Chapter 71: Contractually Yours

Jem's POV I woke up slowly, still half buried in sleep as I shifted slightly on the bed. For a moment, I didn’t even remember where I was. Everything felt warm and quiet, and my body was still heavy from last night's exhaustion. But the second I finally sat up properly and looked around the room, reality started settling back into my head.And then I heard Dante’s voice from behind me.“You’re awake.”I turned immediately.Dante was already sitting up against the headboard, still fully dressed from last night. Shirt, trousers, even his shoes were still on like he had never properly gone to sleep at all.The morning felt strangely awkward.Not uncomfortable exactly… just different.Neither of us brought up last night directly, but the air between us didn’t feel the same anymore. Something had definitely shifted after that conversation that we'd last night. I could feel it clearly, and from the way Dante was looking at me quietly, I knew he felt it too even if neither of us was sayin

Chapter 72: Contractually Yours

Jem's POV I was still standing in the kitchen when Mara spoke again.She didn’t even turn to face me. She just kept peeling her fruit slowly, like whatever she was about to say didn’t require my attention in the first place. Her voice came out calm, almost too calm, cutting through the quiet space between us.“I know about the seven-day contract,” she said simply, still focused on the fruit in her hands. “And I know Dante is developing feelings.”That alone made my chest tighten slightly, but I didn’t interrupt her. I just stood there, watching her back, waiting.Then she finally said it.“Dante is going to die before his fortieth birthday, Jem. That’s in less than seven months. And when he dies, everything in this house—the estate, the empire, the hospital, your mother’s treatment—all of it transfers to me. I am the legal successor. That paper exists and my name is airway on it. The seal exists and it'll soon be mine.”For a second, I thought I didn’t hear her properly.My grip on t

Chapter 73: Contractually Yours

Jem's POV I blinked a few times, still trying to fully come back to myself. My thoughts were scattered, and for a second I wasn’t even sure what expression was on my face. I quickly looked away, rubbing my face again, trying to regain control of my breathing and my thoughts.I could feel it—everything Mara had just said to me was still sitting heavily inside me, but I couldn’t say a word to Dante. No, I couldn’t—not to him. So I forced myself to speak.“I… I’m sorry, I was— I mean… I just… I didn’t—” I stopped, swallowed hard, then tried again, but the words just wouldn’t come out right. “I… I don’t know, I just got distracted… I’m fine, I’m fine,” I added quickly, even though my voice clearly didn’t sound fine at all.Even though I tried to speak again, I just couldn’t get the words out straight from my mouth.Dante noticed, and he just shook his head slightly, like someone who had already read through everything in me but still chose not to push it. He let out a short breath, almos

Chapter 74: Contractually Yours

Jem's POV Still lost in the madness of the moment, the best thing I should have done was stop, but something inside me had already snapped beyond reason, and before I could even properly think my actions through again, I had already grabbed the front of Dante’s arm and pressed my lips harder against him.The kiss was rough, messy, and completely impulsive, like every emotion that had been building inside me for days had finally exploded all at once. I wasn’t thinking anymore. My mind had already broken apart long before this moment, and now all the confusion, pity, anger, fear, and whatever else I had been trying to suppress just crashed out of me without warning. For a split second, Dante completely froze beneath my hands, his body going still like I had caught him completely off guard by what I had just done. I felt it immediately in the way he stiffened against me, like even he himself couldn’t fully process what had just happened.This wasn’t part of the contract. This wasn’t h

Chapter 75: Contractually Yours

Jem's POV Honestly, it’s terrifying how fast Dante can change from the man who was just standing in a kitchen with me, quiet and almost human for a moment, to someone who moves and speaks like he has already decided the ending of everything before it even begins.Like, it's surprising how just minutes ago, this same man had been standing very close to me, kissing me back slowly like the rest of the world didn’t exist around us, but now every trace of softness had disappeared from him so completely that it almost felt unreal watching it happen right in front of me. The warmth in his eyes was gone, though the calmness was still there, but it wasn’t the same kind of calmness anymore. This one felt more distant and dangerous. Like the kind of calm people have right before something terrible happens. And somehow, seeing that side of him standing there so naturally only made the tight feeling inside my chest grow even worse.Now I don't know if it's okay for someone to be used to chaos, b

Chapter 76: Contractually Yours

Jem's POVThe moment the gate shut behind Dante’s car, the silence that settled around the mansion suddenly felt strange to me. And even as the car disappeared farther down the street, I didn’t move. I just stood there by the entrance for a while, staring at the closed gate long after the vehicle had already vanished from sight, my thoughts still completely tangled from the kiss, from Mara’s cruel words, and from the way Dante had looked at me before leaving.Nothing inside my head felt settled anymore. It honestly felt like my entire life had quietly shifted into something unfamiliar overnight, and I still hadn’t caught up to it properly.I eventually forced myself to turn around and walk back inside the mansion slowly, but even that felt strange now. My body was here, but my mind honestly wasn’t. Every few seconds my thoughts kept dragging me back to Dante again. The feeling of his hand against my waist. The way he had kissed me back. The brief look in his eyes before I ruined the