CHAPTER 3 — THE OVERHEARD SECRET

Arielle didn’t mean to linger.

She had been marching down the hallway, cheeks burning from humiliation, still tasting the bitter sting of Damian Blackwood’s rejection. The elevator was three steps away. Three steps. She just had to press the damn button and let this skyscraper swallow her for good.

But then she realized she forget her purse in the hallway, so she went back to get it on her way back she heard a conversation,

A voice rose sharply behind a frosted glass wall.

Damian Blackwood’s voice.

“…thirty days is unreasonable. My father can’t expect that.”

Arielle froze.

Her legs stopped moving and she forget where she's going and what she wanted to go and do, suspended mid motion like her body suddenly forgot how to breathe, Curiosity tugged at her, soft at first, then harder, until her feet moved on their own.

She move closer to the door, stopping just outside a slightly open office room door close to the conference room.

Inside, Damian stood tall and furious, back to her, shoulders tight beneath a perfectly tailored charcoal suit. Three men in expensive suits sat across from him, lawyers, judging by their serious expressions and the mountains of paperwork spread across the table.

One of them spoke calmly, as though he’d already said it a hundred times.

“Mr. Blackwood, your father’s will is explicit. To assume full control of Blackwood Global, the clause requires you to be married by the anniversary of his death.”

Arielle blinked.

Married?

Damian let out a low, irritated laugh. It wasn’t the kind that held humor. It vibrated with rage.

“You expect me to marry someone in thirty days? What is this, a circus? A twisted morality test? The board already trusts my leadership.”

“His lawyers do not,” another man replied. “And the shareholders want the transition to follow the will exactly, No loopholes, No negotiations.”

Damian’s jaw clenched so hard she could hear his teeth grind from the hallway.

“This is manipulation,” he snapped. “He’s been dead for three years and he’s still controlling me. He controlled everything when he was alive, and now”

He cut himself off. His throat worked as he swallowed something raw.

Arielle’s breath hitched.

She shouldn’t be listening. She knew that. But something about his voice, about the rare crack in it kept her feet rooted to the floor.

One of the lawyers slid a sheet across the table.

“Unless you marry, the company defaults to your cousin, Victor. And we both know how that will end.”

Damian’s hands curled into fists on the table.

Victor.

The name sounded poisonous coming from the lawyer’s lips.

“Victor won’t get this company,” Damian growled. “Not while I’m alive.”

“Then there’s only one option,” the first lawyer repeated. “A marriage, that's your father last wish before he die and we all know the reason he made that important to your inheritance.”

A sharp exhale left Damian, full of exhaustion and fury.

“I don’t have time for a relationship. I don’t have time for…” He gestured vaguely, as if the concept itself disgusted him. “For emotional disasters.”

“You need to make a time,” the lawyer said quietly.

“You find a bride.”

Arielle’s mouth fell open.

A bride.

Damian Blackwood.

The same man who tossed her out of his office like trash an hour ago.

Was this why he was so cold? So walled off? So determined to control everything around him?

A requirement.

A deadline.

Thirty days.

Her pulse quickened.

If he was desperate enough…

If she needed money badly enough…

Could a man like him,

Would a man like him,

No.

It was ridiculous. Impossible.

She shouldn’t even be imagining,

But before she could back away, Damian slammed his hands against the table, sending a stack of papers flying.

“I will NOT be forced into marriage like some bargaining chip. My life is not a contract.”

The lawyers exchanged uncomfortable looks.

Arielle, caught between guilt and fascination, tried to take a slow, quiet step back,

The floorboard creaked.

Damian’s head snapped toward the door.

Arielle froze.

His dark eyes locked instantly onto the shadow of her form through the glass.

Then, in two strides, he crossed the room.

The door swung open so violently it smacked the wall.

Arielle jumped.

Damian stood in the doorway, towering, furious, eyes sharp as daggers.

“What,” he said in a dangerously calm voice,

“exactly do you think you’re doing?”

Arielle’s throat dried up.

“I....I wasn’t... I just....”

“You’ve been standing here long enough to overhear a private legal meeting.”

His voice wasn’t loud.

It was worse.

Quiet. Controlled. Lethal.

Her stomach twisted.

“I didn’t mean to listen,” she whispered, trembling. “I was just leaving and”

“Don’t lie to me.”

The chill in his tone sliced straight through her.

Behind him, the lawyers silently gathered their files, clearly wanting no part of whatever was about to happen.

Damian stepped closer.

Close enough that she had to tilt her chin up just to meet his glare.

“Eavesdropping on me is the worst mistake you could possibly make in this building.”

Arielle’s heart pounded painfully against her ribs.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I swear I won’t say anything. I don’t even know anyone important enough to tell.”

Damian’s jaw flexed.

For a split second, something,fear? Vulnerability?flashed behind his eyes.

Then it disappeared.

Replaced by cold, ruthless control.

He leaned in, his breath ghosting her ear.

“You will come with me. Now.”

Her pulse tripped.

“Wh...what? Why?”

He stepped back, eyes darkening.

“Because,” he said, voice low and unreadable,

“I can’t let you walk out of this building with what you just heard.”

Arielle swallowed hard.

This went beyond humiliation.

Beyond anger.

She had stumbled into a secret that could somehow change her life and put Damian at risk of loosing Blackwood empire.

Damian turned, giving her one last hard look over his shoulder.

“Follow me,” he ordered.

“Or I will personally ensure you never work in this city again.”

The world tilted around her.

He knew her name.

He had checked her résumé.

Her skin prickled.

She had no idea where he was taking her.

But she knew one thing with terrifying certainty:

This was the moment her life shifted forever.