Unseen

Chapter Thirteen

The quiet between them thickened, settling over the table like a second shadow. Olivia’s fingers curled together in her lap, uncertain of where to rest, uncertain of where she fit inside the world he spoke of so effortlessly. The soft glow of the restaurant lights framed their table, but the space felt colder with every breath she took.

She lifted her eyes, timid yet determined. “Mr. Jimenez… what will you gain from marrying me? From this entire arrangement.” Her voice nearly broke around the edges. “My family has nothing to offer. I have nothing to offer.”

Simon did not blink. “That is accurate. Your family offers nothing. And you offer nothing.”

The bluntness hit her like a shard of ice. She had carried this truth quietly all her life, but hearing it spoken aloud by someone like him made her shrink inward. His words did not wound cruelly. They wounded correctly.

Simon leaned back, palms resting on the table with the composure of someone who owned every direction the conversation could take. “My plans are already moving. I do not require the Salvadors. I do not require their name. Every path I need is already paved. Every vote accounted for. Every necessary person has already shaken my hand.”

He did not posture or brag. He merely stated reality.

“I’m confident I can get your father’s signature on the project permits,” he added. “No need for chaos when we can keep this civil.” His tone didn’t ripple. “But even without him, the Madanunan Crown rises. There isn’t a version of this future where it doesn’t.”

Olivia inhaled softly. “Then why… offer this to us at all.”

Simon regarded her with a stillness that felt carved from stone. “Because I am not heartless, Olivia. Despite the stories that paint me as such.” He paused, not to soften but to allow truth its space. “Your family is native to Santa Agueda. I am giving them an opportunity to survive what will soon swallow this town whole. A courtesy. A mercy. Nothing more.”

The word mercy felt strange in his mouth, but not unbelievable. Not from him.

“This project costs nearly a trillion pesos,” he said. “It will reshape the entire northern corridor. It will outlive every Salvador. Every politician. Every official with an inflated ego.” His voice deepened. “Ilocos Norte is rising, but it still lacks gravity. Boracay pulls tourists. Palawan pulls them. Cebu pulls them. This province does not yet have that force.”

His gaze did not waver. “The Madanunan Crown will change that.”

Olivia felt smaller the longer he spoke. Smaller compared to the weight of his ambition. Smaller inside the shadow of a future he already held in his hands. She had never seen power like this. Never stood this close to it.

Her voice trembled as she whispered, “What would someone like me even do beside you.”

He answered without hesitation. “You will do what a wife does.”

Her breath caught. “You mean… all of it.”

“Yes. That includes duties in bed.” He did not flinch. He did not avert his gaze. He simply delivered the truth like a blade placed gently on a table.

Olivia swallowed hard, her pulse staggering. She had expected an arrangement. Something clinical. A contract with distance. Instead, he spoke of marriage in its fullest form.

“I thought this was temporary,” she whispered. “A term. Something that ends.”

“I do not do divorce,” Simon said. “Nor do I do annulments. My mother believes fiercely in the sanctity of marriage. I will not humiliate her by dissolving a union. I will not shame her. I respect her too deeply for that.”

Something in his voice shifted. Not softness. Something older. A vow he had given himself long before she existed.

“However,” he added, “we will sign a prenuptial agreement. If separation ever occurs, unlikely and unnecessary, you will be compensated.”

Her throat tightened. “So you are not freeing me.”

Simon looked at her then, a stillness settling into his features. “I am freeing you from the Salvador cage. If you marry me, you leave theirs and enter mine.”

A tremor ran through her ribs. “So I escape one cage only to enter another.”

“That is correct.”

She closed her eyes, heart aching against the truth. When she lifted them again, her voice was barely a whisper. “Then what makes your cage better.”

Simon leaned in, his voice low and absolute. “Because in mine, no one can touch you.”

Silence fell heavy between them.

Then he asked, quiet as a blade sliding free.

“Tell me, Olivia. Who is the lesser evil.”

And the chapter closed on her breath.