Love in contract

He knows

Daniella’s POV

My hands became cold.

I stared at Stef’s message for what felt like forever.

We need to talk. I found out who your new husband really is.

There were so many things wrong with that sentence.

First, Gary wasn’t my husband.

Second, Stef shouldn’t even know enough about Gary to start investigating him.

And third, I had absolutely no idea what he meant by who your new husband really is.

I looked up at Gary.

He was still staring at my phone, but his expression had changed completely. The playful man who was laughing with me a few minutes ago disappeared.

He looked serious.

Too serious.

I locked my phone and dropped it on the couch.

Maybe if I ignored it, the problem would disappear.

That was stupid.

Problems didn’t disappear because I ignored them. If that worked, I would still be happily planning my wedding to Stef while living in the apartment my mother rented for us.

My life had taught me enough already.

Ignoring something only gave it more time to destroy you.

I walked towards the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water. My hand trembled slightly and some of it spilled on the counter.

I cleaned it quickly.

Gary followed me but didn’t say anything.

I appreciated that.

I didn’t want questions yet because I didn’t have answers.

The strange thing was that I wasn’t scared of Stef himself.

I was scared of what he knew.

Our fake marriage had started as something ridiculous and temporary. Gary was supposed to appear beside me for one hour, smile, sign some documents and disappear.

Instead, it had grown into this massive lie.

We collected the house.

An article was published.

We took pictures.

Gary kept clothes in my house.

Micheal lived opposite me.

People at Red Line had almost seen us together.

And now my ex-husband was investigating him.

I suddenly realized how stupid everything had become.

I turned around and leaned against the kitchen counter.

Gary was watching me.

“He’s bluffing,” I finally said.

Even I didn’t believe myself.

Gary didn’t answer immediately.

He walked back to the living room and picked up his phone.

I watched him scroll through something before typing.

His calmness made me more nervous.

I followed him.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking something.”

That was all he said.

I sat down.

My phone vibrated again.

I didn’t want to look.

It vibrated a second time.

Then a third.

My chest tightened.

Eventually, I picked it up.

Three messages.

The first was another message from Stef.

You really thought I wouldn’t find out?

The second was a picture.

I opened it.

My stomach twisted.

It was a picture of Gary entering Red Line Games.

There was another one underneath it.

Gary standing beside a car.

Then another.

A picture of the Red Line Games building with Gary’s name and position written underneath.

I stared at the screen.

Stef had definitely been searching.

The last message scared me the most.

Interesting husband you have.

I threw my phone on the couch.

This was getting creepy.

I didn’t understand why he cared.

He cheated on me.

He left me.

He told me he loved Jennifer.

He signed the divorce papers without reading them.

He practically celebrated getting rid of me.

So why was he suddenly interested in who I was spending time with?

For years, I thought I understood Stef.

Now I wondered if I ever knew him at all.

Gary eventually sat beside me.

He looked at the pictures and didn’t seem surprised.

Apparently, most of the information Stef found was public. Gary worked for one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. Finding his position wasn’t difficult.

That should have made me feel better.

It didn’t.

Because our problem wasn’t his job.

Our problem was the marriage.

If Stef dug deep enough, he would eventually find something that didn’t make sense.

My marriage certificate still had Stef’s name.

The article showed another man beside me.

Even though Gary’s face had been partly hidden, it wouldn’t take much to connect everything now.

I felt sick.

The house suddenly stopped feeling beautiful.

I looked around at the expensive furniture, the massive television, the beautiful paintings and everything I had been so excited about.

Three months.

All I needed was three months.

Why couldn’t my life remain peaceful for three months?

I had already lost my marriage.

I almost lost my home.

My business was struggling before Red Line called.

For once, things were beginning to work.

Now Stef was back.

Again.

Gary eventually told me not to respond.

That made sense.

Whatever Stef knew, we shouldn’t give him more information.

I blocked his number.

For exactly twelve seconds, I felt powerful.

Then I remembered he knew where my office was.

Great.

Blocking him suddenly felt useless.

Gary stayed for another hour.

We barely talked.

The excitement from discovering we knew each other twenty years ago was completely gone.

I hated that.

Today was supposed to be one of those days I would remember because something beautiful happened.

Instead, Stef found another way to insert himself into it.

When Gary finally prepared to leave, something inside me didn’t want him to.

I almost asked him to stay.

The words reached my throat but I swallowed them.

That would make everything more confusing.

I walked him outside.

For a few seconds, he stood beside his car while I remained near the doorway.

It felt awkward.

Usually, Gary leaving wasn’t something I thought about.

Recently, I had started noticing it.

The house always became quieter after he left.

I hated that I noticed.

He drove away.

I remained outside until his car disappeared.

Then I went inside and locked the door.

Twice.

⸻

I barely slept.

Every small sound woke me up.

At around three in the morning, I checked my windows like someone was about to break into the house.

Nobody was there.

I laughed at myself and went back to bed.

By six, I gave up on sleeping.

I took a shower, prepared breakfast and dressed for work.

I spent extra time doing my makeup.

Not because of Stef.

At least that’s what I told myself.

The office was unusually busy when I arrived.

Romi was already arguing with our printer while another employee was trying to fix a mistake on one of our designs.

For once, I welcomed the chaos.

Work gave me something else to think about.

The Red Line contract had changed everything for my company.

Before them, there were months when I wondered if I should close the business completely.

Now people were beginning to notice us.

Two smaller companies had contacted us after hearing about the partnership.

It made me feel proud.

Els Designs was finally becoming the company I imagined when I started it.

I refused to allow Stef to ruin that too.

I spent most of the morning working on adjustments for the game design.

Gary sent me a message around noon asking if I was okay.

I smiled when I saw it.

Then I caught myself smiling and immediately dropped the phone.

Romi looked at me suspiciously.

I ignored her.

She had developed an annoying habit of watching my face whenever my phone rang.

I returned to work.

Around two, someone entered the office.

I didn’t look up immediately because I was working on my laptop.

Romi greeted the person.

There was silence.

Something about that silence made me look up.

My heart sank.

Stef.

He stood near the entrance wearing a black shirt and trousers. His hands were inside his pockets and there was a smile on his face.

That stupid charming smile I used to love.

Today, it irritated me.

I closed my laptop.

My employees suddenly became very interested in their work.

They were terrible actors.

I stood up and walked towards Stef before he could come deeper into the office.

I didn’t want a scene.

Especially not here.

We went outside.

The moment the door closed behind me, I folded my arms.

I refused to let him see that his messages affected me.

Stef looked different.

Not physically.

Something about the way he stared at me felt different.

His eyes moved slowly over my face before looking at my clothes.

It made me uncomfortable.

He told me I looked good.

I ignored the compliment.

There was a time when hearing that from him could completely change my mood.

Now I just wanted him to leave.

He eventually brought up Gary.

I expected it.

What I didn’t expect was the anger in his voice.

He wanted to know how long I had known him.

He wanted to know when we got married.

He wanted to know why I moved on so quickly.

I almost laughed.

The audacity.

This was the same man who had another relationship while we were together.

The same man who deliberately destroyed seven years because he thought Jennifer could give him a richer life.

Now he wanted explanations from me?

I refused.

That irritated him even more.

For a moment, I saw something in his eyes I hadn’t seen before.

Jealousy.

It shocked me.

Stef was jealous.

The realization was almost funny.

I smiled.

That made him angrier.

I told him my life was no longer his business and started walking back inside.

He grabbed my wrist.

Every emotion disappeared from my face.

I looked down at his hand.

He released me immediately.

Then he said something that completely erased the little confidence I had managed to build.

He knew about the raffle.

I froze.

He knew about the house.

My heartbeat became painfully loud.

I slowly turned around.

Stef smiled.

This time, there was nothing charming about it.

He had spoken to someone at Beauty Haven.

He knew the house was awarded to us.

Us.

Meaning me and him.

He knew the company believed I collected it with my husband.

And he knew the man pretending to be that husband was Gary.

My mouth became dry.

This was worse than I thought.

Stef stepped closer.

He didn’t shout.

He didn’t threaten me loudly.

He didn’t need to.

His calmness was worse.

If Beauty Haven discovered what happened, they could take the house back.

They could sue me.

Gary could be dragged into it.

And if Red Line discovered their team leader participated in something like this, his job could be affected too.

Everything suddenly made sense.

That was what Stef wanted.

Power.

For the first time since our divorce, he had something he believed he could use against me.

I stared at the man I once wanted to spend my entire life with.

I barely recognized him.

Before leaving, he told me he would call.

This time, I would answer.

Then he walked away.

I remained outside my office, unable to move.

My phone vibrated inside my hand.

A message.

Gary.

Lunch?

I stared at the message while my eyes slowly filled with tears.

I had dragged him into this.

And now, for the first time, I realized Stef could actually destroy both of us.