CHAPTER 5: PUBLIC PROPERTY

The announcement dropped at 9:17 a.m.

I was sitting at the kitchen island with a cup of coffee that had gone cold when my phone started lighting up like a warning signal. First one message. Then five. Then too many to count.

“Unknown: Is it true you’re married to Damien Voss?”

“Unknown: How long have you been together? “

“Unknown:Any comments on the sudden marriage?”

I locked the screen without answering.

Rosa appeared quietly and placed a tablet in front of me. The headline was already everywhere.

“Voss Empire CEO Marries in Private Ceremony”

Damien Voss, the notoriously private billionaire, has confirmed his marriage to Ava Reed. Details of the relationship remain scarce.

A single photo was attached, one I didn’t even remember being taken. Damien and I were standing near the elevators in the lobby of Voss Tower. His hand rested lightly on the small of my back. I was looking straight ahead, expression carefully blank. The caption called me his “new wife.”

I felt sick.

My phone rang. Lila’s name flashed on the screen. I answered immediately.

“Ava, what the hell?” Her voice was high and panicked. “It’s all over the internet. People from school are already messaging me. Are you really married to that man?”

I closed my eyes. “It’s complicated.”

“Complicated? You’re trending!”

“I’ll explain later. Just… don’t talk to anyone about it, okay? Please.”

There was a long silence on her end. “Dad’s surgery is next week,” she said softly. “They already moved him to a private room. Whatever you did… Thank you. But I’m scared for you.”

“I’m fine,” I lied.

After we hung up, I sat frozen at the island while notifications kept arriving. Some were from old coworkers. Some from numbers I didn’t recognize. A few were cruel.

(Gold digger.

She must be pregnant.

How did nobody land Damien Voss?)

I turned the phone face down.

The elevator chimed at 12:40 p.m.

Damien stepped out still wearing his coat, phone pressed to his ear. He glanced at me once, took in the tablet and my untouched coffee, then ended his call.

“You’ve seen it.”

“Hard to miss.”

He removed his coat and draped it over a chair. “The narrative is under control. My team has already released a short statement. We met through mutual connections, preferred a private ceremony due to family health matters, and requested privacy.”

“Family health matters,” I repeated. “That’s one way to put it.”

His eyes flicked to mine. “It is the truth, just not the entire truth. You will not correct anyone.”

I looked down at the diamond on my finger. “People are calling me a gold digger.”

“People will always talk.” His voice was flat. “Their opinions are irrelevant. What matters is that the board and my grandmother’s lawyers accept the marriage as legitimate.”

He walked to the refrigerator, took out a bottle of water, and drank half of it in silence. When he turned back, his expression had shifted into something colder.

“There will be a short interview request from “City Elite Magazine” tomorrow. We will do it together. Fifteen minutes. Smile. Keep your answers short. I will handle the rest.”

My stomach twisted. “I don’t know how to do interviews.”

“Then learn quickly.” He set the bottle down. “This is the life you agreed to, Ava. The cameras are part of it.”

The way he said my name still felt careful, like he was reminding himself I was temporary.

I stood up. “Is there anything else I should prepare for?”

“The gala on Friday. After that, a small dinner with two board members next week. You will sit beside me and look supportive. That is all.”

He started to walk past me toward the hallway, then stopped.

“One more thing.”

I waited.

Damien’s gaze dropped to my hand, to the rings he had chosen. “Wear them every time you leave this apartment. Even to the hospital. Especially to the hospital. People are watching now.”

The reminder that my father’s surgery was public knowledge somehow made everything worse.

“I understand.”

He nodded once and disappeared down the hall. The soft click of his study door felt final.

I stood alone in the kitchen as the city continued its ordinary day thirty floors below. My phone kept buzzing against the counter. Every vibration felt like another pair of eyes.

I picked it up, opened a new message to Lila, and typed the only truth I could give her.

Ava:I’m okay. Don’t believe what you read. I’ll call you tonight.

Then I turned the phone off completely.

For the first time since signing the contract, the walls of the penthouse felt less like protection and more like a glass cage.

And somewhere behind a locked door, the man who owned the cage was already moving on to the next item on his schedule

as if the woman wearing his rings was simply another business transaction he had successfully closed.