Tittle: BOUGHT BY THE BILLIONAIRE , MY EX SOLD ME TO HIM

My fiance was getting married. Just not to me. I stood outside the Grand Sapphire Hotel, holding a small cake that said "Happy Anniversary" while inside, through the glass window, I watched Ethan slip a diamond ring onto Chloe's finger - my own cousin. Three years. Three years I paid his university fees by working double shifts at a clothing store. Three years I cooked, cleaned, saved every dollar, and waited for him to propose. "Amara, you are embarrassing yourself." My mother pulled my hand. "Everyone is watching." I wasn't watching them. I was watching Ethan look at me through the glass. He didn't even look guilty. He mouthed one word: "Sorry." Sorry doesn't pay my rent. Sorry doesn't return the $4,000 I gave him from my savings. Sorry doesn't give me back three years of my life. I dropped the cake. The white frosting splashed on the marble floor. The whole lobby turned to stare at me. That's when I bumped into him. Hard. Coffee - black, expensive - spilled all over his white shirt. A shirt that probably cost more than my entire life savings. "Are you blind?" he snapped. He was tall, dark, with sharp eyes that looked like they had never begged for anything in his life. A silver watch that glittered under the lights. Two bodyguards stood behind him like shadows. The kind of man they write about in Forbes. "I said, are you blind?" I was already crying, so I didn't care anymore. My mascara was ruined. My cheap shoes were covered in cake. "Do you have any idea how much I lost today? It's just a shirt. You can buy a hundred shirts! I just lost three years of my life!" He stared at me. Most rich men would walk away from a crying girl in a cheap dress. He didn't. He took out his handkerchief - clean, white, folded perfectly - and handed it to me. Then he looked inside the hotel hall, where Ethan was still holding Chloe's hand and smiling for photos. "Who is he?" he asked, his voice cold and deep. "My ex-fiance. Who is now marrying my cousin because I am too poor for his new lifestyle. Because I work in a*****e and he now works in a bank." He was quiet for two seconds. Then he said something that made my heart stop beating. "I will give you $50,000. Right now. If you agree to be my wife for one year." I thought I misheard him. The music from the wedding inside was loud. "What?" "My name is Adrian Knight. My family is forcing me to marry this week or I lose my inheritance. My grandfather is sick. He wants to see me married before he dies. You need money and revenge. I need a wife. One year contract. After that, we divorce, you walk away with the money and you never see me again." $50,000. That was enough to open my own boutique, pay my mother's hospital bills, pay my rent for two years, and never have to work double shifts again. Enough to make Ethan regret ever leaving me. But marry a stranger? A cold, rude billionaire I just met? I looked back at Ethan, who was now laughing, his arm around Chloe. Chloe saw me through the window and smirked. She lifted her new ring to show me. Something broke inside me. Something that had been holding me together for three years. "Make it $100,000," I said, wiping my tears with his expensive handkerchief. Adrian Knight smiled for the first time. It wasn't a nice smile. It was dangerous, sharp, like a man who always wins. "You have guts. I like it." He called his lawyer right there in the lobby, while I was still standing in spilled cake and coffee. "Prepare a contract marriage agreement. And get a stylist. And a dress. She is coming to my grandfather's 80th birthday dinner tonight. As my wife." Tonight? I hadn't even said yes properly. "Wait, tonight? I don't even know you! I don't know your favorite color, your birthday, anything!" "You don't need to know me," he said, already walking away, his ruined shirt still stained with coffee. "You just need to pretend you love me. For $100,000, I think you can be a very good actress, Amara." The bodyguard left a thick black card on the floor next to my dropped cake. Only two words embossed in gold: ADRIAN KNIGHT. And below, a handwritten note in black ink: "Be ready at 6pm. Don't wear that dress." I picked up the card with shaking hands. Inside the hotel, Ethan and Chloe were clapping. The wedding photographer was taking pictures. Outside, my whole poor life was about to be bought by a man I hated at first sight. At 5:55pm, a black G-Wagon stopped in front of my small one-bedroom apartment. The entire neighborhood came out to watch. My mother covered her mouth. I had no idea that getting into that car would make me a billionaire's wife - and his biggest enemy.