THE BILLIONAIRE'S CONTRACT WIFE.

CHAPTER FOUR:THE FIRST CLASH.

Ava had barely stepped into Damien’s penthouse when the flashbulbs began.

They’d left the wedding reception under a storm of paparazzi questions: Who is she? Where did she come from?

Now even behind tinted windows and the building’s private security, the noise seemed to follow her inside.

Damien closed the door behind them with a sharp click. The penthouse stretched like a palace—floor-to-ceiling windows with a glittering Manhattan skyline, marble floors that gleamed, and furniture that looked more like museum art than anything meant to sit on.

Ava clutched her small overnight bag awkwardly. “So this is… home now?”

“For the next year,” Damien replied coolly, loosening his tie. “You’ll have your own room. My staff will brief you tomorrow about your schedule, wardrobe, and public appearances.”

His detached tone made her bristle. “Wardrobe? Schedule? I thought you wanted a wife, not a puppet.”

Damien’s gray eyes snapped to hers. “Don’t confuse what we have, Ava. This isn’t love. It’s an arrangement. Appearances matter, and I won’t have you stumbling through society functions like an amateur.”

Her chest tightened. “Sorry I didn’t grow up sipping champagne in penthouses. Some of us actually work for a living.”

Something flickered in Damien’s gaze—surprise, maybe even guilt—but his voice stayed cold. “Then consider this a paid promotion. Learn quickly.”

The silence stretched taut. The faint hum of the city below seemed louder than it should. Ava turned to escape to the guest room, but Damien’s voice stopped her.

“Tomorrow there’s a charity dinner. The press will be there. Bianca will be there. You’ll be on my arm and you’ll act like you belong. Understood?”

Ava spun around. “And what if I embarrass you?”

A dangerous half-smile curved his lips. “Then we both lose. But something tells me you have more fight in you than you let on.”

Her cheeks heated despite herself. “I didn’t sign up to be humiliated, Damien.”

“No,” he said, stepping closer until she could see the silver flecks in his eyes. “You signed up to play my wife. And that means standing by my side no matter what storm comes for us.”

His nearness sent a confusing flutter through her stomach. She hated that she noticed how good he smelled—like cedar and expensive cologne. She hated that her pulse sped up.

This is fake, she reminded herself. Business only.

Before she could reply, a buzzing noise interrupted. Damien checked his phone, his face tightening.

“What is it?” Ava asked.

He turned the screen toward her. Splashed across a gossip blog were photos from the wedding:

Blackwood Marries Nobody Waitress – Sham Marriage for Fortune?

The headline burned. The comment section was worse. Words like gold-digger, desperate, fake jumped out.

Ava’s throat tightened. “They’re calling me—”

“Names?” Damien finished bluntly. “Get used to it. This is the world you agreed to live in.”

Her vision blurred with angry tears. “I did this to save my brother. I don’t deserve to be torn apart by strangers!”

Damien’s jaw clenched. “Then prove them wrong. Walk into that dinner tomorrow and make them choke on their own words.”

His tone was sharp, almost commanding. But underneath it, Ava thought she heard something else—an edge of protectiveness.

She wiped her eyes and met his gaze. “Fine. I’ll survive your world. But don’t you dare underestimate me.”

For the first time, Damien’s lips twitched in something close to a real smile. “Good. I don’t need a coward for a wife.”

Before Ava could answer, the elevator chimed again. The doors slid open—and Bianca stepped out, draped in a designer coat, eyes glittering with malicious delight.

“Well,” Bianca purred, looking around the penthouse like she owned it. “I thought I’d drop by and congratulate the happy couple.”

Ava’s blood ran cold. Damien’s jaw hardened. The war Bianca had promised at the wedding had already arrived—right at their doorstep.

Bianca’s uninvited arrival sets the stage for the first major power struggle in Ava’s new life, forcing Ava and Damien to face their first public/private test as a “couple.”