CHAPTER FIVE
1180 Words
~Edward’s POV~
As Edward slide into his rolls Royce, he couldn’t help but ponder about this country girl.
She looked so innocent. So pure.
A stark contrast to everything he had known. Everything he had become.
Edward Hawthorne wasn’t built for love. He was the force behind the gears of Hawthorne Corporation, the sole heir to a hundred-billion-dollar legacy. In business, he was precise. Calculating. Ruthless. He’d earned that reputation by age twenty-nine and made no apologies for it.
The city whispered many things about him, cold-blooded, unforgiving, untouchable. They weren’t wrong.
Yet beneath the sharp suits and billion-dollar decisions was a past that lingered like smoke in his lungs.
As a boy, Edward had witnessed the charade of love dressed in diamonds, drowned in greed. He’d seen relatives fawn and feign affection only when inheritance was on the table. Women who kissed his father with painted smiles, only to turn icy behind closed doors. The very idea of love had become… performative.
It broke something in him. Long before he was old enough to understand what he’d lost.
His mother’s mysterious death had been the final blow.
Only Grandma Shelly had shown him anything close to real affection. Her love was fierce, protective, and inconveniently stubborn. Of all eight grandchildren, he was her favorite, and she never hid it. She wanted him to marry, not for wealth or status, but for the warmth he refused to seek. Someone pure. Someone who knew nothing about his world.
Someone like… Huda.
A country girl who still had stars in her eyes and dirt beneath her nails. Someone who hadn’t been poisoned by the world of false kisses and empty vows.
But Edward didn’t believe in that kind of love.
Money, not emotion was what controlled people. It bought loyalty, manipulated affection, and silenced betrayal. He had seen it play out too many times to believe otherwise.
Yet… that girl.
Seven years ago, long before this twisted arrangement began, he’d met her.
She didn’t remember him. Why would she?
He’d gone to the countryside alone, trying to outrun his grief. The day had been long, the sky painted in soft apricot as dusk approached. He’d wandered into that dusty ranch seeking nothing. Expecting nothing.
And then he saw her.
She was trying to water her horse by the old barn, her hands clumsy with the bucket, her laughter bubbling freely when the water splashed back on her. The breeze tossed her brunette hair like silk, her cheeks flushed from the sun, her green eyes glistening with something he couldn’t name.
Grace, maybe. Or untainted joy.
It struck him, how free she was. There was a kind of sacred rhythm to the way she whispered to the horse, her palm stroking its mane, unhurried, unbothered. As if the world outside that barn didn’t exist.
He had watched, captivated. Hidden.
A strange ache settled in his chest, she reminded him of a version of life he’d never been given. A life not bound by expectation, or wealth, or pain.
He never spoke to her.
But her laughter haunted him.
When he returned to the city, he tried to forget her. Poured himself into business deals. Into power. Into women who glittered like glass and shattered just as easily. But none of them could touch whatever it was that girl had stirred in him.
So he stayed connected from a distance.
He made sure the ranch got anonymous donations. He kept tabs on her quietly, never daring to go back. And then came Sam Walden, Huda’s uncle. Slimy, greedy, desperate for money. Sam reached out, offering access to Huda like she was nothing more than a bargaining chip.
Edward knew what men like Sam did to girls like her.
He also knew he wasn’t worthy either. He was a man with no heart left to give. But better him… than someone truly vile.
So he said yes.
He arranged for a business summit in Johannesburg just to meet Sam on neutral ground. It was a glittering event, with gold-rimmed glasses and sharp-eyed men in darker suits. Sam cornered him with a smirk and a handshake that smelled of sweat and desperation.
“You’ll be doing her a favor,” Sam had said. “She’s got nothing where she is. At least with you…”
Edward didn’t respond. Not to him.
But the truth sat heavy on his chest: She deserves better. But she’ll get worse if I walk away.
So he didn’t.
He bought her freedom with a contract, and tied it to his own chains.
A marriage of convenience. For her safety. For Grandma Shelly’s peace.
He reminded himself.
And maybe, just maybe, once she was close, the string that had been pulling at his soul for seven years… would finally snap.
The car slowed as it approached Grandma Shelly’s estate, a towering building cloaked in ivy and time. The driver opened the door, and Edward stepped out, adjusting his cufflinks with his usual elegance, though his mind was far from the boardrooms.
He hadn’t realized how fast time had passed.
Grandma was already waiting in the drawing room, wrapped in her lavender shawl, her cane resting beside her.
She rose at the sight of him, her eyes brightening, then dimming when she noticed he was alone.
“Hi Grandma,” Edward said, forcing a smile, arms stretched wide.
“Where’s my granddaughter-in-law?” she asked, glancing past him as if Huda might appear late, like a guest running behind.
Edward gave a small shrug. “I sent her home. I’ve got a long day ahead. But I wanted to see you first.”
Grandma Shelly’s face crumpled into a disapproving frown. “You ditch your wife on your wedding day to go to work?”
“I married her, didn’t I?” His voice was quiet but edged. “I did what you asked.”
“That’s not the same as being a husband, Edward. She’s new here. You should’ve brought her, settled her in, at least acted like she mattered.”
He pressed a quick kiss to her forehead, ignoring the guilt that clawed at his stomach. “I have to go now, I’ve got too much on my plate today. You know how it is.”
“You can’t freeze your heart forever, Edward,” she whispered, looking through him now. “Not even ice survives fire.”
He turned to leave, then paused at the door. “You asked me to get married. I did. But I’ll handle it my way.”
“Bye, Grandma. Be good.” He smiled faintly.
Grandma Shelly didn’t follow him. Didn’t say another word.
She knew him too well. Pressing harder would only push him further. And Edward was the kind of man who, once pushed too far, would walk away completely.
She couldn’t risk that. Not with her new granddaughter-in-law.
Not when there’s something in that girl Edward refused to see in himself—hope.
A girl who just might burn through all his walls, if she didn’t get crushed by them first.
- Writer
