back to them. ”
Dallas gave me an unexpected piece of advice. “Go and see him right now.
It is the best thing for you to do so you can move on. Go and see how sad and weak he looks. You need to stop feeling sorry for him. If you don’t go, you will always wonder.
”
So I went. I stood in his room and watched him try to manipulate me one last time. “Go to the hospital, Anson. Stop acting like a child.
”
“I needed to see you. That man, Cohn. He’s dangerous. He’s a machine, a killer.
He’s using you to get to my family’s assets. ”
“The Hyde family is crumbling, Anson. Dallas is leagues above you. ”
“YOU ARE SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY.
YOU ARE A WHORE FOR HIS MONEY. ”
“There it is. The real Anson. I came to say goodbye.
Don’t call me again. Don’t have your mother call me. ”
“If you leave, I’ll ruin your career. I’LL BLACKLIST YOU.
”
“You already tried. Gavin Ross at S&D. ”
“S&D? You got in?
”
“On my merit. Something you know NOTHING ABOUT. ”
I walked out of Hyde Manor for the last time, and I felt free. Azalea told me the truth about Dallas on the way home.
He wasn’t a cold monster. He was a war hero who had carried the weight of his fallen captain’s family on his shoulders. He had married a dying woman to save her child. He had adopted Azalea and fought his entire family just to give her his name.
“He thinks he’s a monster because he survived,” Azalea said. “He thinks he’s broken. And he loves you, Eliza. You are his life.
You need to tell him he’s not broken. ”
I found him on the balcony, smoking. A sign of extreme stress. “Azalea told me everything,” I said.
“About her father. About you. You married a dying woman to save a child. You raised her alone and gave her your name to protect her.
”
“I did what was necessary. It was a debt. ”
“Anson said you were dirty. Cold.
”
“I can be. I have killed men, Eliza. I have done things that would give you nightmares. ”
“To protect people.
You are not cold, Dallas. You are burning. ”
“Why are you telling me this? ”
“Because I want you to know.
I’m not afraid of your past. And I’m proud to be your wife. ”
“My husband is a hero,” I whispered. “And I’m proud to be his wife.
”
The next morning, Dallas drove me to my first day at S&D. He kissed me in the parking garage, deep and hungry. “Tonight won’t be about a contract, Eliza. It will be about us.
”
Things were finally falling into place. But Anson was still trying to destroy me from the shadows. He had the HR manager try to reassign me to the basement. I threatened to go over his head to Augustina.
“Watch your back, Solomon. The Hyde family has deep pockets. ”
“You should check who signs your paycheck, Gavin. It’s not Hyde.
”
I made a new friend at work, Bella, who hated Gavin even more than she liked gossip. She took me out for lunch, where Anson ambushed me again. “We need to talk. Alone.
”
“I’m having lunch with my colleague, Anson. Go away. ”
“It’s about Victoria. ”
“I visited her last week, Anson.
She was perfectly fine screaming at the maids. ”
“She took a turn. Just now. Don’t be heartless, Eliza.
”
“You think you can embarrass me in front of my client? ” he hissed. “You belong to Hyde Manor. YOU ARE MINE TO FIX.
”
I didn’t think. I just reacted. I stomped on his foot, and he fell, sprawling in the dirt. “She attacked him!
” Claudine screamed. “You savage! I’LL DESTROY HER! ”
“Is my wife being bothered?
” Dallas appeared out of nowhere. “You stomped on him,” he said later. “I’m impressed. ”
“I learned from the best.
You told me not to let them intimidate me. ”
I finally asked him the question I had been too afraid to voice. “Do you think love can grow after marriage, or is it just duty? ”
“Why do you ask?
”
“Because I don’t want to be just a duty to you. I don’t want to be another promise you kept to a dead friend. ”
“You are many things, Eliza. Duty is not one of them.
”
I looked at him, at the man who had saved me from the gutter and given me a home, a family, a future. I looked at him, and I knew the truth. I was in love with my contract husband. He had prepared a suite for me months before we signed the contract, stocked with clothes, a safe place for nights when the world was too loud.
“There are no other women, Eliza. There never were. This suite has been waiting for you. Just you.
”
I felt the warmth safety of his arms wrap around me, and I knew, no matter what was coming, I was finally home. CONTENT:
I stood in the grand ballroom, watching the woman my guardian was about to marry. The woman he had chosen over me, over everything he had promised my parents. “No,” I whispered.
“You can’t do this. Please. ”
“We will talk about this later,” Anson snapped. “Just shut up now.
”
I ran through the rain, soaked and shaking, until I collided with a stranger. A man with cold, calculating eyes. He looked at me like he saw right through my panic. “You’re not fine,” he said.
“I’m fine,” I lied. “Dallas,” he said. “Take me away from here. Please.
”
“If you leave with me, Eliza, you can never come back to this house. ”
“Good then. Get me out. ”
He was the only man Anson was afraid of.
I knew it the moment I saw them together. And I knew the only loophole in my father’s will was sitting right in front of me. “Marry me,” I said. “You’re drunk.
”
“And you’re the only man he’s afraid of. It’s the only loophole in my father’s will. ”
The contract was signed before I could change my mind. A marriage agreement.
My escape clause. When I woke up the next morning in a room that wasn’t mine, I realized what I had done. I had married Dallas Cohn, a man I had known for less than an hour. The days that followed were a blur of new cars, new clothes, and a new life.
Anson was furious. He tried to cut me off, to control me, to drag me back. But Dallas had already transferred all my assets into my independent control. I was free.
I wasn’t just free. I was Dallas Cohn’s wife. “Spill,” my new stepdaughter Azalea demanded. “You’re married.
For real. I need a name, Eliza. ”
“Promise you won’t scream. ”
“Try me.
”
“It’s Dallas. Your father. ”
Azalea laughed so hard she nearly fell over. “You’re my stepmom?
Oh my god. Anson’s going to have a stroke. ”
But Azalea wasn’t the only one with questions. Dallas’s business partner, Zane, was skeptical.
“Marriage? You? They call you the Monk. ”
“She gains leverage over Hyde’s sectors,” Dallas said flatly.
“She’s terrified of you. You need to woo her. Flowers, dates, talking. ”
“I don’t woo.
I acquire. ”
But Dallas did more than acquire. He canceled board dinners to eat pasta with me. He sent Azalea away so we could have privacy.
He noticed that I hated raw onions. He had a garden of my mother’s favorite flowers planted at a lake house I hadn’t been to since my parents died. “Why these flowers, Dallas? ” I asked, standing among the impossible blooms.
“Because they are resilient. They survived the frost, like you. ”
“This wasn’t about a business deal, was it? You didn’t marry me for a deal?
”
“I married you because I couldn’t watch you break anymore. Welcome home, Eliza. ”
He gave me the deed to the lake house. He filed it with the state registry.
It was legally mine. No one could take it from me. Not even Anson. But Anson never stopped trying.
He showed up at the lake house, tracking Dallas’s helicopter. He grabbed me, begged me to come back, threatened me when I refused. “I can forgive you,” he screamed. “Just say you made a mistake.
Just say you want to come home. ”
I slapped him. “Get off my land. ”
When Dallas saw Anson touching me, something in his eyes went cold.
He left without a word, taking the helicopter back to the city. I thought I had lost him. But he came back, soaked by the rain, his eyes burning with something I hadn’t seen before. “I got to the pad, but I couldn’t leave what’s mine unguarded.
”
“Is that all I am? Just something you own? ”
“You were with him. By the lake.
I saw him touching you. I saw you crying. ”
“I’m not crying for him. I’m crying because you left.
Because you think I’d choose him. ”
He pulled me into his arms. “I am tired of being the gentleman, Eliza. ”
The contract said I was his wife.
And that night, he made sure I knew exactly what that meant. I tried to set boundaries after that. Rules. Walls.
No entering the bedroom without knocking. No confusing behavior. But Dallas simply smiled. “I enjoy a challenge.
”
Things were changing between us, becoming something real. But I was terrified of falling too deep, so I did the one thing I thought would protect us both. I started taking birth control pills, hiding them in my morning routine. When Dallas found them, his eyes turned to ice.
“A child is a complication? ” he asked. “For a fake marriage? Yes!
”
He picked up the blister pack and looked at me with a coldness that made my blood run cold. “Remember this moment, Eliza. You hesitated. Because next time, there will be no pills and no contracts.
”
I thought I understood him then. A cold corporate machine. But Azalea told me the truth. “He’s not crazy, Eliza.
He’s just terrified of losing things. Since the war, he came back different. He gets intense about control and safety. If he feels like he’s losing control of a situation, he snaps.
”
I was dealing with a volatile man with a damaged soul. And somehow, despite everything, I was falling in love with him. Then Anson’s mother, Victoria, called. “Anson and Claudine’s engagement gala is this Saturday,” she said.
“You will attend. ”
“I don’t think I should go. ”
“You will do as you’re told. Or I will destroy your mother’s journals.
”
She had been holding my mother’s journals hostage. The only pieces of my past I had left. And she was using them as leverage. “Anson’s engagement party,” I told Dallas.
“I’m invited. I have to go alone. ”
“I am your husband. I don’t let my wife walk into a hostile room unescorted.
”
“If you walk in with me, Anson will turn this into a media circus targeting you. I will not let you become his headline. ”
“Fine. Go alone.
”
The night of the gala, Dallas marked his claim on me. He kissed me until I couldn’t breathe, until my strapless gown had to be adjusted. “Go to your party. But remember what is under that dress.
And remember who you belong to when you see him. ”
“You. ”
The gala was everything I expected and worse. Claudine greeted me with a special cocktail, custom-crafted just for me.
“It’s rude to refuse the bride, Eliza. Just a toast. ”
I hesitated. I knew it was a trap.
But I refused to make a scene, refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing me break. “Fine. Congratulations. ”
I drank.
“Imported Philippine mango extract,” Claudine whispered. “I hope you have your EpiPen, you pathetic bitch. ”
Mango. I was allergic to mango.
I looked at Anson, hoping he would stop her, would say something, would save me. He just watched. He heard her say it, and he just watched me drink poison. My throat closed.
I couldn’t breathe. I collapsed on the ballroom floor, gasping for air that wouldn’t come. And Anson stood there, doing nothing. Dallas appeared out of nowhere, shoving through the crowd.
He hit me with the EpiPen, right in the exact right muscle group. He breathed for me when I stopped breathing. “Step back. We’ve got it from here.
I’m taking her. Clear the way. ”
I woke up in a hospital bed, my throat raw, my thigh throbbing. “Why did you drink it?
” Dallas demanded. “You knew what it was. I saw your hesitation. You knew.
”
“To shut them up. To leave with dignity. If I made a scene, they would have won. ”
“You almost died, Eliza.
You went into respiratory arrest. You stopped breathing. For his ego? ”
“He didn’t stop her.
He knew I was allergic and he just watched. ”
Dallas laced his fingers through mine. “I am the one holding your hand. I am the one who breathed for you.
”
My heart monitor betrayed me, beeping faster and faster. “Your heart agrees,” he said. “It’s the medication. Epinephrine causes tachycardia.
”
“Liar. Rest. I’m not leaving. ”
Anson tried to visit, but he was on the restricted list.
Dallas had made sure of it. When Anson finally got in, I told him the truth. “There is nothing left to fix. There is absolutely nothing left between us.
We are not family. We are not friends. We are less than strangers. ”
He declared his love, he begged, he threatened.
But when Dallas told him the truth, he crumbled. “She is my wife. We are legally married. She is Mrs.
Cohn. ”
“You married him? The enemy? Why?
”
“I married a man who knows how to use an EpiPen. ”
I was discharged, and Dallas carried me through a crowd of reporters, shielding me from their cameras and their questions. Once I was home, I knew I needed to build my own life. I applied for a job at S&D Design, the best restoration firm in the city.
I wanted to do it on my own merit, no handouts. “I want to do this on my own merit, no handouts,” I told Dallas. “Please, no calls. I need to know I’m good enough on my own.
”
“As you wish. ”
But Anson had poisoned that well too. He had called the HR manager, Gavin Ross, and told him I was volatile and unstable. “We’ve decided not to move forward,” Gavin said.
“S&D requires discretion. Your public profile is too messy. ”
I was defeated. Humiliated.
Every door was being slammed in my face. Then Augustina Koch walked in. Dallas’s business partner. She looked at Gavin like he was dirt.
“Mr. Ross, why are you harassing my candidate? ”
“Mrs. Koch, she isn’t qualified.
I was just protecting the firm’s reputation. ”
“Her portfolio came highly recommended. I’m looking forward to discussing it with her. ”
She hired me on the spot.
“You have talent. Raw, but real. You’re hired. ”
Dallas admitted he had recommended me.
“You got the interview on my recommendation. You got the job on your merit. Augustina doesn’t hire charity cases. ”
I finally felt like I was building something of my own.
But Victoria called again, claiming Anson was dying. “Eliza, Anson is in a very bad state and he might die. It is a total emergency. He refuses to go to the hospital unless you tell him to.
”
“This is just another trick to make me come back to them. ”
Dallas gave me an unexpected piece of advice. “Go and see him right now. It is the best thing for you to do so you can move on.
Go and see how sad and weak he looks. You need to stop feeling sorry for him. If you don’t go, you will always wonder. ”
So I went.
I stood in his room and watched him try to manipulate me one last time. “Go to the hospital, Anson. Stop acting like a child. ”
“I needed to see you.
That man, Cohn. He’s dangerous. He’s a machine, a killer. He’s using you to get to my family’s assets.
”
“The Hyde family is crumbling, Anson. Dallas is leagues above you. ”
“YOU ARE SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY. YOU ARE A WHORE FOR HIS MONEY.
”
“There it is. The real Anson. I came to say goodbye. Don’t call me again.
Don’t have your mother call me. ”
“If you leave, I’ll ruin your career. I’ll blacklist you. ”
“You already tried.
Gavin Ross at S&D. ”
“S&D? You got in? ”
“On my merit.
Something you know NOTHING ABOUT. ”
I walked out of Hyde Manor for the last time, and I felt free. Azalea told me the truth about Dallas on the way home. He wasn’t a cold monster.
He was a war hero who had carried the weight of his fallen captain’s family on his shoulders. He had married a dying woman to save her child. He had adopted Azalea and fought his entire family just to give her his name. “He thinks he’s a monster because he survived,” Azalea said.
“He thinks he’s broken. And he loves you, Eliza. You are his life. You need to tell him he’s not broken.
”
I found him on the balcony, smoking. A sign of extreme stress. “Azalea told me everything,” I said. “About her father.
About you. You married a dying woman to save a child. You raised her alone and gave her your name to protect her. ”
“I did what was necessary.
It was a debt. ”
“Anson said you were dirty. Cold. ”
“I can be.
I have killed men, Eliza. I have done things that would give you nightmares. ”
“To protect people. You are not cold, Dallas.
You are burning. ”
“Why are you telling me this? ”
“Because I want you to know. I’m not afraid of your past.
And I’m proud to be your wife. ”
“My husband is a hero,” I whispered. “And I’m proud to be his wife. ”
The next morning, Dallas drove me to my first day at S&D.
He kissed me in the parking garage, deep and hungry. “Tonight won’t be about a contract, Eliza. It will be about us. ”
Things were finally falling into place.
But Anson was still trying to destroy me from the shadows. He had the HR manager try to reassign me to the basement. I threatened to go over his head to Augustina. “Watch your back, Solomon.
The Hyde family has deep pockets. ”
“You should check who signs your paycheck, Gavin. It’s not Hyde. ”
I made a new friend at work, Bella, who hated Gavin even more than she liked gossip.
She took me out for lunch, where Anson ambushed me again. “We need to talk. Alone. ”
“I’m having lunch with my colleague, Anson.
Go away. ”
“It’s about Victoria. ”
“I visited her last week, Anson. She was perfectly fine screaming at the maids.
”
“She took a turn. Just now. Don’t be heartless, Eliza. ”
“You think you can embarrass me in front of my client?
” he hissed. “You belong to Hyde Manor. YOU ARE MINE TO FIX. ”
I didn’t think.
I just reacted. I stomped on his foot, and he fell, sprawling in the dirt. “She attacked him! ” Claudine screamed.
“You savage! I’ll destroy her! ”
“Is my wife being bothered? ” Dallas appeared out of nowhere.
“You stomped on him,” he said later. “I’m impressed. ”
“I learned from the best. You told me not to let them intimidate me.
”
I finally asked him the question I had been too afraid to voice. “Do you think love can grow after marriage, or is it just duty? ”
“Why do you ask? ”
“Because I don’t want to be just a duty to you.
I don’t want to be another promise you kept to a dead friend. ”
“You are many things, Eliza. Duty is not one of them. ”
I looked at him, at the man who had saved me from the gutter and given me a home, a family, a future.
I looked at him, and I knew the truth. I was in love with my contract husband. He had prepared a suite for me months before we signed the contract, stocked with clothes, a safe place for nights when the world was too loud. “There are no other women, Eliza.
There never were. This suite has been waiting for you. Just you.
”
I felt the warmth safety of his arms wrap around me, and I knew, no matter what was coming, I was finally home.
