The Contract That Became Forever

THE CONTRACT

CHAPTER 1

"Marry me, Sophia. Six months. That's the deal."

Ethan Hart's voice didn't echo in the hospital hallway. It cut through it. Clean. Cold. Final.

Sophia Bennett didn't answer right away. She couldn't. Her fingers were wrapped around a piece of paper so tightly her knuckles were white. `FINAL NOTICE. $20,000 DUE IN 14 DAYS.`

Behind the glass, her mother slept. Tubes in her nose. The oxygen machine was the only sound in the room. Three weeks ago the doctors said "surgery or she won't make it to Christmas." Three weeks ago Sophia's bank account said `$247.32`.

Perhaps it was because she had already begged banks, friends, and charities, Sophia lifted her head.

Ethan Hart stood across from her. Navy suit. White shirt. No tie. He looked like he had come straight from a board meeting, but his eyes had dark circles under them. The CEO of Hart Industries. Twenty-nine years old. Worth 2.1 billion dollars. And right now, he was looking at her like she was the solution to a problem.

"What do I get?" Sophia asked. Her voice was steady even though her heart wasn't.

Ethan pulled a thick folder from under his arm. "Your mother's surgery. Paid in full. Today. The best surgeon in the state. Private recovery suite. Full insurance after. A place to live. A salary. Anything else you need."

He held the folder out.

Sophia didn't take it. "And what do you get?"

"A wife," Ethan said.

The word hung in the air between the beeping machines.

"For six months," he continued. "My grandfather owns 51% of Hart Industries. He's dying. He refuses to sign the shares over to me unless I'm married. He thinks it will make me stable. After six months, we file for divorce. No drama. No claims. No feelings. It's all written here."

He tapped the folder with one finger.

Sophia laughed. It came out shaky. "You walked into a hospital and proposed to a stranger."

"I walked into a hospital because your mother’s nurse said you were here every night and you looked desperate," Ethan said bluntly. "I need a wife. You need money. This is efficient."

Efficient. Like she was a merger.

Sophia looked through the glass at her mom. The woman who had worked double shifts at the diner so Sophia could finish nursing school. The woman who was now dying because they were $20,000 short.

This was wrong. This was selling herself.

But letting her mother die was worse.

Sophia took the folder. Inside was a contract. Thirty pages of legal language. And paper-clipped to the front, a check. The amount had too many zeros.

Her hand shook as she picked up the pen from the waiting room bench.

"I don't love you," she whispered. She wasn't sure who she was saying it to. Him. Or herself.

Ethan's expression didn't change. "Good. I don't love you either."

The pen scratched. `Sophia Bennett`.

Just like that, she signed away six months.

She didn't know then that the man who said he felt nothing would be the one who ruined her.

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