Chapter 13

Tanya

That old snake, Camille! That was where the real problem lay. She had really done it this time, dragging that plain, arrogant girl into his life. A contract wife! It was an insult. A fucking trick to stop me from getting what I deserved.

And the nerve of her, locking Killian and Nova in that room at the villa all night! I knew what she was doing. She was trying to force a connection, trying to make Killian see Nova as something more than a glorified receipt.

When Killian got home this morning, he'd looked tired, stressed, and even more shut off than usual. I knew it wasn't because of me; it was because of Nova. She was a piece of grit in the smooth machine of his life, and he didn't know how to spit her out.

I love Killian. I've loved him since we were kids. He was my rock after the accident, my whole world when I had nothing left. He might only see me as a friend, a little sister he has to protect, but that's only because he's blind. He doesn't know what real love looks like. He's too focused on his empire to notice the woman who has been right here beside him all along.

Nova was just a distraction, a one-year problem. But I wasn't going to wait one year. Not a chance. The longer she stayed, the more time she had to worm her way into his routine, and the more complicated it would be to get her out. I needed a plan. Something clean, simple, and effective that made her want to leave, without giving Killian any reason to think I was the one behind it.

I pulled my silk robe tighter and walked out to the sitting area, pacing on the plush carpet. I needed to think like a businessman, like Killian would. What would destroy a person's motivation to stay?

One: Isolation. I had to make sure Nova felt completely alone in this house. She was confident sitting at the breakfast table, ignoring us. Fine. I'd make her invisible. I had to get the staff on my side; they already saw me as the unofficial lady of the house anyway. I needed them to make sure Nova’s life was an absolute misery of forgotten requests and minor domestic crises. No clean sheets, dirty laundry, misplaced mail. Little things that would pile up and stress her out.

Two: Exposure. Nova was so focused on her little life, her spreadsheets, and her studies. She was here for money, yeah, but she was obsessed with her mother and her future degree. That meant her time was precious. I needed to make her waste it. I needed to force Killian to take her out in public, not to events where she could shine, but to awkward, messy places where she was clearly out of her depth. 

The public thought he was single, possibly dating me, but definitely not married. If I could make him resent Nova for disrupting his private life and his work schedule, he would be the one to end the contract early.

Three: Doubt. The most important part. I needed Killian to see that Nova was a liability, not a convenience. Overheard the personal questions in the library about her studies and about why she stopped. That made my blood absolutely boil. He was interested! He never wastes words like that on anyone!

I had to put a stop to that. I needed to feed him small, quiet pieces of information that made Nova seem like a problem child. Something subtle. Something about her past, maybe. A little whisper about how maybe her family wasn't all that clean, or maybe she wasn't so dedicated to her studies after all. I needed to find her weakness.

I stopped pacing and walked over to the phone. I smiled slowly. I knew exactly who to call. Not a friend for a gossip session, but a guy who owed me a favor from a lifetime ago. A private investigator.

Killian was blind, stupidly blind, to what I felt. He would never believe I would harm him, and he would never believe that a sweet, friendly girl like me could be so calculating. That was my power. He just saw a friend.

But I saw the future: me, at Killian's side, finally getting the ring and the life I'd waited for. And to get there, I had to treat Nova Vale like the cockroach she was: a pest that needed to be exterminated quickly and quietly.

I picked up the phone, dialling the number, my voice dropping into that smooth, controlled tone I always used when I was about to get exactly what I wanted. Nova Vale’s time was about to run out. I wouldn't let that old bitch Camille win. I would be the one who finally gives Killian the happiness he deserves even if he was too dense to realize it was me he was truly meant to be with. The clock was ticking, and I was ready to play dirty.

Killian

I walked into the dining room on the fourth morning, feeling the satisfaction of a massive week wrapped up. I'd been stuck at the main office for three days straight, dealing with a fucking headache of a takeover bid that had demanded every single minute of my focus. Work was my only reliable sanctuary, and I’d used it.

Tanya was already at the table, looking calm and relaxed, sipping her tea. She gave me that familiar, easy smile that never asked for anything but friendship.

"You look absolutely wrecked, Killian," she said, her voice soft. "It's good to have you back in the house."

"It's over," I muttered, heading for the head of the table. "Deal's closed."

I sat down and immediately signaled to the Martha. She quickly brought my usual breakfast—no fuss, no nonsense. Tanya was talking quietly about some foundation project, something about art preservation, and I was listening with half an ear, already pulling out my tablet to check the damage control from the past 72 hours.

It took me a full minute of scrolling through reports to realize something was off. The room felt... emptier than usual.

My eyes scanned the massive length of the table. Nova’s seat was empty.

I frowned, dropping the tablet onto the linen cloth. "Where's Nova?"

Tanya looked up, feigning a small moment of surprise, as if she hadn't noticed. "Oh, Nova? She hasn't joined us for breakfast for the last few days. I thought she was just busy."

Three days. She hadn't been here for three days. And no one mentioned anything to me. I'd been so wrapped up in the corporate chaos that I hadn't spared a single thought for the person I was contractually obliged to live with. It annoyed me that I hadn't been informed, but even more, it annoyed me that I hadn't registered her absence. It was another failure to track a variable in my environment.

"Call her down," I ordered the nearest member of the waiting staff. My voice was short. "Now."

Tanya watched me, her expression still gentle. "She probably just prefers to eat in her room, Killian. She keeps herself to herself, doesn't she?"

I ignored Tanya. Nova had been in the library, working on her future, when I last saw her. That determination was what made her so fucking interesting. But hiding away for three days? That felt like weakness, like she was running from the situation instead of facing it. I needed to see that she was still maintaining that fierce focus.