Chapter One: The Desperate Offer
696 Words
Rain splattered against the cracked windowpane as Ella Wilson sat on her lumpy couch, clutching the eviction notice in her trembling hands. She had twenty-four hours to leave. Twenty-four hours before she was out on the street, homeless and jobless.
“I’m sorry, Ella,” her manager had said that morning, avoiding her eyes. “The bookstore is closing down. We can’t afford to keep anyone on staff.”
That had been the last straw.
Three years ago, she’d left her small hometown with big dreams of becoming a writer. But dreams didn’t pay rent. Now, she was down to her last fifty dollars and didn’t even have enough to fix the heater in her studio apartment.
Her phone buzzed on the chipped coffee table. A message from her roommate, Zoe.
“You might want to meet someone. Urgent. Could change your life. Trust me. Address below.”
Ella frowned. Zoe worked for some high-end PR firm and always had her hands in strange business. But right now, Ella had nothing to lose. She slipped into her only clean jeans and coat, grabbed her bag, and left the building behind—maybe for the last time.
⸻
The address Zoe sent led her to a towering glass building in the heart of downtown Manhattan. She felt out of place as she stepped into the marble-floored lobby, surrounded by men in tailored suits and women in red-bottom heels.
A well-dressed woman greeted her at the front desk. “Miss Wilson?”
Ella nodded slowly.
“Right this way. Mr. Knight is expecting you.”
Mr. Knight? She hadn’t expected Zoe to send her into the lion’s den.
The elevator doors slid open on the top floor, revealing a sleek, modern office with floor-to-ceiling windows. Behind a massive glass desk sat a man who could’ve stepped out of a fashion magazine—black tailored suit, sharp jawline, cold gray eyes.
Xander Knight.
He didn’t stand as she entered, merely gestured to the chair across from him.
“You’re late.”
She blinked. “Excuse me?”
He looked up from a file, his gaze piercing. “You were scheduled fifteen minutes ago.”
“I didn’t even know I had an appointment.”
He closed the file. “Zoe said you were desperate. I need a wife. This could be mutually beneficial.”
Ella choked on a laugh. “You need a what?”
“A wife. For one year. Strictly business. You’ll be well-compensated—one million dollars at the end of the term, paid in monthly installments. You’ll live in my penthouse, attend social functions with me, and follow a list of rules.”
She stared at him, waiting for the punchline.
It didn’t come.
“You’re serious,” she whispered.
“Very.”
Ella stood abruptly. “This is insane. You don’t even know me!”
He raised an eyebrow. “I know enough. No close family. No criminal record. Clean reputation. You’re perfect.”
“For a fake marriage?” she said, crossing her arms.
He leaned forward. “For a contract marriage. I don’t want love. I want convenience. I need a wife to fulfill a clause in my grandfather’s will and keep certain board members at bay. You need money. This is a transaction.”
Ella’s pride screamed no. But her reality whispered yes.
“What’s the catch?”
Xander’s voice dropped an octave. “No intimacy. No emotional entanglements. You’ll sign an NDA, and if you breach it, you forfeit the money. In public, we act like a real couple. In private, we stay out of each other’s way.”
She chewed her lip. “You expect me to agree to all this… right now?”
“You have forty-eight hours to decide. After that, I move on to the next candidate.”
He slid a crisp file across the desk—details, contract, payment terms.
Ella picked it up with shaking hands.
As she turned to leave, he said, “Don’t mistake this for anything other than what it is, Miss Wilson. I’m not a man who gives second chances. If you say yes, be sure you mean it.”
- Writer
