All Chapters of Sold To a Billionaire : Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

Amelia's POVThe rent notice was taped to our door again. I peeled it off before my father could see it. I did not need to read it, because I already knew what it said. We owed three months, and our landlord had finally run out of patience.I folded the paper into my coat pocket and unlocked the door. Our apartment sat on the poorer side of Manhattan, where the pipes rattled all night and the heater worked only when it felt like it. The kitchen smelled like burnt coffee and old paper. My father sat at the table with a pile of unpaid bills spread out in front of him. He did not look up when I came in."Did you find work today?" Thomas asked."I picked up extra shifts at the diner," I said.That was a lie, and I told it as smoothly as I told all of them. The truth was hidden in an envelope inside my coat. A man had paid me in a hotel room the night before. I had left before the sun came up, and I had walked home through empty streets with my shoes in my hand. I had been ashamed every st

Amelia's POVBlackwood Enterprises rose above Fifth Avenue like a blade of glass. I stood on the sidewalk and stared at it for a full minute before I found the courage to walk inside. I wore my best dress, which was a navy blue one I had bought at a thrift store. I had ironed it twice that morning, and I still felt like a child playing dress up.The lobby was cold and enormous, with a ceiling so high that my footsteps echoed. A woman at the front desk looked at me over her glasses. She did not smile, and she did not say good morning."I have an appointment with Mr. Blackwood," I said."Name?""Amelia Hart."Something changed in her face then. It was small, but I saw it. Her eyes moved over me from head to shoe, and her lips pressed together. She knew who I was, and she knew why I had come. I felt my cheeks burn as she picked up the phone.A security guard escorted me to the top floor. The elevator moved so smoothly that I only knew we had arrived when the doors opened. A long hallway

Amelia's POVThree weeks passed, and Adrian treated me like furniture. He spoke to me only when other people were watching. In the mornings he left the house before I woke, and at night he came home after I had gone to my room. We lived like strangers who happened to share a roof.I told myself I preferred it that way. A cold husband was easier than a cruel one. I did not have to explain myself, and I did not have to hide my face. I only had to survive each day until the contract ended.Daniel visited often, and he made the house feel less like a museum. He brought pastries from a bakery in Brooklyn and told terrible jokes at breakfast. He asked me questions about my life and actually listened to the answers. One morning he caught me staring at the garden and sat down beside me."My cousin is not as bad as he seems," Daniel said."He seems quite bad," I said."He seems bad on purpose." Daniel smiled gently. "Give him time.""I only have a year," I reminded him."A year is longer than