We didn't say much as we walked out of the rain. His hand was still holding mine, warm and familiar, like it had never let go in the first place. People stared, but I didn't care. For the first time in a long time, my chest didn't feel tight.We stopped at the small tea shop across the road, the one I go to every evening after work. The lady at the counter already knew my order."Two teas," Chike said before I could speak, and she smiled at us like we were a couple.That word scared me. Couple. Were we? After three years of silence, could one rainy afternoon fix everything?"You never answered my question," he said when we sat down."Which question?""Did you move on?"I wrapped my hands around the hot cup. The steam fogged my glasses. "I tried. I really tried, Chike. I dated. I told myself I was happy. I even told my best friend that I had forgotten your middle name.""You remembered it?" He smiled a little."Jidenna," I whispered. "Chike Jidenna. Of course I remembered."His eyes softened. "I didn't move on either, Amara. I got a job in Lagos. Good money, good apartment. Everything I said I wanted when I left. But every night when I came home, the house was quiet. Too quiet. Because you weren't there complaining about how I never press my shirts properly."I laughed before I could stop myself. Tears were building up and I hated crying in public."Why now?" I asked. "Why come back after three years?""Because my mother asked me when I was going to stop being stupid," he said honestly. "And because I saw your picture. You posted about your promotion last month. You looked so happy, so grown, so beautiful. And I realized if I didn't come now, I would lose you forever to someone who actually deserved you."The tea was getting cold. The rain had stopped."I'm not the same girl you left," I said."I know," he said. "That's why I like you even more."And for the first time that day, I believed him.

Amara thought she was signing away her freedom to save her family.When a ruthless billionaire buys her father's $2 million debt, he gives her two choices: work for him for 5 years, or marry him.He is cold, possessive, and impossibly handsome. He says it's just business. But at night, the way he looks at her says it's something far more dangerous.She owes him money. He says she owes him her heart.Can a debt turn into love, or will his secrets destroy them both?A steamy, emotional billionaire romance full of forced proximity, contract marriage, and a love that was never for sale.