LOGIN_Danica's POV_ The wedding was held at St. Catherine’s Church, a beautiful old building with high arched ceilings and stained glass windows that painted the floor in shades of blue and gold. Despite the size of the church, only a few guests were scattered across the wooden pews. I stood at the back entrance, my arm looped through my father’s, staring down the long aisle. My heart hammered in my chest, though I wasn’t sure if it was from nervousness or the nausea that still lingered from the morning. Then I saw him.Eden stood at the altar, and my breath caught in my throat. He wore a black tuxedo that fit him perfectly, emphasizing his tall, broad, shouldered frame. His dark hair was swept back, revealing the sharp angles of his face. He looked like he belonged on the cover of a magazine, powerful, wealthy, and impossibly handsome. For a moment, I forgot to breathe. I forgot about the contract, the one year, the baby growing inside me. I just stared at the man who was about to be
_Danica's POV_ Two days after I signed those papers that bound me to Eden for the next one year, my phone buzzed with a message from him. *Tomorrow. 2 PM. Wedding dress shopping. A car will pick you up.* No pleasantries. No questions about whether I was available. Just commands, as if I were another item on his daily agenda. The car that arrived the next day was sleek and black, the kind that screamed wealth and power. The driver didn’t speak to me during the entire ride, and I was grateful for the silence. It gave me time to prepare myself mentally for whatever was coming. Eden was already at the bridal boutique when I arrived, standing near the window with his phone pressed to his ear. He looked up when I entered, his dark eyes sweeping over me briefly before he ended his call. “Pick whatever you want,” he said flatly. “As long as it looks appropriate for the cameras.” Of course. The cameras. That was all that mattered. The boutique staff fawned over us, or rather, over him.
_Danica’s POV_Next morning, I stood on the sidewalk outside Cross Industries, staring up at my reflection fractured across forty stories of windows, and tried to remember how to breathe.The contract sat in my bag, not yet delivered. I still had time to turn around. Except there was no other way. That was the truth I’d swallowed like poison three days ago.I pushed through the revolving doors.The lobby shined with marble and chrome. A receptionist with a perfected smile directed me to the thirty-eighth floor. The elevator rose so smoothly I barely felt the motion, just the mounting pressure in my chest as the numbers climbed.Eden’s assistant met me with a bright smile. “Ms. Laurent. Mr. Cross is expecting you.” She led me down a hallway lined with abstract art that probably cost more than my father’s house, stopping at a set of double doors. “Please wait inside. He’ll be with you momentarily.”The conference room was designed for intimidation. Floor-to-ceiling windows offered a vi
_Danica's POV_The dining room had always been too large for breakfast. I sat in my usual seat, third from the end, where I’d always been placed since moving into this house, and watched my stepmother’s sister, Margot, butter her toast.“Such a shame about the gala,” Margot said, her voice carrying that particular pitch women like her perfected, loud enough to be heard, soft enough to claim innocence. “Celeste looked forward to it all year.”My fingers tightened around my fork. Celeste wasn’t here because I existed. Because carrying evidence of my father’s attention had finally pushed her over an edge I hadn’t known existed.“Well.” My stepmother’s cousin, Philippa, dabbed her mouth with a linen napkin. “Some people simply can’t handle adversity with grace.”The words landed like stones. I kept my eyes on my plate, scrambled eggs I couldn’t eat, fruit I couldn’t stomach. The baby had turned my body into a battleground, and breakfast was usually the first casualty.“I heard the Whitmor
_Eden’s POV_I stared at the contract on my desk, the pages crisp and perfect under the lamp light. Every clause had been carefully worded by the best lawyers money could buy. The Marriage. The Financial support. And public appearances. And buried in section seven, the part that mattered most, custody arrangements following dissolution.My phone buzzed. Paul, my assistant calling.*Miss Laurent’s expulsion confirmed. Story trending across all major platforms. Her father cut financial support as expected. Situation developing as projected.*I set the phone down and leaned back in my chair. Everything was going according to plan. Danica was exactly where I needed her to be, desperate, cornered, with no options left except the one I was offering.So why did I feel like I’d swallowed broken glass?I took a sip of scotch, letting it burn down my throat. This was business. Cold, practical business. I couldn’t afford to let emotions cloud my judgment now.The pregnancy had been a mistake. O
_Danica’s POV_The door closed behind Eden with a soft click that echoed too loudly in the suddenly empty office. I stood there, frozen, staring at the space where he’d been just moments before.“The child is mine, after all.”His words replayed in my head like a broken record. So calm. So matter-of-fact. Like he was discussing a business acquisition instead of my baby.“Sit down, Danica.”My father’s voice cut through my thoughts. Cold. Commanding. The same tone he used with employees he was about to fire.I didn’t want to sit. Every instinct screamed at me to run, to get out of this room, away from the suffocating weight of his disappointment. But my legs felt weak, trembling beneath me, so I lowered myself into the chair Eden had just vacated. My father remained standing, positioned behind his massive mahogany desk like a king on a throne. He didn’t look at me. Instead, he stared out the window at the perfectly manicured gardens, his jaw tight, his hands clasped behind his back.T







