로그인공유
Chapter 2: The Negotiation
최신 업데이트:
2025-11-29 01:13:55Elara
The Sterling Holdings tower was a shard of cold, reflective glass piercing the Manhattan skyline. Elara felt its shadow upon her the moment she stepped out of the taxi. She’d chosen her armor carefully: a simple, well-cut black dress that was the most conservative thing she owned, and her mother’s antique silver locket, a tiny piece of her real self she could cling to. Her chestnut curls were tamed into a low bun, but a few rebellious strands had already escaped.
The lobby was a cathedral of wealth, all marble and echoing silence. A sleek, silent elevator whisked her to the top floor. With every passing floor, the air felt thinner, colder.
Marcus Thorne, Kaelan’s right-hand man, met her at the elevator bank. He had a kind, if professionally neutral, face. “Ms. Vega. Mr. Sterling is ready for you.”
He led her not to a conference room, but to Kaelan’s private office. The room was vast, with a panoramic view of the city that was meant to intimidate. And in the center of it, standing with his back to the door, was Kaelan Sterling.
He turned as she entered.
Elara’s first thought was that photographs did not do him justice. They captured the sharp, aristocratic lines of his face, the dark, perfectly styled hair, the imposing height. But they couldn’t capture the sheer, focused intensity that radiated from him. His ice-blue eyes swept over her in a single, dispassionate assessment, and she felt like a balance sheet being audited.
“Elara Vega,” he said. His voice was a low baritone, devoid of warmth. It wasn’t a greeting; it was a statement of fact.
“Kaelan Sterling,” she replied, forcing her own voice to remain steady. She wouldn’t let him see her tremble.
He gestured to a minimalist chair facing his monolithic desk. “Sit.”
She sat, back straight, while he took his own throne on the other side. He slid a single sheet of heavy, cream-colored paper across the polished surface.
“These are the preliminary terms,” he stated. “A one-year, legally binding contract of marriage. The union will be presented as a genuine love match to the public and the press. You will attend all required social and corporate functions as my wife. You will reside with me for the duration of the contract.”
Elara’s eyes scanned the document. The cold, legal language made her stomach churn. Party A… Party B… Obligations… Appearances.
“In return,” Kaelan continued, his tone as dry as the lawyer who had drafted it, “Sterling Holdings will immediately clear all of Vega Designs’ outstanding debts, totaling forty-two million dollars. A trust will be established to cover your father’s ongoing medical care. Upon successful fulfillment of the contract terms, you will receive a severance package of twenty million dollars, free and clear.”
The numbers were astronomical, surreal. They were numbers that could erase her father’s worries forever. They were also the price tag on her life.
She looked up from the paper, meeting his gaze directly. “And what about my life? My career?”
A flicker of something—annoyance?—crossed his features. “Your ‘career’,” he said, the word sounding foreign and frivolous on his tongue, “can be pursued as a hobby, discreetly. Your public life will be as my wife. That is the priority.”
A hobby. The word was a slap. Her art, her passion, the thing that gave her breath, reduced to a hobby.
“This says I’m expected to live with you,” she said, tapping the paper. “What does that entail?”
His gaze was unwavering. “We will maintain separate bedrooms, of course. The marriage is in name and appearance only. Our private lives, outside of this arrangement, are to remain strictly separate.”
A hot flush of indignation rose in her cheeks. “You think I’d want anything else?” she shot back, her composure cracking. “You’re buying a prop, Mr. Sterling, not a person. I just want to be clear on the specifications of the mannequin you’re purchasing.”
For a second, his impassive mask slipped, and she saw a spark of something else in those icy eyes—not anger, but interest. As if she’d just done something unexpectedly unpredictable.
“The specifications are clear,” he replied, his voice dropping a fraction. “The question is, are you capable of fulfilling them? Can you pretend to be something you’re not for twelve months?”
Elara thought of her father’s weary face, of the company that held the legacy of his life’s work. She thought of her uncle’s ultimatum. She was trapped, and he knew it.
She leaned forward, her hazel eyes blazing with a fire that seemed to startle the sterile room. “I can pretend to be your wife. But don’t, for one second, expect me to enjoy it.”
She picked up the sleek, silver pen lying beside the contract. It felt cold and heavy in her hand, a tool of surrender. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic bird in a gilded cage. With a hand that only shook a little, she brought the pen to the line at the bottom of the page.
She hesitated, her gaze locking with his across the desk. It was a silent war, declared in the space between heartbeats.
Then, she signed her name.
The scratch of the pen was deafening in the quiet room. When she looked up, the spark in his eyes was gone, replaced by the cool satisfaction of a deal finalized.
“Welcome to the arrangement, Ms. Vega,” Kaelan said.
Elara placed the pen down with a definitive click. The cage door had just swung shut.
“It’s a business transaction, Mr. Sterling,” she said, rising from her chair. “Don’t mistake my signature for surrender.”
Without waiting for a dismissal, she turned and walked out, leaving the billionaire alone in his silent, sterile office, the signed contract lying between them like a declaration of war.
최신 챕터
WHEN FORTUNE BECOMES A BOND Chapter 6: The Stylist's Gambit
ElaraThe promised stylist arrived precisely at 4 p.m. on Friday. Her name was Colette, a woman who moved with the sharp, efficient grace of a bird of prey, her all-black outfit costing more than Elara’s entire monthly rent back in Brooklyn. She was followed by two assistants rolling a rack of garments shrouded in protective black cloth.“Ms. Vega,” Colette said, her eyes performing the same rapid, dispassionate assessment Kaelan had. “We have a great deal of work to do and very little time. Let’s begin.”For the next hour, Elara was poked, prodded, and measured in the center of her sitting room. Colette made quiet, clinical notes on a tablet. “The bone structure is excellent. The skin tone, warm. The hair… we will have it professionally tamed before the gala. But the posture… you slouch. You carry yourself like you wish to be smaller. That will not do.”Elara, who had always thought she carried herself just fine, felt a f
WHEN FORTUNE BECOMES A BOND Chapter 5: The First Test
KaelanThe penthouse felt different.It wasn't anything tangible, nothing he could pinpoint on a financial statement or a security report. It was a shift in the atmosphere, a subtle vibration in the air that had not been there before. The scent of turpentine and linseed oil, faint but persistent, had infiltrated his sterile environment. It was the smell of her.He found himself pausing outside the closed door of her wing each morning, listening for any sound. He heard nothing, but the mere presence of the barrier felt significant. The variable was contained, but it was not quiet.His focus was supposed to be on the impending merger with the Japanese tech firm, Synapse Corp. It was the entire raison d'être for this marital arrangement. Yet, during a crucial video conference, his eyes drifted to the live security feed of the common areas on his secondary monitor. He saw her cross the living room, a sketchbook in hand, heading toward th
WHEN FORTUNE BECOMES A BOND Chapter 4: Crossing the Threshold
ElaraThe movers had been efficient and impersonal, just like the man who was now her husband. They had taken only what she had specified: her art supplies, a trunk of personal mementos, and her clothing. The rest of her life—the worn-in sofa, the bookshelves crammed with novels, the collection of strange rocks and seashells—remained behind in the Brooklyn studio, a life put on pause.Lena stood with her on the sidewalk, a solid presence in the swirling autumn wind. "Remember the safe word," Lena said, only half-joking. "If it gets too unbearable, you text me 'Vermeer,' and I'll call in a bomb threat or something."A weak smile touched Elara's lips. "I think that might violate the 'no public scandals' clause of the contract.""Details, details." Lena pulled her into a fierce hug. "Don't let him sand down your edges, El. You're all edges and color. That place needs it."With a final, deep breath that did nothing to calm her racin
WHEN FORTUNE BECOMES A BOND Chapter 3: The Unwelcome Guest
KaelanThe penthouse was too quiet after she left.Kaelan remained at his desk, the signed contract a stark, black-and-white victory on the polished wood. He had won. He had secured the necessary asset to project stability, to fortify his empire against the Thorne Group’s encroachment. It was a flawless strategic move.So why did the silence feel so… loud?He replayed the meeting in his mind. The defiance in her hazel eyes, the way her voice had sharpened when she called herself a “mannequin.” Most people he negotiated with were either sycophantic or terrified. Elara Vega had been neither. She had been hostile, a cornered artist with the spine of a warrior queen. It was an inconvenient variable he hadn’t fully accounted for.His intercom buzzed, a welcome intrusion. “Mr. Sterling,” Marcus’s voice came through, “the team from Architech is here for the 11 a.m. briefing.”“Send them in,” Kaelan said, his voice returning to its
WHEN FORTUNE BECOMES A BOND Chapter 2: The Negotiation
ElaraThe Sterling Holdings tower was a shard of cold, reflective glass piercing the Manhattan skyline. Elara felt its shadow upon her the moment she stepped out of the taxi. She’d chosen her armor carefully: a simple, well-cut black dress that was the most conservative thing she owned, and her mother’s antique silver locket, a tiny piece of her real self she could cling to. Her chestnut curls were tamed into a low bun, but a few rebellious strands had already escaped.The lobby was a cathedral of wealth, all marble and echoing silence. A sleek, silent elevator whisked her to the top floor. With every passing floor, the air felt thinner, colder.Marcus Thorne, Kaelan’s right-hand man, met her at the elevator bank. He had a kind, if professionally neutral, face. “Ms. Vega. Mr. Sterling is ready for you.”He led her not to a conference room, but to Kaelan’s private office. The room was vast, with a panoramic view of the cit
WHEN FORTUNE BECOMES A BOND Chapter 1 : The Gilded Cage
KaelanThe only sound in the penthouse was the quiet tick of the Breguet clock on the wall and the soft whisper of central air. Kaelan Sterling stood before a wall of glass, looking down at a New York City that was, for all intents and purposes, his. The sprawling, glittering grid of lights was a circuit board of power and commerce, and he held the master switch.At thirty-five, he had the weary posture of a king who had won his throne too young. His dark hair was impeccably styled, not a strand out of place, and the custom-fit charcoal suit was his daily armor. He swirled the amber liquid in his crystal tumbler, the ice cubes clinking a solitary melody.“The Thorne Group is making another move,” his grandmother, Eleanor, said from the leather wingback chair behind him. Her voice, like the rustle of old money, cut through the silence. “They’re courting our Asian partners. A show of instability now would be… costly.”Kaelan didn’t
다른 추천
Forceful Marriage: Young Master's Mute Wife
A Lake’s Depth1.2M 조회수Married a Secret Billionaire
Breaking Wave1.1M 조회수Bound to the CEO
wandering jedi684.6K 조회수My Marriage Is A Contract
Marvy502.5K 조회수Make Him Bleed or Yearn
Ataima K153 조회수All Of Us Are Dead
Lady Sheldon911 조회수THE BILLIONAIRE BABY
Author E. 146 조회수The CEO'S Unexpected Bride
Tory June 35 조회수
