Chapter 2

David's eyes went wide, his eyeballs practically popping out of their sockets. His face, already twisted from the nosebleed and pain, was now full of shock and disbelief.

He'd pursued Selene for so long and had never even properly held her hand. Now, she… she'd taken the initiative to hook her arm through another man's? And that man was some broke loser who delivered food for a living?

"Selene! Are you out of your damn mind?"

Jealousy and rage instantly washed away what little reason David had left. With a roar, he lunged at Selene, trying to drag her away from Cyrus. "Let go of him!"

"Shove off!" Cyrus kicked David square in the stomach.

David let out a miserable howl. He doubled over, his feet leaving the ground as he flew backward several feet. He crashed onto the tiles with a heavy thud and curled up on the ground in pain.

Off to the side, Charlotte was stunned. She stared, slack-jawed. Cyrus, her fiance… was getting together with Selene, the fiancee of David, the man she'd been cheating with?

Cyrus turned toward Charlotte and said icily, "You have one day, Charlotte. Clean my apartment from top to bottom, especially that bed."

His voice suddenly rose. "Replace it with a brand-new one, or I'll make sure your parents, relatives, friends, coworkers, old classmates, and even the lady downstairs who sells you breakfast all hear in crystal-clear detail what happened in this apartment today.

"I'll give them a clear replay of your spectacular little moans, too. I won't leave out a single word you screamed. I mean what I say."

Charlotte jolted in shock. She stared into Cyrus' eyes and saw the naked, unyielding resolve there. Only then did she realize that the man who used to cater to her every whim, the man she could toy with however she liked, was truly, absolutely livid.

She suddenly threw herself forward, grabbing his sleeve. Her voice came out shaking and on the verge of tears. "Cyrus, don't! I… I know I was wrong. I really regret it! I just had a moment of weakness, so please don't leave me. We're supposed to get married tomorrow. You can't do this to me! We've been together for three years…"

"Get lost!" Cyrus yanked her hands off him.

He looked at her, his gaze icy, then turned and wrapped his fingers around the hand that Selene still had hooked through his arm.

"Get your facts straight. I'm marrying her tomorrow."

He pulled Selene's hand more firmly into the crook of his arm, turned around, and walked away.

…

The sunlight at the neighborhood entrance was blinding that afternoon.

Cyrus came to a stop and slid his arm out from Selene's grip. He said, "Thanks for the help, lady. This is as far we go. I still have to get back to doing deliveries and paying off my mortgage."

He pointed toward the electric scooter parked under the shade of a tree.

"Hold it." Selene's voice rang out.

Cyrus turned back, puzzled. "Anything else?"

Selene crossed her arms over her chest. The afternoon sun traced a perfect outline along her profile. She said, "When I said just now that you're the groom tomorrow… I wasn't joking."

"Huh?"

Cyrus' brain short-circuited for a moment. After that insane, life-upending scene just now, he honestly couldn't process what those words meant.

"Lady, don't mess with me." He pointed at his delivery uniform, stained and worn from work. "I'm just some broke delivery guy, and you're like a goddess. Do you actually want me to marry you? Not even fairy tales would go that far."

"You've got it wrong," Selene explained coolly. "It's not that I've fallen for you. I meant what I said about my grandfather. He really can't handle any shocks, big or small. I have to get married tomorrow, even if it's just getting the certificate and waving it in front of him."

Cyrus felt like his brain had turned to mush. "So… what are you trying to say?"

A crazy possibility had already formed in the back of his mind, but he just couldn't bring himself to believe it.

Instead of answering directly, Selene asked, "Do you have your ID on you?"

"I always keep it with me." Cyrus instinctively patted his pocket.

"Then come with me to the county clerk's office right now. We're getting the marriage license and certificate," she said calmly.

"W-What? We're getting married?" His voice shot up an octave. His eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head.

He spluttered, "Lady, isn't this going way too far for a joke? I don't even know your full name, where you're from, or what you do. And we're… we're just going to get married like this?"

Selene took a step closer and held out a hand. "Selene Moore, 27 years old."

Her voice was as cool and detached as ever.

Cyrus stared at that flawless hand, then up at her stunning face. After a brief moment of hesitation, he still reached out and gently took hold of her four fingers like a gentleman. "Cyrus Reed, 30 years old."

"So now we've met, haven't we?"

Cyrus was taken aback.

Selene met his eyes head-on. "Now, tell me—do you still want to marry that fiancee of yours who's 'making money on the side to leave herself a way out,' or are you coming with me to get that marriage certificate?"

He met her cool gaze, a tidal wave of absurdity crashing over him. He hesitated for a full three seconds. In those three seconds, images flashed through his mind—Charlotte's shameless face, David's disgusting behavior, and his "marital home", now steeped in the stench of betrayal.

He also thought about the stabbing pain of watching three years of love go up in smoke and the strange, soft warmth of Selene's hand looped through his arm just moments before.

In the end, impulse steamrolled right over every last shred of reason and caution.

Screw it. How much worse could this screwed-up life even get?

"I pick you."

Only an idiot would choose a cheating wretch like Charlotte.

…

When they walked out of the county clerk's office, the thin paper in Cyrus' hand was still faintly warm from being freshly printed.

He lowered his head to stare at the official seal and signature on it. That was it? He and Selene were married?

"I only married you to put my grandfather at ease. Don't read too much into it." Selene's cool voice snapped him out of his daze, the indifference in it stinging him like needles.

A hot wave of humiliation shot through Cyrus, the kind that came from realizing he was treated like a fool.

"What's that supposed to mean?" His tone dropped, his gaze darkening as anger simmered just beneath the surface. "You think I'm some clown you can jerk around?"

Selene ignored his anger. She held out a debit card pinched between her slender fingers. "There's 100,000 dollars in here. After this, 50,000 dollars will be transferred on time to your account every month."

She paused for a second, her tone utterly devoid of warmth. "All you need to do is show up and play the role of my husband whenever I need you to. The rest of the time, we stay out of each other's lives."

Cyrus stared at the card, surprise coloring his eyes. "So… I'm being kept?"

He snorted and said sharply, "Ms. Moore, I might be broke, but I'm able-bodied, and I have a spine. I'm not interested in mooching off a woman."

"Don't flatter yourself." Selene's brows lifted slightly, her gaze turning even colder. "This is a business arrangement. You're providing a legal identity as my husband, and I'm paying you for your services. It's a fair trade and nothing more."

The more Cyrus thought about it, the more it sounded exactly like being a kept man.

But Selene went on, unbothered. "And in the same way, whenever you need me to show up as your wife, I'll be there. It's called honoring a contract. That's all."

Cyrus locked his eyes on her frosty gaze, searching for even the tiniest trace of warmth or real human feeling. All he found was a distant, bottomless chill.

He drew in a long breath and deliberately asked, "Then what if I need to take care of certain physical needs? Are you going to satisfy those as my wife, too?"