Marrying The Man Who Saved Me

mpson estate. Hundreds of guests, the city' s elite, murmured in approval. Everything was perfe

s arm a heavy weight on my waist. He raised h

he said, his voice

met mine, were cold. T

warm against my ear, hi

Olivia. I don' t lov

roar. His words were a quiet bomb that blew my world apart. Shock, then a d

arm, his fingers digging into my skin. He was still smili

ir faces tight with the hope that this marriage would save our family' s struggling real estate business. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, st

standing in the middle of it all

. I saw his father, Mr. Thompson, narrow his eyes. A sil

d, replaced by a flicker of irrita

r. "Don' t make a scene, Olivia. This is fo

vis. The struggling musician he' d been "mentoring." Her fragile, arti

ered with a chilling nonchalance. "The merger was my father

. It was all a lie. A calculated performance to secure a business deal. The beautiful building I t

as wrong, started to get up fr

r her. She swayed, clutching her chest,

ed out, catching her as

ned to stare, their whispers turning from celebratory to co

as I rushed toward my moth

," he said, his voice hard.

a woman standing frozen, her face a mask of horror, her fiancé holding her in p

mething inside me snapped. The naive girl who was so desperate

oice low and shaking with a fu

tone that his grip loosene

, not just to him, but to the enti

r, torn between his wife and the collapsing bus

hink about the company! Think

they couldn' t see the truth right in front of them. For years, I had shouldered the responsibility, trying to be

I said, my voice gaining strength.

its peak, a calm, steady v

l marr

veryone turned toward t

was always in the background, a silent, observant presence. A successful venture capitalist, h

d on mine. There was no pity in hi

ignoring his stunned pare

s voice resonating with authority. He looked directly at me. "

from ruin. But as I looked into his eyes, I saw something else flicker in their depths. A hint of warmth, a

e man I barely knew, the quiet brothe

ir expectations, of the entire deal, pressed down on me. This was a prison, but Ethan was offering me a different

the air burning my lun

an, my voice cl

Ok