Chapter One: The Wife He Never Wanted
POV: Jessica
The first time I met my husband, he told me not to touch him.
"Stand there," he said coldly, pointing to a spot two steps away from him. "We'll keep it clean."
Clean.
As if this marriage,this deal signed with trembling hands and silent desperation, was anything but dirty.
I stood where he told me to, my fingers curled into the white fabric of the dress that wasn't even mine. The chandelier above us glowed like a thousand watching eyes, but none of them mattered. Not the priest. Not the witnesses. Not even the ring that felt like a shackle sliding onto my finger.
Only him.
Lucian Blackwood.
The man every business magazine called untouchable. The billionaire with a heart rumored to be made of ice and a reputation for breaking anything, or anyone, that stood in his way.
And now, legally, impossibly… my husband.
"You may kiss the bride," the priest said, smiling nervously.
Lucian didn't move.
His jaw tightened. His dark eyes flicked to mine, sharp and cutting, like I had personally offended him by existing.
"No," he said.
The room froze.
A murmur rippled through the guests, but Lucian didn't care. He never did. He leaned closer, just enough that only I could hear him.
"Don't misunderstand," he whispered. "This marriage is a contract. Nothing more. You will not touch me. You will not speak to me unless necessary. And you will never" his gaze hardened, "mistake this for love."
My throat burned, but I nodded anyway.
Because what choice did I have?
This was the price of saving my family.
This was the cost of survival.
And as the applause finally broke out, awkward, forced, I realized something terrifying.
I had just married a man who already hated me.
POV: Bryan
She looked too calm.
That was the first thing that irritated me.
Most women would have been shaking by now, nervous, excited, desperate to impress. But she stood there quietly in that borrowed dress, like a stranger waiting for a bus instead of a bride standing at her wedding altar.
It made no sense.
I hadn't chosen her.
I hadn't wanted her.
Yet here she was, bound to me by a signature I'd been forced to make.
I slipped the ring onto her finger, my movements precise, detached. A business transaction. That's all this was.
The priest's voice faded into background noise as my mind replayed the ultimatum that had cornered me weeks ago.
Marry her, or lose everything.
My company. My legacy. Control.
I didn't lose.
I never did.
So I agreed.
And now I was paying the price.
When the priest told me to kiss her, something sharp twisted in my chest. Not desire. Not nerves.
Disgust.
I wasn't going to pretend. Not for the cameras. Not for the gossip columns already salivating for a scandal.
"No."
The word fell heavy, final.
I saw her flinch, just slightly. A crack in that calm mask.
Good.
She needed to understand this early.
I leaned in and lowered my voice. "This marriage exists on paper only. You will live in my house, follow my rules, and stay out of my life. If you do that, we won't have problems."
Her eyes met mine then, wide, dark, and far too honest.
She nodded.
Too easily.
That should have been a relief.
Instead, it unsettled me.
As the guests clapped and smiled, I straightened my suit and stepped away from her. Distance. Control. That was how this would work.
Yet as we walked down the aisle together, I felt it, an unfamiliar tension pulling tight beneath my ribs.
I glanced at her once more.
She was smiling now.
A small, quiet smile that didn't reach her eyes.
And for the first time since this nightmare began, an uncomfortable thought crossed my mind.
I didn't want this wife.
But something told me getting rid of her wouldn't be as simple as I planned, I have to do this, that's the only choice,
I don't love her, why are they forcing me to marry, is this a set up?? Or what.. he said to himself..
I have to think fast, before things became complicated..
Well, I will do as if this marriage never existed, it will only exist on paper, that's all,.. he said he himself
After I acquire everything I will send her packing, that's my plan, and that's final, I will sets rules for her and she going to follow my rules, weather she likes it or not...!!!