"I was just a pawn in his empire... until I walked away with his heart-and his child." Elara White thought marrying billionaire CEO Leon Blackwood would save her family. But instead of love, she got cold kisses, silent dinners, and lonely nights-while he warmed another woman's bed. To him, she was just a contract. A convenient wife. Disposable. Until the day she disappeared without a trace. Now, three years later, Elara is back-not as the fragile girl he once ignored, but as a fierce, independent woman... and the mother of his child. Leon never expected to see her again-much less discover the son she kept hidden from him. Now he'll stop at nothing to reclaim the family he never knew he had. But Elara isn't playing by his rules anymore. This time, she's the one calling the shots. Because love was never in the contract... But revenge just might be.
Chapter 1 PROLOGUE
"Sign it."
Leon Blackwood didn't bother to look up. His voice was calm, controlled dangerously composed, like the lull before a storm. His presence filled the room, casting a shadow far darker than the storm outside.
Rain pelted against the glass walls of the Blackwood Empire's towering skyscraper, echoing like whispers of fate. Thunder rumbled in the distance, but inside the boardroom, the air was unnaturally still sharp, cold, and painfully sterile. The only sound was the rustle of papers and the faint scratch of a gold-plated pen sliding across polished marble.
Elara White's hands trembled as she stared at the thick contract in front of her. Her heart beat unevenly, not because of the document, but because of the man seated across from her the same man who once made her laugh, now slicing through her with every clipped syllable.
"This... this is a marriage contract," she said, her voice barely a whisper.
Leon leaned back, the leather chair creaking beneath him.
His eyes, cold and unreadable, locked onto hers. "You need money. I need a wife for a year at least. Let's not romanticize this." Her throat tightened.
His bluntness wasn't surprising-it was typical Leon-but it still stung like ice against bare skin. She forced a weak smile, masking her pain behind a veil of pride. "Is that what you do now? Turn marriage into a boardroom transaction?" He chuckled. It was hollow, mocking. "No, Elara. I ruin people like business deals." Silence devoured the room.
She blinked back the weight of his words and tried to meet his gaze with dignity. "Why me?" He rose slowly-tall, broad-shouldered, intimidating in presence and even crueler in aura.
He towered over her, his grey-blue suffocating her with his authority. "Because you're desperate, obedient... and conveniently forgettable." Her lips parted, but no words came.
That one sentence unraveled the last strand of confidence she had left. She felt like a pawn-disposable, replaceable. "And after a year?" she asked, barely keeping her voice steady.
"You walk away with your money. I go back to my life. No strings, no memories, no emotional debris." He turned to leave, but paused at the door. His back remained turned. "One more thing. No falling in love. I won't pretend to love you, and I don't expect you to love me either."
Elara scoffed softly, bitterness slipping into her tone. "You think I'd want your love?" He smirked over his shoulder. "You will. They always do."
The audacity of his arrogance scorched through her, but she didn't argue. What was the point? She picked up the pen. Each stroke of ink felt like a branding iron across her heart. Her name-once a symbol of freedom-was now tethered to a contract.
A contract tied to a man who had no space for love, compassion, or warmth. But she didn't sign for love. She signed for survival. For her father's drowning company.
For her mother's surgery.
For the younger siblings who depended on her. Her dreams had no place anymore. She had sold them all in exchange for two things, security and financial support.
The next day, the world woke up to breaking headlines:
"Business Tycoon Leon Blackwood Ties the Knot in a Shocking Private Ceremony."
But behind the headlines, behind the luxury and glamour, the truth was this: She became Mrs. Elara Blackwood. Unwanted. Unloved. Invisible.
A bride not chosen for love, but bought like a commodity.
And as the cold wedding band slipped onto her finger, she wondered silently to herself: How long before the ink of this contract becomes a chain too heavy to bear? Because somewhere, beneath all the silence and steel, her heart was already cracking. And Leon Blackwood hadn't even begun to break her yet.
Chapter 1 PROLOGUE
20/03/2025
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