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Two days in the Blackwood mansion felt like two weeks in a snow globe. Perfect from the outside, cold and suffocating on the inside.

I wandered aimlessly from hallway to hallway, trying to find meaning in the silence. But I couldn’t shake the weight in my chest, the guilt pressing harder with every breath.

It had been three weeks since I signed my life away. Three whole weeks since I’d seen my mother. No matter how lavish my surroundings were, I still felt like a daughter who had abandoned her.

I had to see her.

“Please… just for a few hours,” I told the driver.

His eyes flickered with hesitation probably wondering why someone like me, Mrs. Blackwood, wanted to visit a rundown government hospital in the slums instead of sipping champagne in a penthouse spa.

Still, he nodded and opened the car door, mumbling something under his breath as he drove me to the shacks.

The hospital hadn’t changed. But being Mrs. Blackwood had changed my perspective. Now, I saw every cracked wall, every broken chair, every stain in the corners with glaring clarity. The air still reeked of cleaning agents and exhaustion… but it felt more familiar than anything in that cold, chandelier-lit mansion.

I belonged here…. at least more than I ever would under a roof filled with robotic staff and ice-cold silence.

As I walked toward the ICU wing, I was so lost in thought that I didn’t notice the woman mopping the floor until she shrieked.

“ISLA?!”

I jumped.

“Candice?”

Her eyes widened even more as she dropped the mop and sprinted toward me like a bullet in scrubs.

“Oh. My. God! Is it really you?” she gasped, yanking me into a tight hug that nearly knocked the air out of me.

She pulled back to scan me from head to toe. My outfit, my hair… and finally, my wedding ring.

“Hey—Candice, easy—”

“You married Alexander freaking Blackwood?!”

I froze.

Her voice echoed down the hallway, drawing curious glances from nearby nurses. I tried to hush her, but it was too late.

“I saw it on the news! On TV! On social media! Girl, are you insane? How dare you not tell me?! Me? Your best gossip partner?!”

I cringed. “Candice, can we not shout it in the ICU wing?”

“Shout? I haven’t even started shouting!” she said, tossing her gloves aside like it was a full-blown movie scene. “You got married and didn’t say a damn word! You were just here sobbing a few weeks ago, and now you’re a billionaire’s wife?! What the hell did I miss?!”

“It’s… complicated.”

“Complicated? Girl, this is soap opera complicated! What did he do? Spot you at the hospital and fall madly in love? Did he rescue you from an ambulance? Tell me everything—who introduced you? Are you pregnant already?!”

My face burned. “CANDICE!”

I palmed my face in embarrassment as a family of three passed by, exchanging looks.

She gasped again. “Wait…. you are, aren’t you?!”

“No! Oh my God, stop it.” I grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side. “Listen, it’s not what you think, okay? It’s not a love story. It’s not even a real marriage.”

Her playful smile faltered. “Wait… what?”

I sighed. “It’s… it’s a contract. A deal.”

She blinked at me like I’d grown two heads. “A contract? You’re joking.”

I tugged at the strap of my Chanel purse, refusing to meet her eyes.

“You’re not joking.”

She stared at me in stunned silence, then finally asked, “Why?”

I looked down at my shoes, then toward the ICU doors.

“For her,” I whispered. “Because I didn’t have any other way.”

Candice’s face softened instantly. “Your mom…”

I nodded. “She needs the surgery. And he… he offered everything in exchange for six months of my life.”

A long silence passed between us before she finally exhaled and rubbed her forehead.

“Damn. That’s heavy.”

“I know.”

“You okay?” she asked quietly.

“I don’t know.”

Candice reached out and gently squeezed my hand. “You could’ve told me. Even just to scream about it. You’ve always carried too much on your own.”

“I didn’t know how.”

“I get it,” she said softly. “But now that I do know, I’m not shutting up about it. And I want details. Later. Lots of them.”

I managed a small smile. “Deal.”

She gave me another hug gentler this time then nudged me toward the door. “Go see her. She misses you, even if she’s not awake to say it.”

I swallowed hard and stepped into the ICU.

The beeping machines, the soft whirr of oxygen tubes… it all struck me harder than I expected.

My mother looked so small beneath the blankets. Pale. Still. As if she wasn’t really there. Just a shell, holding on until someone whispered life back into her.

There was so much I needed to tell her.

“Hi, Mama,” I whispered, pulling a chair close to her bedside.

I reached for her hand…,it felt cool, soft, fragile.

“I’m here. I’m okay. You don’t have to worry anymore. I… I did what I had to.”

I gently brushed her hair back, trying to blink away the tears pooling in my eyes.

“I know you wouldn’t want me to make choices like this. But I couldn’t lose you. I couldn’t let you go without trying everything. Even if it means…”

I bit my lip.

Even if it means becoming someone else’s shadow.

Even if it means disappearing inside a cold man’s world for six months.

“I’m going to get you back on your feet. I promise. Just hang on a little longer.”

I sat with her a while longer, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest, letting the soft beeping of the machines anchor me to something real.

When it was time to leave, I kissed her forehead gently and whispered, “I love you.”

Outside, Candice was waiting near the nurses’ station with that same playful smirk on her face. Her blue uniform cast a strange glow on her pale skin, making her strawberry blonde hair look like it had been dipped in toothpaste.

“I still can’t believe it,” she said.

“Neither can I.”

She gave me a small wave. “Tell Mr. Billionaire he better not mess with my girl or I’ll mop his face.”

I laughed. For the first time in days, it was genuine.

I thanked her again and made my way to the car. As I slid into the seat, I caught the driver’s reflection in the rearview mirror he was letting out a heavy sigh of relief.

It made me smile.

Poor guy had probably been terrified for my safety in this “shabby” area.

Funny… he didn’t know this was where I actually felt like I belonged.

But the moment I stepped inside the mansion, everything shifted again.

I kicked off my heels and held them in one hand as I climbed the stairs, my body still heavy with emotion from the hospital.

I was halfway to my room when a deep, sharp voice startled me.

“Where the hell have you been?”

I gasped and turned.

Alexander stood at the base of the stairs, wearing a dark coat. His expression was unreadable but his eyes were cold, his tone colder.

“I… I went to see my mother,” I stammered, still startled by his presence.

“And you didn’t think to inform me?”

“I didn’t know I needed permission,” I snapped before I could stop myself.

His eyes narrowed. “You live under my roof. You wear my name. I deserve to know where my wife disappears to.”

“It was just a hospital visit—”

“I don’t care what it was. Get dressed. We’re leaving.”

I stared at him, confused. “Leaving? Where?”

“Dinner.”

“What kind of dinner?”

He gave me a long, cold look. “You’ll find out when we get there. Ten minutes.”

And with that, he turned and walked away, leaving my heart pounding and my breath caught in my throat.

What was wrong with this man?

I was tired. I was overwhelmed. And I was no closer to understanding the man I had just married.

But something in his voice, something beneath that icy tone told me tonight wouldn’t be just any dinner.

And deep down, I knew…

I wasn’t ready.