All Chapters of Bound by paper : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Chapter Three: Jade's POV The mattress beneath me was too soft. It was the kind of yielding, expensive foam that seemed designed to swallow a person whole. It was unfamiliar and wrong. My eyes fluttered open slowly, but a sharp, clinical light forced them shut again. I groaned quietly and lifted a leaden hand to my forehead. Pain arrived in a dull, rhythmic pulse behind my eyes. For a few seconds, the world was a blank canvas of white noise, and then the memories returned in a crushing flood. The engagement party. The burning red of Sheila’s dress. The predatory curve of Elio’s smile as he announced my replacement to the world. My father’s cold, dismissive eyes. Then, the stairs. My body jolted as I pushed myself upright. I froze as the room came into focus. This was not my apartment. It was not the sterile guest room of my father’s house, and it certainly was not Elio’s penthouse. The room was enormous and drenched in muted gold lighting. Floor-to-ceiling curtains of heavy vel

Chapter Five: Jade's POV The ride home was quiet. It was the kind of heavy, pressurized silence that should have comforted me after the chaos of the last twelve hours, but it did not. Instead, it allowed the memories of that hotel room to play on a loop behind my eyes. I could still hear his voice. I could see the way the light caught the sharp angles of his jaw and the terrifyingly calm offer he had made. Marry me. It sounded like a lifeline and a death sentence all at once. I hated that he had made it sound so reasonable. I hated even more that, for a split second, I had actually listened. By the time the cab pulled up to the wrought iron gates of my father’s estate, the sun was already climbing into the sky. The light was pale and unforgiving, exposing the fatigue in my bones. I stepped out and walked toward the front door, slipping inside as quietly as a shadow. I wanted to avoid my stepmother’s smug comments and my father’s cold stares. All I wanted was a quick shower, a ch

Chapter Seven: Jade's POV “I am ready.” The words left my mouth before my brain could find a way to stop them. They felt heavy and permanent, like a stone dropped into a deep well. The silence on the other end of the line was immediate. It was not the kind of silence that suggested a dropped call or a lack of attention. It was the kind of silence that meant he was processing my answer, weighing it, and deciding exactly where it fit into his grand design. For a heartbeat, I wondered if he had changed his mind. Perhaps he had realized that a broken, disinherited woman was not worth the trouble after all. But then his voice came again, cutting through the static of my anxiety. “I see.” He sounded calm. He sounded controlled. It was as if my entire life was not currently hanging by a fraying thread. It was as if I had not just offered to tether my soul to a man I had only met while bleeding in a stairwell. His tone did not carry surprise. It did not carry the warmth of a man who

Chapter Nine: The leather-bound folder sat on my lap like it weighed more than mere paper and ink. It felt like a leaden weight pressing into my thighs, anchoring me to a future I still could not quite wrap my mind around. I had already spent the last twenty minutes reading through the bulk of the document. The terms were as cold and clinical as a corporate takeover. A three-year marriage. Public appearances when necessary for the benefit of his image. No romantic obligations or physical expectations. A financial settlement at the end that was large enough to change the trajectory of my entire life. Everything was precise. It was written like a merger between two global conglomerates instead of a union between two human beings. There was no mention of love, no mention of companionship, and certainly no mention of a home. I turned another page slowly, the crisp sound of the paper echoing in the silence of the suite. Killian had not moved an inch since I started reading. He sat acro