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C4
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2026-08-24 00:33:40Chapter 4
The Story They Told First
Ivie saw it before she meant to. Her phone lit up on the desk while she was still staring at the redacted line in the calendar, and a name flashed across the screen a gossip account her cousin followed, the kind that posted three times a day and somehow always knew things first.
She almost didn't open it. Then she saw Damien's name in the preview text and picked the phone up anyway.
The post had gone up forty minutes ago.
There was a photo from the party Damien and Sophia standing close together near the bar, taken from an angle that made it look like the middle of an ordinary conversation. Under it, a caption written like it was doing her a favor.
*LIvie Sterling's engagement party took an unexpected turn last night when the bride-to-be reportedly accused her fiancé and her closest friend of an affair, based on a private business conversation she misunderstood. Sources close to the couple say Ivie has struggled with the demands of running in her father's circle and has grown increasingly possessive of Damien's professional relationships. "It's sad, honestly," one guest said. "Everyone could see she wasn't handling the pressure well."
She read it twice.
The second time, she noticed things she'd skimmed past the first. The word reportedly. Then misunderstood. That one bothered her more. It made everything sound reasonable, like she'd been the problem and everyone else had just been trying to deal with her. The unnamed guest. The details about the pressure, which nobody had said out loud last night, which nobody could have known unless someone had told them to say it.
She set the phone down harder than she meant to.
Forty minutes. That was the part that stuck with her more than the words. Forty minutes after she walked out of that ballroom, there was already a photograph, already quotes, already a story with a shape to it. Not a rumor spreading the messy way rumors spread. Something built.
Her assistant knocked and came in without waiting for an answer, the way she did when something was wrong enough to skip it. "Ivie…"
"I've seen it."
"There's a second one. Different accounts. Same photo."
"Show me."
Nearly the same story, worded a little differently, like it had been handed to two people at once and each had written it in their own voice. Ivie read it and felt something in her chest go still instead of hot.
"Who gave them the photo?"
Her assistant didn't answer.
Ivie opened her messages and got three words into something for Damien before she stopped and looked at what she'd typed. How could you? She deleted it. Typed something else. Deleted that too. Whatever she sent him now, however she sent it, would end up existing the way everything from last night now existed recorded, repeated, turned into proof of exactly what the article said about her.
She turned the phone face down.
She thought about the burn mark on the study rug, shaped like a comma. She thought about how comfortable Sophia had looked on the arm of that chair, like it wasn't the first time. She thought about how carefully Damien had set his glass down the second he saw her in the doorway, not startled, not rushed, like a man who already knew what he'd say if this ever happened.
Not if. When.
They'd had this ready. Maybe not the exact words, but the shape of it, the idea that if she ever found out, the way to handle it was to get to everyone else first. That was the part that sat wrong, worse than the article itself. Somewhere before last night, one of them, maybe both, had thought about what they'd say if she caught them, and decided it should make her look like the one who'd lost her mind.
Her assistant was still by the door. "Do you want me to call legal?"
Ivie looked at her.
"Not yet."
"Are you sure?"
"No." She turned the phone over again, screen down, and left it there. "But do it quietly. I want to know who fed it to them first before anyone officials starts asking."
"I'll find out what I can."
Her assistant nodded and left. Ivie sat looking at the closed door. She was still hurt. That hadn't changed. But the hurt wasn't the only thing she felt anymore. If she cried in front of the wrong person today, it would be in an article by tonight. If she raised her voice, someone would already have a phone out. She understood that now in a way she hadn't been at the party, when it had all still felt like bad luck, a private moment turning public by accident.
It hadn't been an accident. Somebody had planned for this.
She picked the phone back up and read the article a third time, slower, not looking for what it said about her this time but for what it gave away about them the speed, the coordination, the careful wording built to make sure nobody's fault stuck to anyone in particular. Whoever wrote this hadn't guessed. They'd been told.
The phone rang before she'd decided what to do with any of it.
Priscilla's name lit up the screen. Ivie almost let it go to voicemail. She didn't have it in her for a slow, gentle conversation about how she was holding up. But her aunt didn't call without a reason, and Ivie had learned a long time ago not to ignore that.
She answered. "Aunt Priscilla."
"Ivie." Brisk. Businesslike. None of the softness Ivie had braced for. "I saw the piece."
"I figured you would."
"We need to talk. Not about how you're feeling, I assume that's obvious." A pause, the kind that meant she was choosing her words. "We need to talk about optics. Before the board session."
Ivie sat up straighter. "What board session."
Her aunt didn't answer that. Not
directly.
"Tuesday," she said instead. "We'll talk before Tuesday.”
최신 챕터
The Vows we broke C17
Chapter 17 What the Papers Say About HimIvie set the folder from Alexander’s office on the kitchen table, unopened, and opened her laptop instead.She typed his name into the search bar. Three years of press releases arranged themselves into a tidy, flattering timeline. Blackwood International’s expansion into logistics. A profile calling him “notoriously private.” A charity gala photo dark suit, not smiling, standing slightly apart from the group even in a posed shot.None of it told her anything she hadn’t already picked up sitting across from the man himself.She scrolled back further. Ten years. Fifteen. The coverage thinned the deeper she went, the way it does for someone who kept himself out of cameras on purpose. She tried a different search: Alexander Blackwood early career.Most results repeated the same short paragraph, word for word, the kind of biography a company writes about itself and lets journalists copy from it without checking. Built his first company from a small
The Vows we broke C16
Chapter 16- Marriage, Typed at the Top of the PageIvie stared at the word again Marriage.She hesitated with her hand over the paper, then slowly drew it back into her lap.Alexander said nothing.She looked up."This is a joke right?”“Does it look like a joke to you?""You're asking me to marry you?""I'm offering a contract. Marriage is a legal structure that facilitates the possibility of the rest of it."Ivie exchanged a long look with the page, then with the remainder of the folder still tucked beneath his hand. "You said you could clear the debt. Keep the house.""Yes. If you agree to become my wife under the contract.”"For how long.""Two years minimum before either of us can request a termination. After that, either party may dissolve the arrangement freely under the given terms.""And during those two years.""You keep the house. The debt is cleared in full. Your father's estate remains your responsibility. You retain your name, if that is your preference. Nothing is clai
The Vows we broke C15
Chapter 15 Two WeeksIvie had barely woken when she stretched beneath the sheets and yawned. Sleep still clung to her, but she pushed herself out of bed and reached for the clothes she had left on the chair the night before.She was pulling her top over her head when her phone buzzed on the bedside table.She stopped.For a moment, she considered ignoring it. Then she reached for the phone and unlocked the screen.An email.She opened it.The message was short and formal. An invitation to a meeting concerning a mutually beneficial arrangement. The time was stated clearly. So was the address.She stared at the screen for several seconds before letting out a quiet hiss and dropping the phone back onto the bed.Of course.She should have known Alexander Blackwood wasn't finished with her.She picked up her clothes and walked into the bathroom.The shower helped wake her up, but it did nothing to settle her thoughts. By the time she
The Vows we broke C14
Chapter 14What He Doesn't Say Out LoudShe had said no without actually saying it.Alexander sat with that after she left, the pen still in his hand until he noticed and set it down. Most people who came into this office already knew how the meeting would end. They arrived prepared to accept whatever terms he offered because they had run out of other options. Ivie Sterling had not done that. She had made him repeat himself. She had called him on the pacing before he had fully decided to do it.He hadn’t planned for that.Seventeen days still left her with almost no room to maneuver. She would need the money. Pride only stretched so far when a house and a deadline were involved. But the arrangement would require more handling than he had expected, and he preferred plans that did not need handling.He buzzed his lawyer’s office. “Marcus Reid in my office now, if he’s free.”Reid arrived twenty minutes later with a laptop bag over one shoulder.Alexander didn't waste time.“I want you to
The Vows we broke C13
Chapter 13 The First Ten MinutesThe meeting was set for ten the next morning. Reyes had sent her the address, but Ivie didn’t recognize the place. She hadn’t even agreed to anything yet, yet he had already arranged everything as though her answer had never been in doubt.She didn’t trust Alexander. She didn’t trust the place he wanted her to go, either. But trust was a luxury she could no longer afford.She had seventeen days left.Maybe less.The following morning, Ivie took a bath and chose one of her best outfits, the navy suit she used to wear to board meetings.Putting it on brought back memories she had been trying not to think about. Those days when she had walked into her father’s company with confidence, knowing exactly where she belonged. Now, the same clothes felt almost like something borrowed from a life that no longer existed.She ate a quick breakfast, then ordered a Bolt ride and showed the driver the address Reyes had sent her.The drive was quiet.Ivie stared out t
The Vows we broke C12
Chapter 12The Last Number in the ColumnThe bank opened at nine. Ivie was on the phone a few minutes past nine.“Hello, good morning.”“Good morning, ma’am. How may I help you?”“I need to speak with the loan officer.” Ivie said over the phone “One moment, please.”She waited, gripping the phone tighter when the call finally connected.“Good morning. This is the loan department.”“Hi. I want to apply for a loan.”“Alright, ma’am. What amount are you looking for?”“I’m not sure yet. I have a problem I need to solve, and I have seventeen days left.”“Alright, what is your name please.”“Ivie Sterling,” Ivie replied, hoping for good news.There was a short pause.“Okay ma'am,” the loan officer said. His tone was polite, but distant. “But the deadline isn’t the problem. Your financial profile has changed.”Ivie frowned. “Changed how?”“Your income status. A month ago, you had steady employment with Sterling Holdings. Our records now show that your position has been terminated, so your c
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