LOGIN
Chapter 1
Elena POV I stood outside Damien Kane’s office door with my heart already racing. The stack of files felt heavy against my chest. I could hear them clearly through the door. The woman’s soft laugh. Damien’s low voice as he spoke to her. I knew I should wait. But he had messaged me five minutes ago to bring the contracts immediately. So I knocked once. No answer. I knocked again. Still nothing but her soft laughter. Taking a deep breath, I turned the handle and stepped inside. The sight hit me like a punch. Damien had the thin model perched on his massive oak desk. Her arms were around his neck. His shirt was open. Her lipstick was smeared. He was kissing her deeply, holding her close. Neither of them stopped at first. Neither of them even looked embarrassed. They didn’t care that I was there. Damien glanced at me for half a second, then stepped back from her. His shirt was open, his chest exposed. The woman stood up, fixed her dress, and gave me a quick, superior smirk as she walked past me and out the door. I stayed frozen near the entrance. My heart hammered. Damien was still shirtless. He looked completely unbothered. He ran a hand through his messy dark hair and reached for his phone just as it started ringing. He answered it with an annoyed tone. “What?” I could hear Victor Kane’s voice clearly. The conversation was short, cold, and brutal. Damien had one week to get married. One week to find a wife and make it look real. Or he would lose his position as CEO, his controlling shares in Kane Global, and his entire place as heir. Damien’s face darkened. His jaw clenched tight. “Understood,” he bit out before ending the call. He slammed the phone down so hard the screen cracked. “Damn!” he cursed loudly. Then he turned and looked straight at me. His gaze locked on me. Something dangerous flashed in his eyes. A slow, calculating look crossed his face as he took in my curvy body. My chubby cheeks. My full breasts pressing against the files. My soft belly and wide hips under the tight skirt. He stepped around the desk. Still shirtless. Still smelling like the other woman’s perfume. My pulse raced faster. I felt tiny in front of him. “My dad wants me to get a wife within a week,” he said. His voice was low and rough. “And I think I have found a person that will do that.” He pointed right at me. “You, Elena.” The words hit me hard. I froze completely. My heart hammered so loud I could barely think. The air felt thick and heavy. Damien kept walking toward me until he stopped just inches away. He towered over me. Heat rolled off his bare skin. His eyes moved slowly down my body, taking in every soft curve. I suddenly became hyper aware of how different I was from the model he had just been holding. My plush thighs. My round ass. My generous breasts. My chubby figure that I had always felt insecure about in his world of perfect, skinny women. Yet he was looking at me like I was an option. Like I was the solution. “I…” My voice came out shaky. He didn’t smile. He just watched me with those dark eyes. “One year contract,” he continued, voice dropping lower. “You become my public wife. Big payout when it ends. I keep my private life exactly as it is. You get financial security and a chance to help your family. And I get the one woman who knows every part of me and has never sold me out.” My mind spun wildly. Four years of loving him in silence. Four years of watching him with woman after woman. Four years of burying my feelings while I picked up the pieces of his reckless nights. This offer was dangerous. It would break my heart into pieces. But it was also the closest I would ever get to the man I loved. Damien stepped even closer. His bare chest was almost touching me. I could see his skin. Smell his scent mixed with her perfume. “Say something, Elena,” he murmured. I looked up at him. My chubby cheeks felt on fire. My soft body trembled slightly. I wanted to run. I wanted to scream. I wanted him to pull me close and kiss me. “I… I need time to think,” I whispered. But deep down I already knew my answer. I would say yes. I loved him. Madly. Desperately. Damien didn’t move back. He stayed right there, so close I could feel his breath on my forehead. His fingers lightly brushed my arm. The touch sent sparks through my entire body. “Think fast,” he said quietly. “I have only one week to get married.” I stood there frozen. Heart hammering wildly. Body tense with fear and longing. The scent of the other woman still filled the office. The weight of his unexpected proposal pressed down on me like a promise and a threat at the same time. And I knew nothing would ever be the same again.Chapter 117Elena’s POVThe entrance opened into silence.Not ordinary quiet. Arranged quiet. The kind that only existed when someone had cleared a place of every other customer on purpose. Soft lights ran along the walls in warm gold. A single long path of tables stretched toward the far end of the room, but only one was set.Ours.I stopped just inside the doorway.“Damien.”He stood beside me, one hand at my back. “Yes.”“There is no one else here.”“I know.”I looked from the empty chairs to the waiting staff, then back to him. “You rented the whole restaurant.”“I did.”A small disbelieving laugh left me. “Of course you did.”Damien’s POVShe walked in slowly, taking in every detail.The open room. The soft music under the lights. The single table dressed with care and nothing excess.I had told the manager exactly what I wanted: privacy without spectacle. No scattered roses everywhere. No performance that would make her feel watched by the effort itself. Just space enough for us
Chapter 116Elena’s POVThursday morning started like any other.Damien was already dressed when I came into the kitchen, phone face down beside his plate. He poured juice into my glass before I asked for it and sat down as if the day were completely ordinary.“You’re quiet,” I said.“I’m thinking.”“About work?”“No.”I waited. He only buttered his toast.“That answer is suspicious,” I said.“It’s accurate.”Maria moved through the kitchen behind us, pretending not to listen and failing completely. Damien finished his breakfast, checked the time once, and looked at me over the rim of his cup.“Be ready by six,” he said.“Ready for what?”“We’re going out.”I set my fork down. “Out where?”“Dinner.”“That’s all you’re giving me?”“Yes.”Damien’s POVElena studied me the way she did when she knew I was holding something back and was deciding whether to push.“Is it work dinner?” she asked.“No.”“Family?”“No.”“Then what kind of dinner needs a time announcement at breakfast?”“The kin
Chapter 115Elena’s POVStability arrived quietly.It did not announce itself with a big conversation or a sudden emotional breakthrough. It came through repeated ordinary days that did not turn into crises. Morning tea. Shared breakfast. Damien leaving with a kiss to the side of my head and returned when he said he would. The new house stopped feeling like a careful arrangement and started feeling like a place we lived in.One morning I caught myself humming in the kitchen and paused, surprised.Maria noticed. “That is a good sound.”“I didn’t realize I was doing it.”“That is how healing often looks,” she said.”I smiled into my cup and let the moment stay simple.Damien’s POVConsistency was the only promise that mattered now.I structured my days around it. No disappearing into late meetings without warning. No assuming Elena would adapt around my silence. If work threatened to spill over, I told her before it did. If I was tired, I said so instead of letting distance do the talki
Chapter 114Elena’s POVMorning in the new house felt almost normal.I woke before Damien’s alarm and listened to the quiet. No tight feeling in my chest. No sudden urge to check the doorway. Just soft light on unfamiliar walls and the low sound of the city far below. When I finally got up, I found him in the kitchen making tea.“You’re up early,” he said.“So are you.” “I wanted to reset the security panel before work calls start.”I sat at the counter and rested one hand over the clearer curve of my stomach. “Some things never change.”He glanced at me, and for a second the old rhythm was there. Easy. Familiar. Then he set the cup in front of me and leaned against the counter, less playful than before.“I missed this,” he said.“Tea?”“You sitting here like this.”The words were casual, but he did not leave them shallow. He looked at me properly and added, “I also know I hurt you. We can’t just slide back into the old version of us and call it repaired. For a while, we’re going to
Chapter 113Elena’s POVThe party did not end all at once.It thinned.First my father went outside to take a call. Maria packed leftover food into containers with the kind of efficiency that meant the evening was turning toward goodbye. The music dropped so low it almost disappeared. One by one, the loud edges of celebration softened into private conversations and half-finished hugs.I remained on the sofa with my hands around a warm cup, watching the house shift from crowded to calm.Damien looked over at me from across the room. I gave a small nod. I was tired, but I was not drowning.Damien’s POVI could see the exhaustion settling under Elena’s eyes.Not regret. Not panic. Just the weight of an emotional night.I kept the farewells orderly and short. No speeches. No dragging the evening past her limit. When Mr Voss shook my hand, his grip was firm.“Take care of my daughter.” he said.“I will.”Sophia hugged Elena longer than necessary and whispered something that made her smile
Chapter 112Elena’s POVThe house did not settle after the surprise.It opened. Voices filled the living room in overlapping layers of warmth and curiosity. Plates moved from Maria’s hands to the table. My sister inspected every corner like she was scoring the furniture. Lila kept close enough to catch me if my emotions tipped too far in either direction. My parents sat where they could watch both me. Damien’s mother remained in the armchair with a quiet dignity that still carried old complexity. Marcus stood near the window, present without needing attention.I sat on the sofa with a plate I had not asked for and tried to keep up with the love coming at me from every side.Damien’s POVI stayed near for Elena to see me, not to cage her.That balance mattered tonight. She had walked into this house by choice, not force, and I was not going to turn the celebration into another form of pressure. When Maria looked to me for direction, I told her to follow Elena’s pace. When the music edg







