Contract Marriage: Bound To A Notorious Tycoon

Only a handful of days remained before the SAT, and the students were buried studying with frantic intensity. In the middle of that tense stretch, however, the school summoned Kristina Jenner's guardian.

It started when one of her classmates got hold of her diary and decided to read it out loud to the entire class. Every page revealed her feelings for Jason Oliver.

Jason was her guardian. They shared no blood, yet she always called him "Uncle Jason."

"My aunt threw me out again today. I sat alone on a rain-soaked street corner, drenched to the bone, missing my mom and dad. Then Uncle Jason found me. He stepped through the storm in a spotless white shirt, a large umbrella in his hand. The rain couldn't touch me once he stood beside me, shielding me completely. His hand reached out toward me, and he said he was taking me home. The first days in his house were terrifying. Every night, fear kept me awake long after the lights went out. Uncle Jason noticed. He gave me a plush bunny to hug and sat by my bedside, reading story after story until I finally drifted off to sleep. On my birthday, Uncle Jason surprised me with a stunning white grand piano. We sat side by side at the keys, playing together. When I glanced up at him, there was warmth in his eyes and a smile waiting there just for me. I kept telling myself it was nothing more than gratitude. Dependence. A child clinging to the person who saved her. But no matter how many times I repeated that lie, my heart refused to listen. Uncle Jason, I love you."

A young guy stood there reading from the diary in an exaggerated, taunting voice, each sentence dripping with ridicule. The feelings Kristina had guarded so carefully were stripped bare and displayed before the entire class.

Each insult struck like a hammer blow, splintering what little dignity Kristina had left.

"Give it back..." The words came out broken and trembling as tears blurred her vision. She lunged from her seat, reaching desperately for the diary.

The guy twisted away with ease, clutching it out of reach. In a deliberately syrupy voice, he mocked, "Uncle Jason, I love you."

The classroom exploded. Laughter crashed over her from every direction. Someone slapped a desk and yelled, "No wonder you're cursed! Your parents died because of you, and now you're throwing yourself at the man who took you in. Have you no shame?"

"Cursed freak! Seductress! Shameless bitch!"

The diary kept changing hands, each new reader adding another cruel remark. Before long, the ridicule had moved beyond Kristina and onto the memory of her dead parents.

Something inside her snapped. Rage surged through her like fire. With her eyes blazing, she seized a chair nearby and swung it up without hesitation, hurling it straight at the guy with every ounce of strength she had.

...

A man stepped inside the office wearing a spotless white shirt. Calm, elegant, and impossibly striking, he carried himself with effortless authority. The moment he appeared, the atmosphere of the room seemed to shift, as if everything had suddenly become brighter.

The teacher who had been berating Kristina a second earlier instantly abandoned her harsh attitude. "Excuse me, and you are?" she asked in a pleasant voice.

"Jason Oliver," the man answered evenly, his gaze drifting to Kristina's disheveled hair. "I'm her guardian."

The teacher froze. In that instant, everything clicked into place. No wonder Kristina had poured page after page of her heart into that diary.

Kristina couldn't bring herself to meet Jason's eyes. She kept her head bowed, staring fixedly at her shoes. Her fingers knotted together so tightly they hurt, while panic twisted relentlessly in her chest.

About thirty minutes later, she found herself following Jason out to his car.

His familiar cologne lingered throughout the cabin, wrapping around the small space. Once, that scent had been her refuge-the smell that meant she was safe, protected, and no longer alone. Now it only made her pulse race. Every breath carried a fresh wave of dread.

What terrified her most wasn't the humiliation; it was the possibility that Jason would find her disgusting.

Several minutes passed before she finally gathered enough courage to glance at him. His jaw was tight, his expression unreadable. "Uncle Jason..." she called quietly.

Jason raised a hand to cut her off, then lit a cigarette.

Smoke drifted through the car, veiling his features behind a pale haze. Kristina sank her teeth into her lower lip, trying to suppress the ache spreading through her chest.

Only after the cigarette had burned down did Jason speak. "You won't be taking the SAT. Instead, you'll be studying overseas. I'll arrange your applications myself."

The words slammed into Kristina so hard her mind went blank. "No." Panic surged through her as she shook her head. "I have to take the SAT. I have to get into Plence University. I want to study biopharmaceutical sciences."

"There are excellent universities abroad. Study overseas for a few years. After that, come back and enter public service. I'll arrange a stable position for you-something easy, something that won't bring you unnecessary pressure."

The Oliver family had produced politicians for generations, and Jason was the brightest among them. Despite his age, he had already secured a highly-trusted role as a confidential aide within a federal agency.

The chill in his voice made her bite down on her lip as tears quietly spilled from her eyes.

Love had hit her for the first time, and she was still too young to understand how unforgiving the world could be. In her eyes, there was nothing wrong with caring for Jason. They weren't related by blood, so why was it forbidden?

What she understood even less was the punishment. All she'd done was write down her feelings, yet Jason had decided to take away her chance to sit for the SAT.

Security had never been part of Kristina's childhood. Her mother passed away when she was seven. Three years later, her father-a police officer-lost his life while rescuing two college students from the sea. After his death, the family tore itself apart fighting over the compensation money he left behind.

Her aunt eventually gained custody. But what she wanted was the money, not the orphaned girl attached to it. Kristina grew up half-starved and dressed in worn-out clothes. Beatings were common. On some nights, her aunt would lock her out of the house entirely, leaving her alone in the cold rain with nowhere to go.

Jason was one of the two college students her father had died saving. After learning about her situation, he took her in and became her guardian.

When she first moved into Jason's home, she was quiet and skittish-a wounded girl who never knew what it felt like to be cherished. Little by little, Jason helped her heal. He gave her stability, protected her, and became the one person she trusted without reservation.

Now that same person was pushing her away.

"I know I was wrong, Uncle Jason. I won't repeat the same mistake again. Please... let me take the SAT. I won't apply to Plence University anymore. I can go to an out-of-state college. Any school is fine."

Watching her cry so desperately, Jason felt the hardness inside him begin to give way.

He had taken care of her since taking her in. The thought of destroying her hopes was something he simply couldn't bring himself to do.

Yet he couldn't pretend this had never happened, either. Those feelings she harbored for him had to be cut off completely. If that meant teaching her a painful lesson she would never forget, then so be it.

So he took her SAT admission ticket, intending to return it the day before the exam.

As for whether the stress and uncertainty might hurt her performance on the SAT, he never considered that a real concern. The life he had given her was already a destination countless kids spent years struggling to reach.

After confining her to her room, he made it clear he had no intention of seeing her or picking up her calls.

By the time the final night before the SAT rolled around, Kristina felt herself unraveling.

All these years, she had poured everything into that exam. Countless practice papers had left rough calluses along her fingers. The mountain of prep books she had worked through was tall enough to tower over her if stacked together.

The SAT wasn't simply a test that determined where she would go next. It was the battle she had spent her entire adolescence preparing to fight, and she couldn't bring herself to walk away from it.

As darkness settled outside, an unusual stillness blanketed the Oliver estate. The entire family had left for a dinner gathering, leaving the house eerily quiet.

Kristina slipped out of her room and made her way into Jason's.

She rummaged the room, but no matter how hard she searched, her SAT admission ticket was nowhere to be found.

A crushing sense of hopelessness settled over her. For one reckless moment, she almost reached for her phone to call the police.

The thought of creating a scandal stopped her cold. If she dragged the Olivers into it, she feared Jason would never forgive her.

While she was still torn over what to do, her phone suddenly lit up with a call from her best friend, Ellie Oliver.

Ellie was related to the Oliver family through a distant branch of the family tree, which made Jason her uncle. Ever since Kristina had come to live with the Olivers, Ellie had been the only person she could truly call a friend.

"Kristina, get over to the hotel right now," Ellie said urgently over the phone. "Hurry! Uncle Jason's drunk, and I just spotted your SAT admission ticket sticking out of his suit pocket."

...

Kristina rushed to the hotel and found Ellie waiting for her.

The two girls slipped into a quiet corner, huddling together as they spoke in low voices. While they talked, Ellie pressed a glass of juice into Kristina's hand. "Kristina, you can do this. I'll meet you at the testing center tomorrow. You're getting into Plence University's biopharmaceutical sciences program. One day, you'll create a treatment for Alzheimer's and help families facing the same nightmare your mother did."

Kristina nodded with all the conviction she had left. Her mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's before she even reached forty. That day, her mother was on her way to pick her up from school when the disease stole a moment of awareness. Disoriented and confused, she wandered into the road. Kristina had witnessed everything. The screech of brakes. The impact. Her mother's body flung through the air. Then the sight of her mother lying motionless on the pavement, broken and covered in blood.

Years ago, standing before her mother's grave, Kristina had made a promise through tears. When she grew up, she would dedicate herself to finding a cure. She would create a medicine that could fight the disease so other children would never have to endure the same loss.

What began as a dream had long since become the reason she kept moving forward, bordering on an obsession.

Kristina finished the juice in a single swallow. With the key card Ellie had slipped her, she made her way to Room 3206 and swiped the door open.

A few steps behind her, Ellie remained in the hallway. She pulled out her phone and tapped out a message. The screen briefly glowed against the dim hallway before going black again.

Completely unaware, Kristina stepped through that doorway without the slightest suspicion. She didn't know that the events waiting for her that night would haunt her for years to come-or that this was the moment everything began to unravel, setting her on the path that would eventually send her overseas.