married my ruined husband

married me instead

Game on .The bigger risk is how she explain it to Kairo Right now she just....tells him . Flat out. "l died yesterday. And he goes from you're insane "to" Marry me in about four exchanges. That's where it can feel a little convenient rather than earned. What actually tends to land better is when the protagonists doesn’t fully explained _ she just Demonstrated. Let Kairo spend the who chapter thinking she's either a liar or a spy, and let the reader sit in that tension with him the Dubai prediction does this well .lean harderon that and pull back on explicit I came back fromm the future speechMy phone wouldn’t stop vibrating on the nightstand. I ignored it and walked downstairs at 10:15 AM.

Voices echoed from the living room—my father’s deep baritone cutting through the air, sharp and

angry.

He stood in the center of the room surrounded by printed documents scattered across the floor. His

reading glasses sat crooked on his nose. Two of his top executives hovered nearby, looking like they

wanted to disappear.

“Cassandra,” he snapped the second he saw me. “What the f**k is this? You canceled the wedding?

The cathedral is booked. The press is already circling. We have a billion-naira deal riding on this

marriage alliance with Voss!”

I stopped at the edge of the chaos. “It’s not an alliance. It’s a trap. He’s been stealing from us for

months.”

My father grabbed one of the sheets and shook it at me. “These transactions? They could be

doctored. You expect me to blow up a merger because of some documents you dumped in my email

at dawn and a story about dying in a car crash? You sound like you’re having a breakdown.”

“I’m not breaking down.” I kept my voice flat. “Account ending in 7724. That’s one of his shells. Check

the transfers from Harper Global last quarter. Three point two million moved out on the fifteenth.

Another four on the twenty-eighth. He’s using Sophia Laurent as the front.”

My father froze. The paper in his hand lowered slowly. His executives exchanged glances.

“How the hell do you know about that account?” he asked, voice quieter now but harder. “That

number isn’t on any public filing. I only found it this morning after digging.”

“Because I lived through the next five years. I watched him drain us dry. I watched him marry me,

then push you out. Then on our fifth anniversary he and Sophia arranged the car accident that killed

me. I woke up yesterday with all of it in my head.”

Silence slammed down. One executive shifted his weight. My father stared at me like I’d grown horns.

“Cassandra…” He rubbed his temple. “This is insane. You’re twenty-three. You’ve been excited about

this wedding for months. Now you’re talking about time travel and murder? We need to get you to a

doctor.”

“I don’t need a doctor. I need you to listen.” I stepped closer and picked up another statement from

the floor. “Call the bank. Verify it right now. While you’re at it, check the offshore entity linked to

Sophia—Voss Laurent Holdings. He’s already positioned to buy us out after the wedding.”

My father looked at his executives. “Give us the room.”

They left fast. The door clicked shut.

He sank into the leather armchair, eyes locked on me. “Even if these numbers are real—and I’m

checking them myself—you’re asking me to destroy a partnership worth hundreds of millions based

on a nightmare. Alexander Voss is ruthless, yes. But this?” He gestured at the papers. “This is

conspiracy-level s**t. And you canceling everything without talking to me first? That’s not how this

family works.”“I didn’t have time to talk. In the old timeline I trusted him. I smiled through the whole wedding. Then I

spent five years paying for it.” My hands clenched at my sides. “He will come for us the moment he

realizes I’m not playing along. Cancel the wedding, Dad. Pull every deal. Or watch him bury us.”

He stared at the documents for a long minute. His jaw worked back and forth. “If this is true… God

help us. But if you’re wrong—if this is some cold feet meltdown—we lose everything we built.”

“I’m not wrong.”

He picked up his phone. “I’m verifying the accounts now. If they match, we cancel. But Cassandra, if

you’re having some kind of episode, you tell me right now. We can fix this quietly.”

“I’m not having an episode.” I turned toward the stairs. “I’m fixing what almost destroyed us.”

He didn’t stop me. But I heard him on the phone before I reached the second floor, voice low and

urgent. “Run every transaction on account 7724. Now.”

Good. The machine was moving.

At 2:47 PM I sat in the same quiet café three blocks from the Continental Hotel, earpiece in, burner

phone ready. The valet I’d paid texted confirmation: three men in room 1408. One carrying the silver

knife.

3:16 PM.

My burner rang. Kairos.

I answered.

“Your timing was perfect,” he said. No greeting. “Voss called at 3:17 exactly. Meeting’s underway. My

men are handling it.”

“I told you they would.”

“Come to 1409. Now. We talk in person.”

I paid and crossed the street. Security on fourteen patted me down again, then let me through.

Kairos stood near the window, arms crossed, jacket off. The silver-handled knife sat bagged on the

table like evidence. His dark eyes tracked me the entire way across the room.

“Sit,” he ordered.

I stayed standing. “The men talked?”

“Enough.” He picked up the bag, held it up. “Exact description. Voss paid them two hundred

thousand each. Break my legs, deliver the warning on Dubai, make sure I back off. Your files matched

the ones my people pulled independently.” He set the bag down hard. “So the information is real. The

time travel story? Still sounds like bullshit.”

“I don’t need you to believe every part. I need you to use what I know.”

Kairos walked around the table slowly. “Why walk into my office yesterday and offer yourself as a

weapon? What’s your real angle, Harper?”

“Voss destroyed me once. I want him destroyed slower. You’re the only one who fought him hard

enough in the first timeline to matter. I need protection for my family’s company. You need every edge

against him. Simple transaction.”

He stopped two feet away. “Transaction.” The word came out flat. “You want a contract marriage.

Live with me. Share my name. Share my bed. All so you can play revenge?”

“Yes.”

Kairos studied me like a problem he hadn’t solved yet. “I don’t trust easy. And I sure as hell don’t

marry strangers who claim they died yesterday. Give me more. Something that happens next week.

Something only you would know.”

I thought fast. “May 26th. Voss meets with the Dubai minister privately at 11 PM. He offers a five

million bribe disguised as consulting fees. The minister records it anyway. Voss doesn’t know. That

recording surfaces in four months and costs him the entire project. Use it before he does.”

Kairos didn’t blink. He pulled out his phone and typed something, then set it down. “My people will

watch for it. If it happens exactly like that, we proceed. If not, I’ll make sure you regret wasting my

time.”

“Fair.”

He opened a thick folder and slid it across the table. “Read it. Every page. My lawyers drafted this

overnight.”

I sat and read. It was cold, airtight. One year term. Public marriage. Shared residence in his

penthouse. Full disclosure of every future detail I remembered. Protection for Harper Global. Ten

million upfront in my own account. Fifty million more at the end if we succeeded in taking Voss down.

Joint assets split from anything seized.

I looked up. “The intimacy clause.”

Kairos leaned against the table. “We share a bedroom. We act like a real couple in public. No outside

lovers. This has to be bulletproof. Voss will dig for any crack.”

“I won’t f**k anyone else,” I said. “But I’m not spreading my legs on command either. That part

happens when I decide it does. Not because a contract says so.”

His eyes darkened. “You’re asking for my name and my protection but want control over the one

thing that makes this believable?”

“I’m not asking. I’m offering you the fastest way to destroy the man who’s been planning

your ruin for years. The bed is part of the deal, but it’s not a transaction line item you

cash in on day one.”He stared at me. The silence stretched. Then he gave a short,

humorless laugh. “You’ve got balls. Most people who come to me begging for help fold

the second I push back.”“I’m not most people.”

Kairos picked up the pen and tapped it on the folder. “Fine. We amend it. Physical intimacy at mutual

consent, but full public performance required. No sabotage. No running back to Voss. If you betray

the terms, the ten million is clawed back and Harper Global gets nothing.”

I read the amended page twice. Then I signed every copy.

Kairos signed after me. He pressed his thumb on the biometric seal, then slid the folder shut.

“Done. Filed thirty seconds ago. Press release in forty-five minutes.”

My shoulders loosened a fraction. “Alexander will explode.”

“Let him.” Kairos poured two glasses of whiskey. He handed me one but didn’t let go immediately

when I took it. Our fingers touched. “One more thing. From now on you’re under my security. Twenty-

four seven. You don’t go anywhere without my men. Clear?”

“Clear.”

His phone rang. He put it on speaker.

Alexander’s voice exploded through the room. “Blackwood, you son of a b***h. Whatever that crazy

bitch told you is lies. She’s mine. Send her back and we can still talk business.”

Kairos looked straight at me while he answered. “She’s not going anywhere. Cassandra is my wife as

of ten minutes ago. Touch her, touch her father, touch her company—you die slower than you can

imagine.”

“You’re making the biggest mistake of your life,” Alexander snarled.

“No. You made it the day you decided to kill her.” Kairos ended the call.

Seconds later my own phone buzzed. Unknown number.

You think running to Blackwood saves you? I will burn your father’s company to the ground tonight.

Then I’ll come for you.

I showed Kairos the text.

He read it, expression unchanged. Took my phone. Typed a reply and sent it.

Try it. My men are already at Harper Global. Touch anything and Sophia Laurent disappears. I know

where she is right now.

He handed the phone back. “He’ll bleed tonight. Tomorrow he comes harder.”

I took a long drink of whiskey. The burn grounded me. “Good.”

Kairos stepped closer. Not touching. Just close enough that I felt the heat coming off him. “This isn’t

a game, Cassandra. You signed the papers. You’re in my world now. I protect what’s mine. But I also

control what’s mine. Don’t mistake this partnership for softness.”