"She ran from an arranged marriage... and into the arms of a stranger. Now she's pregnant with his child and he's back to claim them both." When Mira Alvarez defies her powerful family's expectations, one reckless night changes her life forever. Pregnant and alone, she's ready to face the world as a single mother until Luca De Silva, the cold billionaire with secrets darker than his past, offers her a contract she can’t refuse. But can a relationship built on lies and protection turn into something real… or will the truth about Luca destroy everything?
Lihat lebih banyakMira's P.O.V
"You need to get married." Those five words dropped like a bomb across the dinner table. I looked up from my plate, fork frozen mid-air. "Excuse me?" My mother didn’t blink. "We’ve already chosen someone. He’s from a good family. Stable. Wealthy." Beside her, my father nodded silently. He had that tight lipped look he always wore when he didn’t want to fight, but agreed anyway. I swallowed hard. "I’m twenty four. That doesn’t mean I have to marry a stranger." "You’re not getting any younger," my mother said. "And our company… we’re not in a good place." Ah. There it was. The real reason. It wasn’t about love. It wasn’t about me. It was about the company. The image. The money. I pushed back from the table. "I’m not a bargaining chip." "No," my mother said, setting down her wine glass, "you’re our daughter. And sometimes, daughters have to make sacrifices." I felt my hands clench under the table. All these years of being obedient, of being quiet, of following their rules and this was where it led me. A loveless, arranged marriage to save a company I didn’t even want to inherit. I left the house without a plan. Denise, my best friend, picked me up in less than twenty minutes. She didn’t ask questions, didn’t judge, just drove. "Where are we going?" I asked, still in my dress from dinner. "Somewhere with music and drinks," she said. "You need to stop thinking. Just for tonight." I wanted to argue, but she was right. "You’re too tense," she added, glancing at me from the driver’s seat. "You haven’t had fun in years. Let loose, Mira. Just this once." Let loose. The words echoed in my head. I stared out the window as the city lights blurred past us. My heart was still pounding from the confrontation at dinner, but there was something freeing about not knowing where I was headed. We ended up at a rooftop bar in the middle of the city. The place was buzzing dim lights, soft jazz playing, and the quiet clink of expensive glasses. The air smelled of perfume, cologne, and something I couldn’t name freedom, maybe. It wasn’t loud or wild. Just enough to feel like we had escaped our lives. Denise handed me a cocktail. "Drink." "I don’t usually..." "Tonight, you do." I took a sip. Then another. By the time I finished the first glass, the tightness in my chest had loosened. By the second, I was laughing again. "That’s the Mira I know," Denise said, nudging me. "The one who used to sneak into the music room and play piano at midnight. Not the miserable heiress they’re trying to turn into a trophy wife." I smiled weakly. "She’s still somewhere in here. Just a little lost." Denise raised her glass. "Then tonight, let’s find her." That’s when I saw a man. He was sitting at the far end of the bar. Alone. Dressed in a black button down shirt, sleeves rolled up, one hand wrapped around a glass of something dark. There was something about him. Not just his looks though he was painfully handsome. No, it was the way he carried himself. Calm. Still. Like the world around him didn’t matter. Our eyes met. He didn’t look away. I blinked first, turning back to Denise. My heart was racing. A few minutes later, I felt someone beside me. "You don’t look like you belong here," he said. His voice was low. Steady. I turned, surprised. It was him. Up close, he was even more dangerous. His jaw was sharp, his eyes dark, and there was a quiet confidence about him that made me nervous. "Is that a bad thing?" I asked. He studied me for a moment. "Not at all." We talked. Not about anything deep. Nothing personal. Just light conversations about the view, the drinks, the city. He didn’t ask for my name. I didn’t ask for his. When he reached for my hand, I let him. When he offered to leave, I didn’t say no. The hotel was beautiful. The kind of place I’d only seen in magazines. We walked through the lobby without speaking. My heart was pounding so hard, I could hear it. In the elevator, he didn’t touch me. Not yet. But when we entered the room, he turned to face me. "Last chance to walk away," he said. My throat was dry. "I don’t want to." And then he kissed me. It wasn’t rushed or desperate. It was slow. Deep. Like he was learning the shape of my mouth, the rhythm of my breath. The rest of the night passed in a blur of heat and skin and quiet gasps. He was careful, yet intense. Gentle, yet firm. Every time he touched me, it felt like he was pulling me further away from everything I’d ever known. I didn’t want it to end. But it did. I woke up alone. The bed was still warm, but he was gone. No name. No number. No note. Just silence. For a while, I lay there, trying to make sense of everything. What had I done? But even as shame crept in, there was something else too. Freedom. For one night, I hadn’t been Mira the obedient daughter. Mira the pawn. I had just been… me. I showered slowly, trying to wash away the guilt, but part of me didn’t want to forget. Part of me wanted to remember every detail... the way he touched my face, the way he whispered in the dark, the way I felt seen. I checked out of the hotel without looking back. Three weeks passed. I went back to work. I smiled at my parents. I pretended everything was fine. Until the morning I threw up in the office restroom. Denise handed me a test. I laughed it off. Then I cried when it came out positive. Two pink lines. No mistake. I was pregnant. With a man whose name I didn’t even know. What was I going to do? I couldn’t tell my family. They’d never forgive me. I couldn’t find him. I didn’t even know where to start. I was alone. But I wasn’t ready to give up the baby. Not yet. I decided I would raise the child. On my own. Even if it meant losing everything. I started researching clinics. I changed my diet. I stopped drinking coffee, even though I missed it every single morning. I began journaling, writing down my thoughts and fears, like talking to someone who wasn’t here yet. Denise was my only support. She came with me to my first ultrasound. Held my hand when I heard the tiny heartbeat. Cried with me. "You’re going to be a great mom," she whispered. I didn’t feel like it. I felt lost. But I kept going. Then one afternoon, he appeared. Right outside my office building. Same face. Same eyes. He looked just as shocked as I felt. "Mira?" I froze. "How do you know my name?" "I asked around." "What are you doing here?" "We need to talk." I backed away. "You shouldn’t be here." "Too late," he said quietly. "We need to talk about the baby." My blood ran cold. "How did you...?" "I always use protection," he interrupted, voice low. "But that night… I didn’t." Silence. My mouth went dry. "You remember?" He nodded. "Every second." I hated how calm he was. Like this was just another business meeting. I swallowed hard. "What do you want?" He stepped closer. "To be involved. I’m not the kind of man who runs away." I looked at him. "I don’t even know your name." "Luca," he said. "Luca De Silva." The name hit me like a punch. He wasn’t just anyone. He was the Luca De Silva CEO of De Silva Enterprises. Billionaire. Investor. And known for being ruthless in both business and relationships. "What do you really want from me?" I asked, trying to stay strong. He looked me straight in the eye. "I want my child. And I want you to come with me."Mira's P.O.V There was something about silence that made it louder when the truth started whispering. And lately, silence was all I had. Luca had been more attentive, more present in the past few days bringing home dinner, holding my hand longer, lingering with his eyes on my stomach like he was trying to memorize the life we created. And I hated that I loved it. Because it made lying to him harder. I was no longer just curious. I was obsessed. Every name, every date, every detail about Cassandra Navarro now had a place on the notes I kept hidden beneath the false drawer in my closet. Manang Silva helped me collect what she could from the old records. Cassandra’s medical visits, the way she seemed to vanish before her official death was reported. Nothing was adding up. “Still can’t sleep?” Luca’s voice broke through my thoughts as he leaned against the doorway, holding a cup of warm milk. I looked up from the armchair, startled. “Yeah. Just thinking.” He stepped forward, pla
Mira's P.O.V The soft hum of the car engine was the only sound accompanying me as I stared out the tinted window. Manila blurred past gray skies, honking vehicles, pedestrians rushing along the sidewalks. My hand instinctively rested over my belly, now noticeably rounded beneath my loose dress. Five months. I was five months pregnant. The fluttering inside me had started to feel like tiny kicks, almost like gentle nudges reminding me that life was growing. That everything had changed. And there was no turning back. Beside me in the backseat, Manang Silva sat silently, her brows knitted in concern as she scrolled through her phone. She’d insisted on coming with me to my new OB-GYN clinic a different one this time, after what happened during my last visit. That previous hospital had flagged me as a missing person when I used my real name, Mira Alvarez. The receptionist had looked at me like I was a ghost. Since then, we couldn’t take any more risks. Whoever was behind it my family,
Mira's P.O.V The air in the study was suffocating. Luca hadn’t moved since the last video ended. His face was pale, as though the ghosts of his past had finally taken physical form. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen, from Cassandra’s final words, each one sinking deeper into my skin like thorns. “I should’ve known,” she had whispered in the final clip, barely audible. “The contract was a lie. They never let you go once you knew.” I turned to Luca. “What did she mean by that? What contract?” He swallowed hard. “It was supposed to be a business partnership. But behind closed doors… there were strings.” “Strings?” I repeated. “Like blackmail?” He didn’t answer. Which meant yes. I stood, pacing the room. My heartbeat echoed in my ears. “You brought me into this knowing how dangerous it was. You signed me up for something you don’t even understand!” “I thought it was over.” “It’s never over with people like them.” Luca buried his face in his hands. “I thought if I prot
Mira's POV My fingers trembled as I slowly closed the notebook. Each sketch felt like a punch to the gut. They weren’t just drawings. They were moments intimate, vulnerable pieces of me, captured without my knowledge. Moments that I thought were mine alone. And Luca had drawn them. He stood by the door, leaning casually, but his eyes were unreadable. "You weren't supposed to find that," he repeated, voice low. I swallowed the lump in my throat. "How long have you been sketching me?" "Since the night we met." I sat on the edge of the bed, notebook still in my lap. "Why hide it? Why draw me like this? When I didn’t even know you cared." His jaw clenched. "Because it's the only way I knew how to hold on to something real." "Real? Luca, I don’t even know what’s real anymore. There are cameras in the mansion. Someone left a photo of me as a threat. And now this? You bringing me to a place with no signal, no staff, no escape. It feels like I'm being caged." He stepped fo
Mira’s P.O.V I froze. The notebook slipped from my trembling hands, landing softly on the bed. Luca's voice echoed in the silence, low and calm but laced with something I couldn’t name. "You weren’t supposed to find that." I turned around slowly. He stood in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression unreadable. My voice cracked. "You drew me." He stepped forward. "Yes." "While I was sleeping… crying?" Luca didn’t deny it. He sat at the edge of the bed, eyes locked on mine. “It wasn’t meant to scare you, Mira.” “Then what was it meant to do?” I whispered. He was quiet for a long time. The sound of the ocean beyond the villa filled the silence. “I started drawing after Cassandra,” he finally said. “I stopped sleeping. Stopped eating. My therapist told me to try expressing what I couldn’t say aloud. So, I drew. Faces. Eyes. Dreams. You.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Why me?” “Because you haunt me.” His voice was hoarse now. “Because sin
Mira’s P.O.V.My fingers trembled as I held the photograph. It was grainy, but the image was clear enough me, standing in the study, right beside Luca’s desk, holding the hidden contract. The photo had been taken from inside the mansion. From somewhere close. Too close. I turned the photo over again. Blank. No note. No message. No clue. Just silence. The kind of silence that buzzed under your skin. I scanned the hallway behind me, then the balcony. Nothing moved. But I couldn’t shake the feeling. Someone had been watching me. Someone might still be watching. I rushed back into the study, locking the door behind me. My heart was hammering in my chest as I slid open the drawer once more. The contract was still there untouched, exactly where I had hidden it behind the stack of design books. But now, it felt different in my hands. Heavier. Loaded. Like it carried more than just words. I scanned the room. The antique clock. The air vent above the door. The bookshelf
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