All Chapters of The contract that owned me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

IRIS'S POVI signed the contract at 11:47 p.m.Not because I wanted to — but because desperation is louder at night.There’s something about late hours that makes bad decisions feel reasonable. The world slows down, the noise fades, and whatever you’ve been running from finally catches up. Bills feel heavier. Fear feels closer. Hope feels optional.Blackwood Systems sat above the city like it didn’t belong to it. Forty-seven floors up, New York looked ornamental — lights arranged too neatly, movement reduced to patterns instead of people. From here, the city didn’t feel alive. It felt contained.The office was quiet in the way expensive spaces always are. Not empty — curated. The silence felt padded, layered with money and intention. Floor-to-ceiling glass reflected the skyline back at itself, a thousand blinking lights staring inward like witnesses. Somewhere far below, horns blared, footsteps echoed, lives unfolded.Up here, time held its breath.“Take your time,” Adrian Blackwood s

IRIS'S POVBy 9:00 a.m., I understood one thing very clearly:Blackwood Systems did not run on chaos.It ran on anticipation.Every meeting flowed into the next without friction. Calendars updated themselves. Emails were sorted before I finished reading them. People appeared when they were needed and vanished just as smoothly. It felt less like an office and more like a living organism—one that reacted instantly to Adrian Blackwood’s will.And somehow, I was now a nerve ending in it.“Miss Hale.”I looked up from the tablet just as a man stopped at my desk. Mid-thirties. Expensive suit. The kind of confidence that came from knowing people usually said yes to him.“I’m Daniel Reeves,” he said. “Senior acquisitions. I need five minutes with Adrian before the board call.”I checked the calendar. Adrian had blocked the next hour.“I’m sorry,” I said carefully. “Mr. Blackwood isn’t available right now.”Daniel’s smile tightened. “He’ll want to see me.”I met his gaze. “He’ll let me know if

The warning didn’t come dramatically.No whispered threat in a dark hallway.No anonymous note slipped into my bag.It came over coffee.I was still thinking about Adrian’s words—It already has—when Lila appeared at my desk the next morning, a paper cup in each hand.“Hazelnut latte,” she said, placing one beside my tablet. “You looked like you could use it.”“I didn’t order—”“I know,” she said lightly.I stared at the cup.“Thank you,” I said after a moment.She lingered.That alone was strange.Lila was efficient in the way people were when they didn’t have time to be curious. She moved fast, spoke faster, and never hovered. But now she leaned against the edge of my desk, eyes flicking briefly toward Adrian’s office before returning to me.“You survived your first dinner,” she said.I blinked. “You know about that?”Her mouth curved into a knowing smile. “Everyone knows.”“That was private,” I said.“Nothing here is,” she replied gently.The words settled uncomfortably between us.

The apartment felt different when I got back.Too quiet. Not peaceful—watchful.I locked the door behind me, twisting the bolt twice even though I knew how useless that would be if someone truly wanted in. The silence pressed against my ears, thick and deliberate, as if the walls themselves were holding their breath.I dropped my bag by the door and leaned against it, eyes closed.You were never supposed to be visible yet.The message replayed in my mind, over and over, like a bruise you keep pressing just to confirm it’s real.Not Adrian.I knew that with the kind of certainty that settles in your bones. Adrian Blackwood didn’t send warnings. He issued outcomes. He didn’t hide behind anonymous numbers or half-spoken threats.If Adrian wanted me afraid, he’d make sure I understood exactly why.I pushed myself upright and walked deeper into the apartment, flicking on lights as I went. Everything was where I’d left it that morning. Couch. Table. The half-read book on the armrest. The fa