Contract Ending

12:00 AM. Knight Old Mansion.

We should have gone back to the hospital. But Alexander got a call in the car.

His face changed. The soft boyfriend from rooftop disappeared. Cold Knight CEO was back.

"My grandmother is here. She landed from London 2 hours ago. She is at the old mansion. She wants to see us. Now."

The Knight old mansion was not like Lane mansion. Lane was warm, wood, sewing machines. Knight was glass, stone, and silence. $200M house with no photos on the wall.

Grandmother Knight — Margaret Knight, 78, former CEO of Knight Group London, the woman who made the Knights billionaires — was sitting in the main hall in a wheelchair, but she sat like a queen on a throne. White hair, pearls, eyes like Alexander but harder.

Next to her stood a woman I didn't know. Tall, blonde, model, late 20s, in a red Dior dress. Very pregnant. At least 6 months.

My stomach dropped.

"Sophia Lane," Grandmother said, voice with British accent, no smile. "So this is the girl my grandson married for a contract. And broke 8 clauses for."

Alexander stepped in front of me instinctively. "Grandmother."

"Sit."

We sat.

The blonde woman smiled at me, soft, fake soft. "Hi Sophia, I'm Victoria Hale. Alexander's... old friend. We grew up together."

Old friend who was pregnant. I understood instantly.

Grandmother went straight.

"Alexander, you have 3 days left on your one-year contract marriage. You married this girl to get the Lane land for our hotel project. The project is done. The contract should end. Now it's time to do the right thing."

She looked at the pregnant woman.

"Victoria is carrying your child. From last Christmas, London party. She told me two months ago. The baby is a Knight. A real Knight heir. Not a Lane who comes with poisoned mother and jailed stepmother."

The room went silent. Even the air conditioning felt frozen.

I looked at Alexander. His fists were clenched so tight his knuckles were white. He was not looking at Victoria. He was looking at his grandmother in disbelief.

"Victoria," he said, voice dangerously low, "what are you talking about? I have not seen you since 2022."

Victoria started crying, touching her belly. "Alex, you were drunk... at the Knight Christmas Gala... you don't remember? I didn't want to tell you, but Grandmother said the baby needs a father..."

It was a classic trap. I had seen this plot in 100 novels.

I should have been jealous. In my last life, I would have cried and run away.

This life, I took out my phone and opened the calendar.

"December 25th last year?" I asked calmly. "Christmas Gala in London?"

Victoria nodded, tears. "Yes."

I turned my phone screen to Grandmother.

"Grandmother, on December 25th last year, Alexander was with me in New York. At hospital. My mother had emergency surgery for poisoning relapse. I have hospital check-in records, CCTV from 8 PM to 6 AM next day. And a photo of him sleeping on hospital chair holding my mother's hand."

I showed another photo — Alexander asleep in hospital chair, my mother on bed, timestamp Dec 25 02:13 AM.

Victoria's crying stopped.

Alexander stared at me, shocked. "You... you kept that photo?"

"I keep every photo of you doing good things, Mr. Knight. In case someone lies about you."

Grandmother's eyes sharpened. She looked at Victoria.

"Victoria?"

Victoria stood up, angry. "That photo can be fake! The baby is his! I have DNA—"

"You have no DNA," Alexander stood up now, towering. He pressed his intercom. "Security, call my doctor and her doctor. Now. Pregnancy test and paternity test, tonight."

"No!" Victoria stepped back.

"Grandmother," I said softly but clearly, "I know you don't like me. You think I'm a gold digger who married your grandson for money. You are right, I did. At first. I needed $1B to save my mother and my company. He needed my land. It was business."

I took Alexander's hand.

"But business ended. On the rooftop, at the hospital, in the basement — we are not contract anymore. I love him. Not because he is a Knight. Because he brings milk at midnight and waits outside basement even when I say I don't need him."

Alexander's hand squeezed mine hard.

Grandmother was quiet for a long time. She looked at our hands, at the jade ring on my finger next to the Knight family ring Alexander gave me on wedding day — the ring I never took off even when I hated him.

"Margaret," she said to herself, then to me, "in 1965, I also married for business. My husband needed my family's shipping line. I needed his money to save my father's company. We hated each other for two years."

She wheeled closer.

"Then one night, he also brought me milk. When my father died. No one else remembered I don't drink coffee after 10 PM."

She looked at Alexander. "She kept your hospital photo. You kept her design room clean for three years even when she was not there. I checked. Your assistant told me."

Alexander's ears turned red.

Grandmother sighed. "Victoria, you can leave. The baby is not a Knight. I had your medical report checked this afternoon. You are 4 months, not 6. Christmas is impossible. You are fired from Knight London branch. My lawyers will talk to you."

Victoria ran out, crying fake tears.

Grandmother looked at us.

"Your contract has 3 days left. What will you do?"

Alexander knelt down — yes, the billionaire CEO knelt — on one knee, in front of his grandmother, but looking at me, took out a small black box from his pocket. Not the Knight family ring. A new one. A star-shaped diamond — smaller Starlight, made from leftover cut of the $50M stone I gave him this morning to keep safe.

"Sophia Lane," he said, voice shaking, not cold CEO anymore, just a boy from PE field, "my contract ends in 3 days. My love for you has no end date. Will you marry me again? Not for land, not for money, not for contract. For milk at midnight and forever?"

I cried. This time, happy tears that wouldn't stop.

"Yes. Yes, you idiot. Yes."

Grandmother clapped once. "Finally. Took you long enough, Alexander. You take after your grandfather — slow."

She wheeled away, but threw over her shoulder: "Sophia, tomorrow come to my house for tea. Bring that $50M diamond. I want to see if it's real. And bring your mother. If she taught you to keep hospital photos, she is a good woman. I want to meet her."

She left.

Just us in the huge cold mansion that suddenly felt warm.

Alexander stood up, put the star ring on my finger, over the jade ring. Two rings. Lane and Knight.

"Mrs. Knight, contract is officially broken. Clause 8, 9, 10, all broken."

"Mr. Knight, as your new non-contract wife, I have new clause," I said, pulling him down for a kiss.

"What's that?"

"Kiss me whenever you want. No approval needed."

"Approved."

We kissed in the hall where his grandmother just left, where the fake ex just lied, where our contract started a year ago as business.

It ended as love.

Outside, my phone buzzed again. Assistant:

_CEO Lane, board voted 9-0. David Lane removed. Lisa Wang officially charged. And Chloe deleted her I*******m. And... Mrs. Knight, your Revival Collection is #1 trending worldwide._

I showed Alexander.

He smiled. "Told you. You didn't need me. You won by yourself."

"No," I said, leaning on his chest, listening to his fast heartbeat. "I won because you stood behind me. Just in case."