Married To The Billionaire Outlaw

3

Somehow, I gathered the courage to flag a cab. The moment the vehicle entered the extended driveway of my family's estate, I pushed the door open before the driver even parked.

Chilly air nipped at my skin as I emerged into the rain, the drops saturating my damaged sweater and ripped jeans.

The estate stood ahead—towering, immaculate, a place I had once found peace.

But this moment, it seemed unfamiliar. As if it no longer was mine.

My limbs felt weighty as I made my way up the stairs, alongside the grand pillars, and by the opulent double doors that stood slightly open.

I hardly noticed the strange man in the living room, his crisp suit and frigid attitude contrasting with the coziness of our home.

I could care less about his identity, or anything at the moment. I simply had to reach my room before I fell down.

I was midway up the stairs when a piercing voice sliced through the air.

"Selena!" I flinched.

I turned gradually, my soaked clothes glued to me as my mother burst into the foyer, her heels tapping on the marble floors.

She was furious. Not concerned that her daughter had returned home, wet and shattered.

Simply furious.

"You didn't bother to say hello to our guest?" she exclaimed, pointing to the man in the living room.

I blinked, my thoughts slow, hardly able to concentrate.

"Who is that?" My voice was raspy, my throat sore from the evening's embarrassment.

My mother chuckled, shaking her head. "Incredible."

I lacked the energy to explain, to inform her that I had just managed to get through the day without breaking down.

Thus, I faced the stairs again.

"Where do you believe you are going?"

My fingers wrapped snugly around the railing. "To sleep."

She released a sudden laugh, one that sent a disturbing chill through my body.

"Oh, Selena. You still don't understand, do you?"

I scowled, looking back at her over my shoulder. “Understand what?”

She didn't mince her words. "Thanks to you," she exclaimed, "we’ve lost it all."

The words struck me like a blow. I tensed, my heart racing a beat faster. "What are you saying?"

She folded her arms, nostrils widening. “Your little scandal ruined us. My friends won’t return my calls. Our invitations to next week’s gala? Revoked."

Her voice sharpened. "The Harringtons made sure of that."

My stomach clenched. The Harringtons. Aaron’s family.

“What do they have to do with this?” I asked carefully.

“Selena, they took everything.”

The air felt thin. She gestured wildly toward the house, her nails digging into her palms. “This? This isn’t even ours anymore. We have one week to leave.”

My breath caught.

“What?”

“Their lawyers came this afternoon,” she continued, her voice shaking with rage. “They pulled out of every business deal we had. Every single one. Our investments, our savings—it’s gone.”

My heart plummeted.

No. No, that wasn’t possible.

“Aaron’s family wouldn’t—”

“Oh, wouldn’t they?” Her lips curled into something bitter. “They took our money. Our cars. Even the jewelry from the safe.”

My head spun. They had stripped us of everything.

Because of one video. Because of one lie.

“You’re saying we’re… bankrupt?” I asked, my voice was barely a whisper.

“Not yet,” she said, her tone venomous. “But we will be unless we find a way to fix this.”

I felt sick. The world tilted, the weight of her words crushing down on me like a vice.

This couldn’t be real. It couldn’t.

I held onto the railing to regain my balance, my legs unsteady. “But, the video isn’t real,” I murmured. "It’s fake."

My mother's face remained impassive. She didn’t appear surprised at all. “It’s irrelevant,” she stated icily. "The Harringtons are sure of it."

The definitiveness in her voice made my stomach to sink. She was didn’t care. Didn't to whether the claims were accurate or not. Her only concern was that we had lost it all.

I felt something break deep within me. I had endured a whole day of humiliation, being spat on, and being ripped apart, and now, here I was—returned to my own home—only to be held responsible for something I didn’t even commit.

A sharp laugh rose in my throat, but I forced it back. I was still overwhelmed by my mother’s words, by the heaviness of it all—losing our house, losing everything—when the stranger in the living room finally began to talk.

“Ms. Blackwood.” He said smoothly. The voice of a man who had repeated this numerous times.

I slowly turned to him, my heart racing, my body weary and stiff. He stood tall, dressed elegantly, with tidily styled salt-and-pepper hair and an incisive, evaluating look. A man who thrived in boardrooms and behind legal contracts.

A man who had nothing to do with me. And yet—he was here.

And something told me I wasn’t going to like why. He extended a sleek black folder. “This is for you.”

I hesitated before taking it, my fingers brushing over the embossed gold lettering on the front.

I flipped it open—only to freeze when my eyes landed on the first page. Marriage contract.

My stomach churned forcefully. “What on earth is this?” I spoke softly, my voice hardly detectable.

My mother moved ahead, a self-satisfied grin spread wide on her face. "Your solution," she replied effortlessly. "Put your signature here, and your troubles vanish."

My heartbeat thumped in my ears while I quickly read through the document, my sight becoming hazy over the precisely typed legal terms.

One name was prominent.

Luis Ortis.

There was something about it that pulled at my memory, yet in my fog of fatigue and disbelief, I couldn’t identify it.

Rather, my gaze shifted to the little table next to the attorney—

Where a black leather bag sat, bulging with thick stacks of crisp cash.

My stomach turned.

I looked back at my mother, horrified. "Are you trying to sell me?"

Her expression didn't show the slightest change.

“I’m saving both of us,” she amended, her tone sharp. "Unlike you, I'm working to resolve this situation."

I tightened my fists, my breath shallow. "You must be joking."

"Oh, I am quite earnest."

She moved nearer, her heels tapping on the marble, her chin rising.

“You destroyed our family,” she spat. "You humiliated us in front of everyone. Nobody wants to connect with us. Nobody will assist us. Luis is all we have.”

I shook my head, holding the contract so fiercely my knuckles became pale. “And what does he receive as a reward?”

My mother grinned, her gaze icy. “You.”

I sensed that I was suffocating. It felt as though the mansion’s walls—the place I once referred to as home—were closing in around me.

"This is crazy," I murmured. "Do you think I would simply marry a man I dont know? For cash?”

My mother let out a sigh, as if I was being troublesome.

“You're behaving like a naive little girl,” she retorted. "Just as if we have never existed in a world where marriages are deals."

I shook my head, sick to my stomach.

“Not like this.”

She let out a bitter laugh. “Oh, please. You were engaged to Aaron, weren’t you?”

My chest tightened at his name. “That was different,” I shot back.

She tilted her head, mocking. “Was it? Or was that just another arrangement?”

I flinched. Because, deep down, I knew she wasn’t entirely wrong.

Aaron and I had been perfect on paper—the kind family that honored the sacrifice of the deceased.

But at least I had loved him. This? This was something else entirely.

“You don't even care if I'm happy,” I murmured, my throat constricted. She looked at me for a long time before scoffing.

“Happiness is meant for those who have the means,” she remarked calmly. “At this moment, we are unable to.”

I start protesting — but was cut off when my mom yanked my wrist, her nails piercing my skin as she forced the pen into my palm.

"Write your signature," she commanded.

I pulled my arm away. "No."

Her eyes turned cold. “You are going to sign it whether you like it or not.”

I shook my head, stepping away. "And what happens if I don’t?"

She raised her chin.

“I will walk through that door,” she stated plainly. "And you deal with this on your own."

"You don’t really mean this do you?" I panicked, she is the only family I have left.

That's when I saw it— Her bags, already packed, sitting by the door. I don't want to be alone.

My stomach dropped. I looked at the contract again, at the name that meant nothing to me, at the life that was about to be stolen from me.

Tears burned at the back of my eyes. But crying wouldn’t change anything. Fighting wouldn’t change anything. I had no one left but her. And she knew it.

That’s why she smiled as I exhaled shakily, my fingers trembling as I picked up the pen.

As I signed away my life.

The ink barely dried before the lawyer nodded, tucking the contract away like this was just another business deal. Like I was just another asset.

My mother hardly looked at me as she picked up her coat, expertly adjusting the lapels with a familiar elegance.

"Right," she responded casually. "That wasn't too difficult, was it?"

"Wait... you promised to stay if i sign the contract!" I reached for her. But she yanked her hand away. "Did I now?"

She turned toward the door, as if she wasn’t abandoning me with a stranger, as if she wasn’t selling me off like I was nothing.

And then, just like that— She walked out without a single glance back. The door clicked shut behind her.

And I was alone, and married to a man I had never met.