Mine, Mr. Blackwood

Three months later... The rain came down harder than I had ever seen it. I stood outside the Blackwood mansion with a small suitcase in my hand, staring at the place I had once called home. Home. The word almost made me laugh. For the past year, I had lived behind those enormous gates, slept in a bedroom bigger than my entire childhood home, and worn a diamond ring worth more than anything my family had ever owned. I had everything. Except freedom. I looked down at my left hand. The ring was still there. The Blackwood wedding ring. I slowly twisted it around my finger. I should have taken it off. I should have left it on the nightstand. But somehow, I couldn't. Not yet. "Elena." My heart stopped. I closed my eyes. I knew that voice. I had heard it whisper my name in the darkness. I had heard it call for me when I was angry with him. I had heard it say things that made my heart race and promises I once believed. I turned around. Adrian Blackwood stood at the top of the marble staircase. He wasn't wearing his usual perfectly tailored suit. His white shirt was partially unbuttoned, his dark hair slightly disheveled, and his eyes— His eyes were different. Not cold. Not controlled. Terrified. For the first time since I had met him, Adrian Blackwood looked like a man who was afraid. "Don't." His voice was barely above a whisper. I tightened my grip on my suitcase. "It's over, Adrian." "No." One word. Certain. Final. I shook my head. "You can't keep doing this." "Doing what?" "Controlling everything." His jaw tightened. "I was trying to protect you." "You were trying to possess me." Silence. The rain thundered against the windows behind him. Adrian slowly walked down the stairs. One step. Then another. I forced myself not to move. Not to run back to him. Not to remember all the nights when I had fallen asleep in his arms despite promising myself I wouldn't. When he finally reached the bottom of the staircase, he stopped several feet away. "Tell me what you want." "I want to leave." His expression cracked. Just for a second. Then he whispered, "You're my wife." "I know." "You're Mrs. Blackwood." "I know." His eyes dropped to the ring on my finger. "Then why are you leaving?" I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Because I finally realized that being loved by you isn't the same as being free." He stared at me. Neither of us spoke. Then Adrian reached into his pocket and pulled something out. A small envelope. He held it toward me. "What is that?" "The truth." My brows furrowed. "What truth?" "The reason I chose you." My heart began pounding. I didn't take the envelope. "Adrian..." "You deserve to know." His voice broke slightly. "And after you read it, if you still want to leave..." He paused. His eyes met mine. "I won't stop you." That was the first promise Adrian Blackwood had ever made that I believed. I slowly reached for the envelope. But before my fingers touched it, a loud crash came from upstairs. We both looked toward the second floor. Adrian's expression immediately changed. The fear disappeared. The cold billionaire returned. "Stay here." "What happened?" "Elena." His voice was sharp. "Stay here." Then he ran upstairs. I stood frozen in the foyer. My eyes dropped to the envelope in my hand. There was only one sentence written across the front. For the woman I was never supposed to love. My fingers trembled. I opened it. And as I began reading the first line, I realized something that changed everything. Adrian Blackwood hadn't married me because of my family's debt. He had known me long before the day we signed that contract. He had been watching me. Protecting me. Waiting for me. And the marriage that I thought had been an accident... Had been planned from the very beginning. I looked toward the staircase. "Adrian..." But he was already gone. And somewhere upstairs, a secret was waiting to destroy everything we had built. Including our marriage. --- One year earlier... "Sign the contract, Elena." I looked up at the billionaire sitting across from me. Adrian Blackwood. The man who would soon become my husband. And the man I would eventually learn I could never escape.