Terms and Conditions
871 Words
Outside Vale Tower, the city felt too loud.
Mara walked three blocks before realizing she’d been holding her breath.
She stopped under an awning as light rain began to fall, staring at the traffic like it might offer a different reality.
Her phone buzzed.
SIENA: where r u? u look like u died in ur last text
Mara stared at the screen. Her fingers hovered, then typed:
MARA: downtown. i need you. now.
Siena replied instantly:
SIENA: say less. café on 8th?
Twenty minutes later, Mara sat across from Siena Hart in a cramped café that smelled like espresso and burnt sugar.
Siena was everything Mara wasn’t allowed to be: loud, fearless, dressed like she belonged in a magazine even when she was late to class. Her eyeliner was sharp enough to cut men who tried her.
Siena took one look at Mara’s face and swore. “Okay. Either someone died or someone offered you money to do something illegal.”
Mara’s laugh came out broken. “Both?”
Siena leaned in. “Mara. Speak.”
Mara slid the white card across the table.
Siena picked it up, reading. Her eyebrows rose. “Julian Vale? Like—Vale Vale?”
“Yes.”
Siena’s eyes widened. “Girl, what did Leo hit? A car or a national monument?”
Mara told her. Everything. The crash. The number. The folder.
By the time she said “relationship agreement,” Siena’s mouth hung open.
Then Siena barked a laugh that made two people at the next table glance over.
“Oh my God,” Siena said. “He wants to buy you with debt.”
“He says it’s a solution,” Mara whispered. “Ninety days. Publicly.”
Siena’s laughter died. She reached across the table and gripped Mara’s hand, hard.
“Listen to me,” Siena said. “I don’t care if he’s the hottest billionaire prince in the city. That is coercion dressed in silk.”
Mara’s throat burned. “He’ll sue. We’ll lose. Leo’s insurance won’t cover it. My mom will—” She swallowed. “I don’t know what my mom will do.”
Siena’s gaze softened, but her voice stayed sharp. “Okay. So we don’t panic. We think.”
Mara stared at her. “Think what?”
“Think leverage,” Siena said. “What does he want? Public girlfriend for ninety days? Why? Because rich people don’t do anything without a reason.”
Mara stared at the rain on the window. “I don’t know.”
Siena tapped the card against the table. “Find out.”
Mara’s phone buzzed again.
This time it was her mother.
She answered, bracing herself.
“Mara,” her mother said, voice tight and low, “someone came to the house.”
Mara’s blood ran cold. “Who?”
“A man in a suit,” her mother whispered. “He said he was from—Vale.”
Mara’s hand trembled. Siena’s eyes snapped up, reading her face.
“What did he want?” Mara asked.
“He gave us papers,” her mother said. “He said if we don’t respond, they will file in court. Mara…” Her mother’s voice cracked. “What did Leo do?”
Mara closed her eyes.
Her brother had been a mistake before, but never a weapon. Now his mistake had teeth.
“I’m handling it,” Mara said, though she didn’t know how. “Please don’t sign anything. Don’t talk to them. Just—wait for me.”
After she hung up, Siena swore again. “They’re moving fast.”
“He said forty-eight hours,” Mara whispered.
Siena’s gaze narrowed. “Okay. So we have forty-eight hours to either fight him or outplay him.”
Mara laughed bitterly. “Outplay Julian Vale?”
Siena leaned forward, eyes glittering. “Honey. You don’t outplay him. You survive him.”
Mara stared at the card again, at the name that now felt like a shadow behind every breath.
“I won’t do it,” Mara said, more to convince herself than Siena. “I won’t be… purchased.”
Siena squeezed her hand. “Good.”
Mara inhaled shakily. “But if he files… if he takes my family apart…”
Siena’s voice softened, just a little. “Then we get you a lawyer who eats rich boys for breakfast.”
Mara swallowed. “I can’t afford a lawyer.”
Siena’s smile turned sly. “Then we borrow one.”
Mara blinked. “What?”
Siena sat back, pulling out her phone. “My aunt’s firm owes me a favor. And before you say no—Mara, this is your life. Not his chessboard.”
Mara watched Siena type with quick, confident thumbs.
A strange warmth flickered in Mara’s chest—gratitude mixed with fear.
“What if,” Mara said quietly, “the only way to save Leo is to say yes?”
Siena looked up, eyes steady.
“Then,” Siena said, “we make sure the contract saves you too.”
Mara stared at the rain.
Somewhere downtown, Julian Vale was waiting.
And for the first time, Mara realized something worse than his offer:
He already knew she might accept.
- Writer
