The billionaire's unwanted bride
Emma Chen's world shatters when her father delivers an impossible ultimatum: marry billionaire Alexander Knight, or watch her mother die from cancer. With experimental treatment in Switzerland as her mother's only hope, Emma has no choice but to agree to a contract marriage with a man she barely knows.
Alexander Knight doesn't want love—he wants to save his CEO position. After a tabloid scandal threatens his company's reputation, his father demands he settle down or lose everything he's built. A marriage of convenience seems like the perfect solution: two years of pretending, then a quiet divorce.
What starts as a cold business arrangement slowly transforms into something neither of them expected. Behind Alexander's icy exterior, Emma discovers a man haunted by loss and trapped by expectations. Behind Emma's defensive walls, Alexander finds a passionate, stubborn woman who challenges him at every turn.
As they navigate charity galas, family dinners, and shared late-night conversations, the line between pretending and reality begins to blur. That kiss at their wedding wasn't supposed to mean anything. Living together wasn't supposed to feel natural. And falling for each other definitely wasn't part of the contract.
But with a two-year expiration date looming over their heads, both Emma and Alexander must decide: do they protect their hearts and walk away when the time comes, or do they fight for something real? Can a marriage built on a lie become a love worth keeping?
Sometimes the best love stories are the ones you never saw coming.
Baca
Chapter: fifteenThree weeks.That's how long it took for Alexander to accept his father's deal and submit to house arrest.Three weeks for the media to declare him guilty.Three weeks for me to become invisible.The tabloids ate up the narrative: tragic young wife standing by her disgraced husband. Poor Emma Knight, trapped in a scandal she couldn't possibly understand.Perfect.While they watched Alexander, no one was watching me.---I stood outside Knight Industries on a gray Monday morning, staring up at the glass tower.James Knight's kingdom. Soon to be my hunting ground.My phone buzzed. Jennifer: "James wants to see you. 10 AM. His office."Right on schedule.---James Knight's office occupied the entire top floor. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Mahogany desk. Everything designed to intimidate.I walked in wearing a black dress. Simple. Elegant. The kind that made me look like expensive decoration rather than a threat.James looked up, satisfied. Victorious. "Emma. Thank you for coming.""Did I ha
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-02-03
Chapter: fourteenThey released me six hours later.No charges. Insufficient evidence. Jennifer drove me to a hotel. Not Alexander's penthouse. Not my old apartment. A hotel. "Stay here tonight," she said, handing me a keycard. "Alexander's handling the media. You need rest."Rest. As if sleep could fix this.I watched her leave, then locked the door and sat on the edge of the bed. My phone had forty-seven missed calls. I turned it off.James Knight's words circled in my head like vultures.*He'll destroy himself for you.*I believed him. Alexander would take the fall. Claim the contract was his idea. That he'd manipulated me. That the FBI investigation was targeting him, not me. He'd sacrifice his reputation, his company, his freedom, ”all to save me from consequences I'd "earned." Exactly what his father expected.And suddenly, I understood.This wasn't about protecting me. This was about control.Alexander thought if he locked himself away house arrest, legal battles, public disgrace. I'd be safe
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-01-23
Chapter: thirteenMom was dead.I was under arrest.And none of it felt real.The door slammed open.It was Jennifer, Alexander's lawyer. Mine too, apparently. Lucky me."This is bullshit." I stared at the handcuffs around my wrists. The metal had left red marks. At least they will fade. "Emma." Jennifer's voice went soft. "I'm sorry about your mother. I really am. But right now, I need you focused. We have to prep your statement before they process you."Process me."You mean booking," I said. "Fingerprints. Mugshot. A cell with a metal toilet.""It won't...""Alexander is a puppet."The words just came out. Flat and true.Jennifer froze. Her hand clutching some legal document I didn't care about. "What?""He's a puppet," I repeated, looking up at her. "He doesn't pull strings. He is the string. And Daddy holds the other end."She knew. Of course she knew. She'd worked for the Knights long enough to see how the game was played.The door opened again.Alexander.He looked like hell. His tie was crook
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-01-22
Chapter: twelveThe phone hit the floor.I watched it bounce once, twice, the screen cracking. Breaking. Just like my heart.The police station didn't go quiet. I knew that logically. Officers typing, phones ringing, printers humming. But in my head, in the space where my mother's voice used to live, there was nothing.Silence.Complete silence."Emma." Alexander's voice came from somewhere far away. "Emma, I'm so sorry. Let me..."His hand reached for my shoulder.I stumbled backward, my spine hitting Detective Morrison's desk hard enough to bruise. The pain jolted me to reality."Don't touch me.""Emma, please...""Don't. Touch. Me."Alexander's hand hung in the air between us, and I watched his face crumble. Good. Let him hurt. Let him feel even a fraction of what was tearing through my chest.Mom was dead.The Swiss treatment. The experimental drugs. The hope I'd clung to. All of it meaningless. Because while the doctors had been running tests, the stress had been killing her. The worry. The fear
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-01-22
Chapter: elevenWe arrived at the police station. They separated us immediately. Alexander led to one interrogation room, me to another. I sat alone at a metal table, trying to process how my life had imploded in less than twenty-four hours.The door opened. A woman in her forties entered, carrying a thick file folder. She had sharp eyes and a hard expression."Mrs. Knight, I'm Detective Sarah Morrison." She sat across from me, opening the folder. "Do you understand why you're here?""No, actually. Your officers mentioned fraud and coercion, but I haven't done anything illegal.""That remains to be seen." She pulled out a document, my marriage contract. "Explain this."My stomach churned. "It's a marriage contract. Where did you get that?""Answer the question, please.""It's exactly what it looks like. Alexander and I entered into a contractual marriage arrangement.""For money.""Yes. Three million dollars over two years, plus medical expenses for my mother."Detective Morrison made notes. "And you
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-01-21
Chapter: tenThe cursor blinked on the blank document, mocking us. Alexander's hands hovered over the keyboard, but he didn't type."Start with how we met," I said quietly. "The real version."He nodded, fingers finally moving. "My father gave me an ultimatum: marry within three months or lose my position as CEO.""And my father sold me to save my mother's life," I added. The words tasted bitter.We wrote in silence, passing the laptop back and forth. Every ugly truth, every calculated decision, every moment we'd pretended for the cameras. But we also wrote about the moments that weren't fake, the conversations at three AM, the way he brought me coffee exactly how I liked it."How do we end it?" Alexander asked, reading over what we'd written."With the truth about now. That somewhere along the way, the pretending became real."He looked at me, those gray eyes searching mine. "Is it real for you?"My heart hammered. "I don't know. I thought I knew, but then Victoria happened, and the lies happened
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-01-21
Masuk
