Another reason

                         ~JESSICA~

Dinner was served on a long glass table that looked like it belonged in a museum, not a home. Two place settings. Candles flickering between us. And silence—again.

Daniel cut into his steak with the precision of a man who did everything deliberately. I barely touched my food.

“You’re not eating,” he said, eyes still on his plate.

“I’m not hungry.”

He didn’t push. Just nodded and kept chewing.

I stared at him for a moment, really looked at him. His jaw was tight, his posture rigid, his eyes always calculating. But beneath it all, there was a flicker—something that looked a lot like pain.

I set my fork down. “Why did you want to marry me so fast?”

He looked up slowly, his expression unreadable. “We already discussed this. You needed money. I needed….”

“A wife,” I cut in. “For appearances, right? Business-related. To sign a contract deal.”

“Yes.”

“But there’s more, isn’t there?” I asked.

He didn’t respond immediately.

 His silence wasn’t just avoidance, it was laced with caution. Like he was weighing whether the truth was safe with me.

Finally, he leaned back in his chair, studying me like I was a puzzle he wasn’t sure he wanted to solve.

                         ~DANIEL~

How did she know that there's more to it??

Yes, I asked Jessica to marry me because of the business contract, but our marriage was also a bonus to a pressing issue in my life.

My dad died four months ago and his will had conditions. One of them was marriage within four months. If not, everything, including the company, goes to my cousin.

I had ignored it and pretended the will doesn't matter since I have my own money.

I had ignored it because the woman I loved so much and wanted to marry left me.

I didn't even tell my lawyer about the will else he would have urged me to get married like he did concerning the business contract.

I told no one about the will and the conditions.

The Armitage company had given me two months to get married, but I had married Jessica in just a week.

And that was because the four months deadline given to me to get married and claim my father's will was near.

Three days from now, and everything goes to my cousin.

And so I rushed my marriage with Jessica.

But now, she knew there's another reason why I rushed the marriage and I felt it would be better if I just told her the truth.

“I needed a wife before the end of this month, which is three days from now” he said slowly. “It was part of the inheritance clause in my father's will.”

She blinked. “What?”

“My father died four months ago. His will had conditions. One of them was marriage before the end of May. If not, everything, including the company, goes to my cousin” I spilled it to her.

She sat back, stunned. 

“So I was... a deadline” she said.

“Not just that,” I said quickly, my voice softer. “You were the safest option. The only one I trusted not to complicate things.”

That stung more than she expected because I could see hurt spread across her face.

“You've never been in love before?? Why didn't you marry someone you love??” She asked.

A long pause stretched between us.

Then I said something I didn’t even expect to say.

“I almost married someone else.”

I saw her breath hard.

“Who?” she asked.

“That doesn't matter” I said and stood up from the dining table, immediately losing my appetite at the thought of my ex.

“I'm going to sleep now. See you tomorrow” I informed her. 

“One thing I want you to know is that I asked you to marry me because I know you can't break me.”

And with that, I walked away from her, leaving her confused over my last words.

                       ~JESSICA~

        I had seen the hurt and agony on Daniel's face when he told me about the woman he had intended to marry.

He clearly refused to talk about which showed that he's still in love with her and hasn't gotten over her yet.

He must have really loved her.

I wondered what happened to her. 

Whatever it was that happened broke him so bad that it made him cold, detached and emotionless.

He wasn’t just cold—he was broken. Just like me.

Maybe that was why he chose me. Because broken people don’t ask for much. They don't expect love. They just survive.

But as I sat alone at the table, staring at the untouched plate in front of me, I realized something else—we weren’t so different after all.

We both had ghosts haunting us.

His? A woman he wouldn’t name.

Mine? A man who had destroyed me in ways I hadn’t even fully understood.

So I wasn't the only one suffering from a heartbreak.

I haven't even had the time to think about Albert these days and I was grateful for that.

He hasn't even called to apologize or even tried to fix things.

Neither Isabella.

“If he called to apologize, would you have gone back??” My inner voice said.

And honestly, I didn't know the answer to that.

Albert had said so many hurtful words to me the day I caught him cheating and I allowed myself to go down memory lane to that day.

And as the memories surged up like a tide I couldn’t fight, I let them take me back.

Back to the day everything changed.

Back to Albert.

Back to the betrayal that shattered everything I believed about love.