MARRIED FOR TIME

Chapter 8

*Valerie’s POV*

The cool night air hit my face the moment the sedan's heavy door slammed shut behind me. I stood on the deserted downtown sidewalk, watching the sleek black car melt into the city traffic until its taillights completely vanished.

Logically, I should have felt a twisted sense of satisfaction. A man had stepped up for me. A man had defended my honor, completely neutralizing the person who had spent years trying to dismantle my dignity. But as the adrenaline fully drained from my system, happiness was the furthest thing from what I felt. Instead, a suffocating, familiar dread began to wrap its icy fingers around my throat.

I knew the corporate world better than anyone. A public stunt like that—a high-profile billionaire tech tycoon caught on camera in a brutal ballroom brawl—would instantly put his company, his legacy, and his entire life in jeopardy.

And I hated it. I absolutely despised being the reason the people around me were put in danger.

The suffocating guilt violently dragged me backward into the darkest corner of my mind, unlocking the door to the trauma I fought every single day to suppress.

I was the reason my parents died. I was the weapon that destroyed my family.

That crushing, heavy realization was the real reason I had snapped at Bastien in the car. It wasn't because I loved Tyler. It was because the sheer terror of causing another person’s downfall had sent me into a blind panic, making me lash out at the one person who had actually tried to protect me. And now, walking into the empty silence of my own apartment, the weight of regret was entirely unbearable.

I slumped onto the sofa, burying my face in my hands as a tired, exhausted sigh escaped my lips. I felt completely hollow.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed with a frantic barrage of notifications. Pulling it from my clutch, I saw dozens of urgent text messages from my assistant, Elena.

> _Elena: Valerie, are you seeing this?!_

> _Elena: Please tell me you aren't involved in this mess._

> _Elena: [Link attached: Billionaire Tycoon Bastien Kade Sparks Brutal Ballroom Brawl at Local Wedding Reception]_

My stomach plummeted into absolute freefall. I clicked the link, and my worst nightmare stared right back at me in bold, unforgiving text. The headlines were savage, completely tearing Bastien's reputation to shreds. Tabloids were already speculating about stock drops and emergency board meetings at Sterling Enterprises.

Panic seized my chest. I needed to fix this. I needed to talk to him right now.

Fingers shaking, I rushed to my call history, ready to dial his number, only for a harsh realization to stop me dead in my tracks. _I didn't have his contact information._ We had met under a layer of fake identities, spent a chaotic morning arguing, and signed a legal marriage contract without exchanging so much as a standard phone number.

Desperate, I opened the high-end dating app, navigating to the thread belonging to 'Lan.'

_Valerie: Bastien, please answer me._

_Valerie: I just saw the headlines. I am so incredibly sorry about what happened in the car._

_Valerie: I didn't mean any of the things I said to you. I wasn't defending Tyler. I was just scared. I was terrified of what this scandal would do to you and your company because of me._

_Valerie: Please let me know you're okay._

I stared at the screen, my heart hammering against my ribs as the seconds ticked by. One minute. Five minutes. Ten minutes.

The status icons at the bottom of the messages shifted, marking a double checkmark. He had opened the app. He had read every single word.

But no response came. The typing bubble never appeared.

Slowly, I let my hand drop, placing the glowing phone face-down on the cushion beside me. I leaned my head back against the sofa, closing my eyes as a heavy, sorrowful sigh echoed through the empty room, the silence offering no answers to the storm I had caused.

*Bastien’s POV*

I stared down at the glowing screen of my phone, a cold sneer tightening my features. A high-priority system notification from my security software popped up, cutting through the silence of the bedroom: _Warning: Your account on the premium dating application has been compromised due to external data breaches._ A hollow, bitter laugh escaped my throat. Hacked. The one platform where Valerie and I had exchanged our real words was compromised. I didn't hesitate. With a single swipe, I deleted the app entirely from my device. The contract was signed, the marriage certificate was in my possession, and I had absolutely no use for a digital playground anymore.

Snatching my car keys off the dresser, I threw on a fresh shirt and headed down to the garage. The drive to the Kade ancestral mansion was a blur of high-speed navigation and blinding fury. The stock drops, the emergency board meetings, and my father's lethal ultimatum echoed in my mind with every mile.

When I arrived at the massive, wrought-iron gates of the estate, the property was eerily quiet. I bypassed the security staff, striding through the grand foyer toward my father’s private study. I reached out, my hand wrapping around the brass handle to fling the heavy oak doors open, when the sound of raised voices through the thick wood made me freeze.

My parents were arguing.

I stood paralyzed, my breath catching in my throat. My mother was supposed to be confined to a sterile bed at the specialized medical clinic, her body weakened by a terminal diagnosis. Yet, her voice was currently resonating through the door, sharp, clear, and perfectly steady.

"You promised me that if he got married, the company would legally belong to him permanently!" my mother’s voice rang out, vibrating with a fierce, calculating energy. "I did exactly what we agreed. I forced him into finding a wife, and now you’re turning around and telling me that Sterling Enterprises belongs to Kristen?!"

"The global stocks are plummeting because of his completely reckless, unhinged attitude in that banquet hall tonight!" my father roared back, his booming tone dripping with absolute finality. "The board is in a state of panic. Kristen is the only stable option left to take over immediate operations."

"Do you even consider Bastien your son?!" she yelled back.

A sudden, violent fit of coughing cut off her shout, the harsh sound slicing through my chest.

The revelation of her trickery—the realization that my mother's terminal illness was nothing more than a fabricated trap to force me into a corporate marriage—shattered my mind. But hearing her cough, seeing the deep-seated instinct to protect her override the betrayal, I threw the doors open and rushed inside.

"Mom!" I commanded, my voice raw as I crossed the threshold.

My mother’s eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated panic, her face turning pale as she hastily smoothed down her elegant dress. She forced a rigid, trembling smile. "Bastien... oh, sweetheart, you’re here."

My gaze entirely bypassed her, landing squarely on my father, who sat behind his massive mahogany desk like an unyielding judge. For that singular, volatile moment, I forced the crushing weight of my mother’s deception into the back of my mind. My real enemy was the man holding the keys to my empire.

"You're using a public scuffle as an excuse to strip me of everything I built," I growled, stepping up to the desk, my hands slamming flat against the leather top. "I have given my entire life to Sterling Enterprises. You will not hand it over to a parasite like Kristen."

Roderick Kade stood up slowly, his towering frame casting a dark shadow over the room as he leveled me with an icy, unforgiving stare. "You did this to yourself, Bastien. You let your volatile emotions turn you into a liability on a national stage. A real CEO does not play the thug in a public ballroom."

"He was protecting his wife!" my mother interjected, her voice shaking.

"I don't care who he was protecting!" my father snapped, his voice booming as he pointed a commanding finger at my chest. "The market responds to numbers, not chivalry. Our shares are down five percent in after-hours trading since the video leaked."

He leaned forward, his silver-gray eyes—the exact mirrors of my own—flashing with a lethal, absolute finality.

"I will give you exactly seven days, Bastien. If the market shares and the reputation of Sterling Enterprises do not completely rise back to their original peak within the next week, the board will convene, and I will personally sign the executive transfer over to Kristen. Your time starts now."

My father turned back to his desk, dismissing me without another word.

I stood alone in the suffocating silence of his study, my father's ultimatum settling like a death sentence.

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