Chapter 3
888 Words
Stacy froze.
Her eyes went wide. Her mouth fell open.
It was him.
Gerard Blackwood. The rich son she had to marry to save her father's life. The same man who had looked through her like she was nothing in the rain.
Her legs felt heavy. Her whole body went cold.
Gerard's eyes met hers. Cold. Sharp. Something moved in them. A flicker of recognition.
That night. The rain. Her voice. Her face.
It was her.
"You. Again?" His voice rose slightly.
"And you're still arrogant," she shot back. "I cannot believe this."
"Why are you here?" His voice dropped low.
Her stomach twisted. But she gathered herself.
"My father's life depends on your father's threats," she said.
He raised one eyebrow. Unconvinced. "You think I'll just trust that?"
Her heart was pounding. Her throat was dry. Fear and anger were fighting each other inside her chest. But she didn't move. She didn't back down.
He took one step closer.
She didn't move.
"Step aside," he said. "Or leave."
"I'm not leaving."
Her voice shook a little. But her eyes were steady.
Something crossed his face. Like he hadn't expected that.
"You think coming here will save your father?" he said.
"I'm not here to perform for you," Stacy snapped.
His eyes darkened.
He stepped closer again. "Then why are you here?"
"Because my father needs me," she said firmly. "And I will not let him die."
"Bold words," he said. "For someone with nothing."
The word landed like something sharp.
"Nothing?" Her voice rose. "You have no idea what my father and I have been through."
"Try me," he said flatly.
Her chest heaved. She gripped her bag strap to stop her hands from shaking. The space between them was tight and charged. Two people who had already decided they couldn't stand each other. Standing close enough for it to matter.
"Your father's debt brought you here," Gerard said. "Not courage. Not choice."
"My father's life brought me here," she said. "There's a difference."
He studied her for a long moment.
"You will marry me," he said. Cold and certain. Like it was already done.
Stacy felt something freeze inside her.
"No," she said. "I will never marry you. I would rather die."
Something shifted in his expression. Not quite a smile. Not quite annoyance. Something harder than both.
"You have no choice," he said. "This is not a negotiation."
"I refuse."
The lobby felt like it was shrinking around them. Security cameras blinking. Employees pretending not to watch. Everything around them expensive and controlled and completely opposite to anything Stacy had ever known.
His world versus hers. The gap couldn't have been more obvious.
"My father is drowning," Stacy said. "You don't understand what that means."
"I don't trust you," Gerard said. His voice was sharp and quiet at the same time. "How do I know this isn't a setup?"
"A setup?" Her voice broke slightly. "My father's life is at stake!"
"Then prove it."
She stared at him.
He stared back.
Neither one of them moved.
"You're here because my father arranged it," Gerard said finally. "That's all this is. Accept it or leave."
Stacy straightened her back.
"Think whatever you want," she said. "I am not going to be intimidated by you."
He said nothing.
She turned and walked across the lobby without looking back. Head up. Steps even. She kept moving until she pushed through the glass doors and stepped outside.
The cold air hit her immediately.
Her hands started shaking properly the moment she was out of sight.
She kept walking. Toward the road. Toward a cab. Away from that building and everything in it.
She didn't look back.
She didn't know that Gerard was still standing in the lobby watching her go.
Every step. Every movement. The way she held herself even when her hands were giving her away.
He didn't trust her. Didn't like her. Didn't want any part of whatever she had dragged into his life.
But he couldn't stop watching.
Back in his office, he pulled up the lobby footage and sat down slowly.
Notes open beside him. Eyes on the screen.
He watched her cross the lobby again on the footage. The way she walked. The way she held herself even when everything around her was designed to make someone like her feel small. She hadn't flinched. Not once.
Most people flinched.
He had spent years making sure of it.
"Bold," he said to himself quietly. "Reckless."
He leaned back in his chair.
She had walked into his building with no appointment, no leverage and no plan. Just conviction. The kind that comes from someone who has nothing left to lose and has decided that means they have nothing left to fear either.
He had met a lot of people in his life. Powerful ones. Desperate ones. People who came to Blackwood Enterprises with every kind of agenda.
None of them had looked at him the way she did.
Like he was a problem she intended to solve.
He picked up his pen and wrote one line on the notepad beside him.
Find out everything about Victor Mills.
He stared at it for a moment.
Then beneath it he added one more line.
And his daughter.
He closed the notepad.
Stacy didn't know she was being watched.
- Writer
