Chapter 5: The agreement

Ava's POV

He turned and walked toward a set of double doors without checking whether I followed. The arrogance of it made my hands curl into fists.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to hit him. I wanted to run until I found a phone and called the hospital myself. Instead I followed, because Lily was somewhere out there still needing fifty thousand dollars I did not have, and this man was the only person left who might give it to me.

The living room was vast. Floor-to-ceiling windows looked out onto the gray garden. A massive stone fireplace. Leather furniture the color of midnight.

Damian sat in a large armchair as if he owned the air itself and gestured to the sofa opposite him.

“Sit.”

“Are you serious right now?”

“Very.”

I remained standing for three full seconds, trembling with the effort of not lunging across the coffee table. Then I sat on the very edge of the sofa, fingers twisting together until the knuckles ached.

“Please,” I said, and hated how small my voice sounded.

“If you can help my daughter, I’ll do anything. I don’t care about the cost. I’ll pay you back. I’ll work for you if I have to. Just please don’t let her die.”

For the first time his expression shifted. Not softness. Something colder and more focused, like a blade being turned to catch the light.

“Anything?”

I hesitated only long enough to picture Lily’s tiny hand in mine, the way her fingers had gone slack the night before.

“If it saves Lily, yes.”

Damian reached for the phone on the side table, dialed a short number, and spoke two quiet sentences I could not fully hear. Then he hung up and waited.

A few minutes later the double doors opened again. A tall man in a black suit entered carrying a leather folder. Broad shoulders. Expression carefully blank. He placed the folder and a black pen on the coffee table with military precision and stepped back.

“Everything is ready, sir.”

“You may leave us, Adrian.”

The man,Adrian , I would later learn,glanced at me once. His eyes lingered on my trembling hands, the oversized shirt, the wild state of my hair. Then he nodded once and left, closing the doors with a soft, final click.

I stared at the folder.

“What is that?”

“An agreement.”

“What kind of agreement?”

Damian leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. The movement brought him closer. The light from the windows carved the hard lines of his face into something almost beautiful and entirely merciless.

“If you want me to save your daughter, you’ll sign it.”

The words landed like ice water.

“You’re asking me to sign something while my daughter is in intensive care?”

“I’m giving you a way to get her the treatment she needs.”

“She’s your niece!”

“And you’re still married to my brother.”

The quiet finality of it stole the air from my lungs. He did not raise his voice. He did not need to.

“Read the agreement, Ava. If you want Lily alive, don’t waste the time you have left arguing with me.”

My hands shook so badly I nearly dropped the folder. I opened it.

CONFIDENTIAL MARRIAGE AGREEMENT

The title alone made my stomach twist. I forced myself to keep reading, each clause a fresh cut.

Marriage for three years. Ava Bennett will legally marry Damian Sterling and remain his wife for a fixed period of three years…

Financial and medical support. Damian will immediately arrange and fund Lily’s necessary treatment, specialist consultations, hospital care, and recovery expenses…

Public appearances. Ava will accompany Damian to family gatherings, corporate events, charity functions…

A shared residence. Ava will live in Damian’s mansion… separate bedrooms unless mutually agreed otherwise…

No obligation to provide romantic affection…

Financial independence. Damian will provide Ava with a personal allowance… Ava will not be required to repay Lily’s medical bills…

Mutual loyalty and public conduct…

No interference with Lily’s relationship with her parents…

Termination after three years…

Breach of agreement… Damian’s financial support for Lily will not be withdrawn as punishment…

I read the first few clauses twice. My vision blurred.

“You want to marry me?”

Damian did not blink.

“Yes.”

“I’m Ethan’s wife.”

“I know exactly who you are.”

“Your brother’s wife,” I repeated, voice rising. “Have you lost your mind?”

His jaw tightened. A muscle jumped once beneath the skin.

“Your marriage to Ethan is already broken, whether you are willing to admit it or not. What I am offering you is a way forward.”

“You can’t buy me!”

“No,” he said coldly. “But I can offer you something you desperately need.”

I shoved the folder away hard enough that the pen rolled across the table and fell to the carpet.

“But I…I still love Ethan.”

The admission tore out of me before I could stop it. Silence flooded the room. Damian’s face became a mask of pure ice. Only his eyes moved,slow, assessing, dangerous.

“Then you should have called him again.”

I flinched.

“I did.”

“Did he answer?”

My throat closed. I looked down at my hands.

“No.”

“Did he come to the hospital?”

Tears burned the backs of my eyes.

“No.”

“Then tell me, Ava. What exactly are you still holding on to?”

I had no answer. Every excuse I had ever made for Ethan,stress, the company, temporary weakness,died before it could leave my mouth. The image of Victoria’s triumphant smile over his shoulder in the hotel lobby burned behind my eyelids.

Still I could not sign.

Damian’s phone vibrated on the coffee table. He glanced at the screen, answered, and listened. His expression hardened into something lethal.

“Put her through.”

A moment later a small, weak voice filled the room through the speaker.

“Mommy?”

Everything inside me stopped.

“Lily!” I lunged forward, nearly knocking the phone from his hand. “Baby, Mommy’s here! I’m here, sweetheart!”

“Mommy, I’m scared.”

My hand flew to my mouth. A broken sound escaped.

“Don’t be scared, my love. Mommy’s coming back. I promise.”

“Mommy, please… I’m in pain.”

In the background a nurse’s soft voice explained that Lily was awake but uncomfortable, that the medical team was trying to keep her stable while arrangements for further treatment were made. The words blurred. All I could hear was my daughter’s tiny, frightened voice asking for me.

“Please let me talk to her longer,” I begged, tears streaming freely now.

Damian’s fingers tightened around the phone. His face remained controlled, but something dark and violent moved in his eyes for half a second before it vanished.

Lily’s voice came again, smaller.

“Mommy, don’t leave me.”

The call ended.

The nurse’s apology was cut off mid-sentence. Silence crashed down.

I stared at the dark phone screen as if it still held her. Then I turned to Damian. My voice was raw, stripped of everything except need.

“Please. I’ll sign it.”

He said nothing. Waited.

“I’ll marry you. I’ll go to your events. I’ll live here. I’ll do whatever you want within that agreement. Just save my daughter.”

Damian slid the folder back across the table and placed the pen beside it with deliberate care.

“Read the final page before you sign.”

I barely looked. My vision was a blur of tears and panic. All I could hear was Lily asking me not to leave. My hand shook so hard the pen nearly slipped twice. I signed.

AVA BENNETT.

The ink dried on the page like a wound closing.

And with it, the life I thought I knew began to collapse.

---

Hurried footsteps sounded in the hallway almost immediately. A woman in a dark uniform, rushed into the room carrying my phone as if it might explode.

“Mrs. Sterling, I’m sorry. Your phone was left beside the bed upstairs. It hasn’t stopped ringing.”

I took it with fingers that still trembled. The screen lit up the second it touched my palm.

ETHAN STERLING — CALLING.

The name slammed into me harder than the Maybach had. The same man who had ignored seven calls, frozen our accounts, and left me begging on marble while Victoria smiled over his shoulder had suddenly remembered how to dial my number.

My thumb hovered over the green button.

Damian’s gaze moved from the glowing screen to my face. His voice was quiet, almost soft, and more dangerous than anything he had said all morning.

“Answer it.”

I looked at him, confused.

“Why?”

“Because I want to hear what my brother has to say now that you’ve signed your name to mine.”

The phone kept ringing. My heart pounded so hard I felt it in my teeth. I pressed the answer button and lifted the phone to my ear.

“Ethan?”

His voice came through sharp, furious, and entirely too late.

“Where the hell are you, Ava?

My blood turned to ice.

I slowly lifted my eyes to Damian.

He was already watching me.

The corner of his mouth curved,not quite a smile. Something colder. Something that looked a great deal like victory.