The contract

Jason didn’t waste time.

He led me to a private conference room on the top floor of the building—not Oscar’s company, but the investment firm that quietly owned pieces of half the city. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Soundproof walls. The kind of space where decisions were made before the world ever heard about them.

He waited until the door closed.

Then he said, “I want to propose a marriage.”

I didn’t laugh.

I didn’t flinch.

I studied him.

“Is this where you pretend it’s romantic?” I asked.

His mouth curved slightly. “No. I don’t insult people’s intelligence.”

Good.

“This would be contractual,” Jason continued. “Public. Legal. Mutually beneficial.”

I folded my arms. “Start with why.”

He nodded once. “My company is growing. Fast. We acquire distressed corporations, restructure them, and sell or rebuild them stronger. That kind of growth attracts attention—investors, regulators, media. A clean, stable, family-oriented image reassures all of them.”

I said nothing.

“I need a wife,” he went on calmly, “who understands power. Someone who can read a room, anticipate moves, and get what she wants without announcing it.”

His gaze sharpened. “I need someone like you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You barely know me.”

“I know enough,” Jason replied. “You built a real estate empire in silence. You funded properties with your own money when everyone else panicked. You walked out of a seven-year engagement without begging for an explanation.”

He paused. “And you smiled when HR told you you were fired.”

I exhaled through my nose. “So you were watching, this means that i was always going to be fired today, this is about optics.”

“Partly, my father loves you, it's because of you that Oscar made a name for himself, he was against You being fired, he cares about you and when he found out the most important assets were legally your and not the companys, he cursed my brother and called me” he said without apology. “But it also helps that you are Amber Ash.”

There it was.

The Ash family.

One of the Five Power Houses that quietly ran the city—real estate, finance, politics, infrastructure, influence. My parents had raised me away from the spotlight and even after their deaths, the name still carried weight and money.

“You’re the sole heir,” Jason continued. “Every asset, every trust, every legacy property. The Ash name opens doors money alone can’t.”

I leaned back in my chair. “And you’re not exactly lacking in lineage.”

“No,” he agreed. “I’m Jason Sun.”

Another of the Five Houses.

“The Sun legacy came through my mother,” he said, voice steady but colder now. “She was the heir. When she died, I was five and now i'm being considered for head of the family.”

I stayed silent.

“My father remarried two years later,” Jason went on. “That’s when Oscar came along.”

Everything clicked.

Oscar wasn’t the heir.

He never had been.

“I don’t need love,” Jason said evenly. “I don’t need loyalty built on fantasy. I need partnership. Discretion. Intelligence.”

He slid a folder across the table.

“A marriage contract,” he said. “Two years. Renewable by mutual agreement. Full financial independence. Separate assets. Clear exit clauses.”

I opened it.

Protection clauses.

Non-interference agreements.

Mutual public support.

And one line that made my breath catch—

Professional autonomy guaranteed.

“You’d work with my company,” Jason added. “As yourself. Under your name. With full authority.”

I closed the folder slowly.

“And what do I get,” I asked, “besides headlines and a convenient husband?”

His gaze held mine, unflinching.

“Safety. Influence. A platform where no one can silence you again.”

Then, quieter: “And the freedom to finish what you started.”

The city stretched beneath us—glass, steel, ambition.

I thought of Oscar.

Of seven wasted years.

Of buildings standing on foundations I paid for.

I met Jason’s eyes.

“I don’t do pretend,” I said.

“Neither do I,” he replied.

I took a breath.

“Then draw up the final version,” I said. “Because if I’m doing this, I’m doing it on my terms.”

A slow, sharp smile appeared on Jason’s face.

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

And just like that, I agreed to a marriage that would change the balance of power in the city forever.