BOUGHT BY THE RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE

CHAPTER 13:THE CONTRACT SHE DIDN'T READ

---

The rain was still hammering the city when he carried her inside from the balcony. Not because she asked. Because Alexander Knight never asked.

"You'll catch cold," he said, his voice low.

"I wasn't cold," Emma whispered, but she didn't push him away. Her hands were fisted in his black shirt.

He set her down in the living room of his penthouse, but didn't let go. The city lights behind them blurred through the wet glass.

"You signed it, Emma."

"I know what I signed," she said. "One year. Your wife on paper. You clear my father's debt. We divorce. Simple."

He smiled, but there was no warmth in it. "You didn't read page seven."

Emma's stomach dropped. "What is on page seven?"

He walked to his desk and picked up the contract. The same contract she had signed at 2 AM in the hospital corridor, with her father's medical bills on the table.

"Clause 12. The buyer has the right to demand the complete presence of the purchased. At any time. At any place."

"I am here, aren't I?" she said.

"You are physically here," he said, stepping closer. "But you look at me like I'm a monster who bought you at an auction."

"Didn't you?"

He stared at her for a long time. The ruthless billionaire everyone feared in boardrooms. But now, with rain on his shoulders and her white dress wrinkled in his hands, he just looked tired.

"I bought your debt, Emma. Not you. There is a difference. But you keep acting like you have already lost."

She swallowed. "Why me? You could have any woman in New York."

"Because you were the only one who didn't want me," he said simply. "Every other woman wants my money. You... you wanted me to leave you alone. That made me interested."

He handed her the contract again.

"Read it properly this time. If you still want to leave after page seven, the door is open. I won't stop you. But if you stay..."

"If I stay?"

"Then you stop pretending you're just a contract. You have dinner with me. You argue with me. You live here, really live here."

Outside, thunder cracked.

Emma looked at the door. It was open. She could walk out, go back to her small apartment, to the debt collectors calling.

Or she could stay in this gilded cage with a man who looked at her like she was the only thing he couldn't buy.

She reached out, not for the door.

She took the contract from his hand and tore page seven in half.

"I don't need to read it," she whispered. "Tell me yourself what you want."

And for the first time since she met him, Alexander Knight had nothing to say.

---

Want me to continue with Chapter 14 - The Dinner where his ex shows up?