TITLE: CONTRACT WITH THE COLD BILLIONAIRE To save her dying mother, a broke 24-year-old bookstore clerk signs a one-year contract marriage with New York's coldest billionaire CEO who needs a fake wife to inherit his empire, but when fake kisses turn real and she gets pregnant two months before the divorce, he must decide whether to let her go or break his own rule and fall in love.Ava Carter's life is falling apart. She is 24, a graduate of NYU in English Literature, working for $15 an hour in a dusty bookstore in Queens. Her mother, Linda Carter, is her only family. Her father abandoned them when Ava was five. Now her mother is in St. Jude Medical Center in Houston with a failing heart and needs emergency surgery costing $12,850. Ava has $42 in her account. The hospital gives her 48 hours.In Manhattan, Alexander Sterling, 32, is the heir to Sterling Corp, a $50 billion real estate and tech empire. He is known as The Ice King. Six-foot-three, handsome beyond reason, cold, ruthless, brilliant, and completely uninterested in love after being betrayed by his ex-fiancée Victoria who cheated with his own cousin, Ethan Sterling. Alexander's grandfather, Charles Sterling, the patriarch, is dying in London. His will states: Alexander must be married before his 33rd birthday to inherit full control of Sterling Corp. Otherwise, the company goes to Ethan, who wants to sell it piece by piece.Alexander has two weeks. He does not have time to date. He needs a contract wife. He asks his private investigator to find a girl who is: poor enough to need money, educated enough to not embarrass him, beautiful enough to be believable, and innocent enough to not try to trap him. The investigator finds Ava Carter.He summons her to Sterling Towers, 58th floor. He offers her a deal: Be his wife for one year. Live in his penthouse. Act like his loving wife in public. In private, follow strict rules: No love, no jealousy, no touching without permission, no sex unless he allows it. After 365 days, divorce, and she gets $500,000. Ava hates him at first sight, his arrogance, his coldness. But her mother will die. She signs.Her mother's surgery is paid instantly. Ava becomes Mrs. Sterling the next day at City Hall in a simple but expensive white dress.She moves into the Sterling Penthouse, a three-floor $100 million palace on Billionaires' Row. She meets the staff: Mrs. Henderson, the kind housekeeper who becomes like a mother to her. She meets Alexander's grandfather, Charles, who immediately loves Ava because she is kind and real, unlike the gold-diggers he is used to.The first month is torture. Alexander is cold. He works until 2 AM. He barely speaks to her. They share a king-sized bed but a pillow wall separates them. He tells her "Don't fall in love with me. Every woman who does ends up hurt." But small cracks appear. Ava leaves him coffee with a little note. She laughs at his grandfather's jokes. She fixes his tie when he can't. He starts watching her when she sleeps, reading in his library.The conflict begins when Victoria, Alexander's ex-fiancée, returns from Paris as Ethan's fiancée. Victoria is jealous that Alexander married a "nobody." She starts to bully Ava at charity galas, spreading rumors that Ava is a gold digger who trapped Alexander while pregnant. Ethan tries to buy Ava off, offering her $1 million to leave Alexander and make him lose the company.Ava, hurt by Alexander's continued coldness, almost accepts, but she realizes she is falling for her cold husband. Alexander, seeing Ethan touch Ava at a party, loses control for the first time. He punches his cousin and kisses Ava passionately in front of everyone, whispering "You are mine."They consummate the marriage on Chapter 35 after a big fight during a thunderstorm when the power goes out in the penthouse. It is her first time. He is gentle and possessive.Just when they start to become a real couple, Ava finds out she is pregnant in Chapter 50. She is two months away from the end of the contract. She doesn't tell Alexander because she overhears him telling his lawyer: "After the year ends, I will divorce her. I will never have children with a contract wife."Heartbroken, she decides to leave quietly. She packs her bag and leaves a letter.