Bound By Contract

The Terms

Ethan POV

“Are you sure about this one?” Helen, my assistant asked that morning. I told her it wasn’t about what was sure, it was about what I wanted. If I wanted Nadia, nothing would stop me from getting her.

I had known about Nadia Voss for three months before I arranged the meeting. Anything connected to Marcus Voss required full information, which meant knowing everyone around him. His daughter was the most important part of the structure I had been building for the past two years.

Connor dropped the file on my desk the morning after I gave the instruction.

“She runs the whole operational side,” he said. “It has been two years. The finances she managed are clean, tighter than expected given what her father was doing around her. She either didn’t know or didn’t have access to the parts that mattered.”

“Which one?”

“Both,” he said. “She didn’t know because he made sure she didn’t.”

That was the part that mattered. I wasn’t going to sit across from someone involved in what Marcus had done. The daughter was clean. She was also good at her job, which made her useful. Those two things were enough reason to move forward with the meeting.

I look forward to having her around on Friday and seal the deal.

Cornor walked and asked how the meeting went.

Fine, I replied.

He nodded slowly. "She leaves on her own terms or yours?"

"Does it matter?"

"Usually no." He leaned against the doorframe. "You've got that look though."

"What look?"

"The one where something didn't go exactly the way you planned and you're deciding whether to be annoyed about it or interested in it."

I looked at him. He looked back, unbothered, the way he had been looking at me since we were twenty-two and he was the only person who thought my first company was going to survive its first year.

"She'll come back Friday," I said.

"I know she will." He paused. "That's not what I asked."

Connor leaned back in his chair, a small smile on his face.

“Don’t tell me that little Voss is giving the beast in the business world a hard time,” he said, teasingly.

“Stop that. I’m not in the mood for this.”

Connor had a way of seeing through me. The Voss family was already complicated enough, and Nadia… I scoffed. But I couldn’t explain why I felt slightly unsettled.

Friday came.

She didn't call ahead. I was at my desk at 8:15am when my assistant's line lit up, and thirty seconds later Nadia Voss walked through my office door without waiting to be invited in. She crossed the room, put a handwritten list on my desk, and stood on the other side with her hands at her sides and her chin level and looked at me like she was ready for a fight.

I picked up the list.

She had written five items in clean, direct language with no preamble. Leo Voss's co-signed portion cleared completely, his name removed from the debt structure with no conditions. Her own monthly allowance paid from the contract itself, her own account, full financial independence. Separate wings in whatever shared residence was required. A twelve month exit clause, automatic, no extensions, no renegotiation. And at the bottom, one final line that wasn't a demand so much as a statement.

This is a contract, not a surrender.

I read through it twice.

I had already decided before she walked in what I was going to give her. I had drawn up my own version of these terms three days ago because I had sat in that conference room after she left and gone through every version of what a person like Nadia Voss would need in order to agree to something like this, and these were the things she would need. She came with the same list I had. She had just written it in her own handwriting and carried it across the city like a weapon.

I picked up a pen and signed the bottom.

The silence that followed was different from the silences she had given me before. This one had something loose in it, like she had been bracing for a wall and walked through air instead.

"That's it?" she said.

"That's it."

"You didn't push back on anything."

"No."

She looked at me. "Why."

"Your terms were reasonable."

"I came in here ready to argue every line."

"I know." I set the pen down. "You had it in your face when you walked through the door."

She didn't like that. I could see her deciding not to respond to it, which was its own kind of response.

"You agreed to the full exit clause," she said. "Twelve months, automatic."

"Yes."

"And Leo's portion, fully cleared."

"Already drafted into the updated contract."

She looked at the signature for a moment. Then at me. "You decided all of this before I came in."

I didn't answer.

"So what was Friday for," she said. "What were you waiting to see?"

Oh, damn it. I was already getting pissed. Why the hell is she still asking questions after I agreed without pushing back?

“You said you needed time. I gave you Friday. Is that a problem?”

She scoffed. “I see.”

"The contract will be ready Monday," I said. "My lawyer will send it to you. We'd need to move within two weeks of signing."

She looked at me for another second, and I could see her deciding whether to push again or let it sit. She let it sit. She picked up her copy of the list, folded it, and put it in her bag.

Thank you Mr Cole, I will be expecting the contract on Monday.

She turned and walked to the door. She stopped with her hand on the frame before leaving, like she did on Tuesday.

I don’t even know if she’s annoying or amusing.

Connor was in the doorway thirty seconds later. He looked at me. I knew he had something to say, and I wasn’t interested. I turned back to my computer.

“Well?” he said.

“Get the legal team on the contract by the end of day.”

He was quiet for a moment. Then, "Ethan…"

"End of day, Connor."

He left.

I sat alone in my office and looked at the list she had written and thought about the last line at the bottom. The one that wasn't a demand.

This is a contract, not a surrender.

“Nadia…”

A smile.

“You have no idea. Or do you?”