Chapter four:The contract
1567 Words
The first thing Emily noticed about the man holding her was that his hands did not shake.
Strong. Warm. Certain. Like someone who had spent his life catching things before they fell.
The second thing she noticed was that she was still breathing.
He set her down carefully on the concrete steps of a building she did not recognize. The air smelled like rain and exhaust and something expensive he wore. She tried to pull back but her legs would not hold her.
"Easy," he said quietly. "I have you."
Emily blinked up at him through tears she refused to let fall. Tall. Dark suit. Hair slightly mussed like he had run for her. His eyes were grey. Sharp. The kind of eyes that looked at you and saw everything you were trying to hide.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Emily," she said. She had to swallow twice to get it out. "Emily Rose."
"Jackson Steel," he said. And then, because she was still swaying, he put one hand on her shoulder to steady her. "You just fainted on the sidewalk. Can I call someone for you?"
"No," she said too fast. "There is no one."
The word landed between them. No one. She had spent twenty three years making sure no one saw how true it was. Saying it out loud made it worse.
Jackson's expression changed. Not pity. Something sharper. Recognition maybe. Like he understood what it cost to say that word out loud and mean it.
"Alright," he said. "No one. Then you are coming with me until you can stand."
She should have said no. Every instinct she had said no to strangers offering help. But her knees were still weak and Daniel was still in that house with Vivian and the word divorce was still ringing in her ears.
"Okay," she whispered.
Jackson did not let go of her arm as he helped her to a black car waiting at the curb. The driver opened the door without a word. Inside, the seats were leather and cold and smelled like him. Clean. Wood and something darker.
"Where are we going?" she asked as the car pulled away.
"Somewhere quiet," Jackson said. "Somewhere you can think."
She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. She counted breaths instead of tiles. Four in. Six out. Four in. Six out.
When she opened them again, the car was stopping in front of a building that looked more like a fortress than an office. Glass and steel rising into the Port City skyline. A logo at the top she recognized from news headlines. Steel Tech Global Industry.
"You are Jackson Steel," she said slowly. "The Jackson Steel."
He glanced at her. "You have heard of me?"
"Everyone has heard of you."
He did not look pleased about it. He opened her door himself and helped her out. The sidewalk here was clean. Quiet. Nothing like the street where she had collapsed.
Inside, the lobby was all marble and light. People moved around them like they were not there. Assistants with tablets. Security at the doors. No one asked questions when Jackson walked past with a woman in yesterday's dress and no shoes.
His office was on the top floor. It had windows on three sides and a view that made Emily's chest hurt. She stood at the glass and looked down at the city and thought about how small a person could feel and still be standing.
"You should sit," Jackson said behind her. He moved to a cabinet and poured water into a glass. Drank half of it himself before handing it to her.
She took it. Her hands were steady now. She hated that.
"Thank you," she said.
"For what?" he asked.
"For catching me."
Jackson set his glass down and looked at her for a long moment. Then he said something that had nothing to do with the sidewalk or the water.
"My father gave me an ultimatum this morning."
Emily did not answer. She just waited.
"Marry within the next ten days or he pulls my funding," Jackson said. No emotion in his voice. Just fact. "Steel Tech is family owned. He controls the majority shares. If I do not produce an heir, or at least the promise of one, he installs my sister's husband as CEO and I lose everything I built."
Emily set the glass down carefully on his desk. "That is not my problem."
"No," Jackson agreed. "It is not. But you have a problem too."
She looked at him then. Really looked at him. He was not looking at her like Daniel had. Not like she was something to be owned or pitied. He was looking at her like she was a problem he could solve.
"Daniel took everything," she said quietly. "The house. My name. My parents estate is tied up in paperwork I do not understand. I have no money. No home. No family."
"Correct," Jackson said. He walked to his desk and pulled out a folder. Opened it. Inside were papers. Legal language. Thick pages. The same kind of pages Daniel had slid under her hand seven months ago.
"But these are different," Jackson said. "This is a contract marriage. Two years. You become my wife on paper. I provide you with security, money, legal protection from your ex husband and his claim on your estate. In return, you give me what my father wants. The appearance of a wife. The promise of a future heir."
Emily stared at the pages. The word marriage felt like a wound.
"No attachment," Jackson continued. "No love. No expectations beyond what is written here. At the end of two years we divorce. You walk away with a settlement that will make sure you never have to depend on a man again. I keep my company."
"You want me to marry a stranger," Emily said.
"I want you to survive," Jackson corrected. "And I want my company. It is a transaction. Clean. No messy feelings. No one gets hurt."
She laughed then. Once. Bitter. "Everyone says no one gets hurt."
Jackson did not flinch. He pushed the folder closer. "Read it. All of it. My lawyers drafted it. Every clause is there to protect you. Including one that says I cannot touch you without your consent. Ever."
Emily flipped through the pages. The words blurred. She saw settlement amounts that made her dizzy. She saw clauses about her parents estate. She saw her own name typed neatly at the bottom of the last page. A line waiting for her signature.
"Why me?" she asked without looking up.
"Because you went back into a fire for children who were not yours," Jackson said. "Because you stood on that sidewalk with nothing left and did not beg. Because I need someone my father will believe and you look like someone who has already survived worse than him."
She looked up at him. He was not smiling. He was not lying. He was just offering her a way out that did not involve crawling back to Daniel or disappearing into nothing.
"Two years," she said.
"Two years," Jackson confirmed. "Then you are free."
Emily picked up the pen. It felt heavier than it should have. Her hand did not shake when she signed her name at the bottom of the page. Emily Rose. Then again on the next page. And the next.
When she finished, Jackson took the pen from her and signed below her name. Jackson Steel. His signature was sharp and quick and final.
"Welcome to the family," he said quietly.
Emily looked down at the papers. At her name next to his. She felt nothing. No relief. No fear. Just the same numbness she had felt walking out of Daniel's house.
"I do not love you," she said.
"I know," Jackson replied. "I do not love you either. That is the point."
Outside, the city stretched below them. Two strangers with a contract between them and a future neither of them wanted.
Her phone buzzed once on the desk. Not hers. Jackson's. He glanced at it and his jaw tightened.
"What is it?" Emily asked.
Jackson turned the screen toward her. A society blog post. Uploaded three minutes ago. Photo of her and Daniel at the courthouse seven months ago. Then a new photo. Her and Jackson leaving his building ten minutes ago.
The headline read Billionaire Ex Wife Already Remarried Steel Tech Heir.
Emily went cold.
Jackson set the phone down. He was quiet for a long moment. Then he looked at her and said, "My father will see this before the day is over."
Emily closed her eyes. Of course he would.
Her phone buzzed then. Not Jackson's. Hers. The number she had not saved but would know anywhere.
A text from Daniel. Only three words.
"I see you."
Emily looked up at Jackson. He was watching her. Waiting.
For the first time since she signed her name, she felt something other than numb.
Fear.
At the same moment, across the city, Daniel Drake stared at his own phone screen. At the photo of Emily walking into Steel Tech headquarters on Jackson Steel's arm. At the headline announcing his ex wife had married his biggest rival.
His hand tightened around the phone until the case cracked.
And then his reaction, cut before it could be shown.
- Writer
