Chapter 5

Noah looked surprised seeing me home that early. I lied that I had a running stomach and wanted to rest in my room before he could start asking too many questions.

After locking myself inside, I searched Alan Reed online. I already knew he was rich and powerful, so the business articles weren’t what interested me. What I wanted was information about the kind of man he actually was outside work.

But there was barely anything.

The more I searched, the more surprised I became because nobody had ever publicly linked him to any woman before. No leaked pictures, no relationship rumors, no messy headlines. It was strange considering how famous he was. Most of what I found were people online wondering who he would eventually end up marrying.

I dropped my phone on the bed and stared at the ceiling for a long time thinking about the offer.

This was the worst part about what Damien did to me. He ruined the way I looked at love. A few days ago, I would have called a marriage without love miserable. I wouldn’t even have considered it.

Now, it felt easier to accept than loving the wrong person again.

If I was being completely honest with myself, Damien wasn’t the only reason I was considering this. Noah was too.

Seeing him lying in that hospital bed scared me.

We already lost our parents to this same kind of life. Mom spent years overworking herself trying to keep food on the table until the stress and high blood pressure finally destroyed her health.

After she died, Dad pushed himself even harder because he didn’t know how else to take care of us. He barely managed his diabetes properly and kept working until his body eventually gave out too.

Now Noah was heading down that same road, working himself to exhaustion every day while pretending he was fine just because of bills and student loans.

I knew how badly he wanted a better life. Noah had always been the smart one between us. The one who actually made it to college while I stayed behind taking whatever jobs I could find.

I wasn’t going to let money and stress take him away from me too.

I was tired of struggling all the time, tired of constantly worrying about bills, and tired of people like Damien making me feel small because I didn’t come from their world.

After what happened at the restaurant, I already knew my manager was going to make work difficult for me after embarrassing one of their rich customers.

With Alan, at least I knew exactly what I was walking into. No fake promises. No pretending to love me. No sweet words that would later turn into humiliation.

“If I say yes, what’s the worst that can happen that hasn’t already happened?” I murmured to myself.

Before I could change my mind, I grabbed the card Alan gave me and sent a short text saying I would do it.

He replied with his address and told me to come by nine in the morning.

I stared at the message for a long time.

“Oh my God,” I whispered to myself. “I was actually going to marry him.”

I avoided Noah for the rest of the evening because I knew the second he looked at me too carefully, he would know something was wrong. I didn’t want him talking me out of it. He would eventually find out, but preferably after I met Alan.

The next morning, I left the house before Noah woke up and waited inside a small coffee shop nearby until it was finally time to go.

When the cab stopped in front of the address Alan sent, I had to check my phone twice to make sure the driver had brought me to the right place.

One of the guards opened the gate after confirming my name. The walk from the gate to the main entrance alone took forever. By the time I finally reached the front door and rang the bell, my anxiety had already tripled.

A woman wearing a black uniform opened the door. “Good morning. Who are you here to see?”

“Alan Reed.”

“And your name?”

“Nora.”

Recognition crossed her face before she stepped aside. “Please come in.”

The inside of the house was just as overwhelming as the outside. The woman asked me to wait while she went to inform him I was here.

Left alone, I looked around the living room until my eyes landed on a large framed picture of a woman hanging on the wall.

Beautiful almost felt too small a word for her. She had this calm smile on her face that made the entire picture feel warm despite how quiet the house was.

I didn’t know why I kept staring at it the way I did. Maybe because it was the first thing inside that house that actually felt alive. Before I realized what I was doing, I had already stepped closer and lifted my hand toward the frame.

“Please don’t touch that.” The panicked voice startled me badly enough to make me jump.

I turned to find another woman standing behind me. Her eyes nervously moved toward the staircase before returning to me. “Mr. Reed doesn’t like people touching it.”

“It’s just a picture,” I muttered awkwardly, though I still stepped back.

The woman disappeared almost immediately after warning me.

Trying to keep my mind busy, I wandered farther into the living room until the piano near the window caught my attention.

The sight of it immediately reminded me of Dad. He used to teach Noah and me sometimes before life became too hard for things like that. Without thinking much about it, my fingers brushed lightly across the keys.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Alan’s voice made me go still. I looked back to find him standing there, the look in his eyes making it obvious he wasn’t happy about what I had just done.

I stepped away from the piano. “Sorry. I was just…”

He shut his eyes and took a slow breath before looking at me again. “Sit down. If we’re truly doing this, there are rules we need to discuss before you move in.”