TRAPPED IN THE MARRIAGE GAME

CHAPTER THREE

Zayd’s POV

Zara. Oh, Zara…

She’s making this more difficult than it ever needed to be.

What does she want that I don’t have? Money? Influence? Status? I could drown her in all three without blinking. I’ve built empires before the age of thirty. People twice my age still come to me for advice,investors, board members, even politicians. I speak, and things move. I command, and people obey.

Yet here she is so defiant, so stubborn ,clinging to dreams of cafés and cooking schools like a child chasing stars. She has no idea what the real world looks like. The sharp edges. The cost of survival.

I could’ve had any woman. There are plenty lined up, desperate to wear my name like a crown. But no. My father chose her. Zara jones,the perfect daughter of the perfect business ally. She’s graceful, polite, educated, and painfully unaware of how valuable she is… or how dangerous I can be.

This marriage isn’t about love. Love is a luxury I never needed. It’s about legacy. About power. And most importantly .it’s about inheritance.

If I don’t marry her, the entire fortune goes to my half-brother. That arrogant, spoiled brat who thinks he’s entitled to everything just because he shares our blood. I won’t allow it. I’ve worked too hard, bled too much to let it all be handed to someone who did nothing but exist.

No. I always win. Always.

I’m known for being cold. Ruthless. I don’t negotiate with weakness. I destroy it. I built my name on strategy and silence. I don’t chase. I don’t beg. But I’ve bent farther for Zara than I have for anyone.

Why?

I don’t want to answer that.

Maybe it's because something about her pulls at a part of me I buried long ago. Maybe it's the fact that she sees beyond the money and the headlines and doesn’t like what she sees.

That should anger me. But instead, it... intrigues me.

And Zara... she's just one more challenge to conquer.

I’ve tried the gentle approach. The calm voice. The promises of freedom and choice. I even offered her a deal six months to decide. What more does she want? I’m not known for patience. People fear me for a reason. I built my empire with ice in my veins and steel in my spine.

But I chose to be soft with her. Just for once. I smiled. I listened. I told her she could still chase her dreams. That we’d take things slow.

And what did that get me?

Hesitation. Resistance. Her eyes keep wandering, looking for escape routes, like I’m the prison. She still doesn’t see the luxury of what I’m offering. She doesn’t know how many women would kill for this life.

She thinks she’s walking into a cage. But in truth, she’s the key to unlocking everything I’ve ever worked for.

Sometimes I wonder,will she ever find out?

Will she ever realize she’s just a pawn in a much larger game? One I intend to win.

And what will she do when she learns that I never intended for her to be anything more than that?

The thought amuses me. Her face,shocked, broken, betrayed. I can already picture it.

Hah. Poor Zara.

She doesn’t know that all her resistance only sharpens my resolve. I didn’t get to where I am by letting things slip through my fingers. If she doesn’t accept the engagement by this weekend, I won’t keep playing nice.

The mask will come off.

I’ll do what I do best. Negotiate, manipulate, destroy.

Her father’s company? One whisper from me, and their stocks will plummet. Their investors will scatter. One call, and I’ll have every contract revoked. Zara will come crawling to me, begging for mercy.

And then I’ll offer her the same deal. But this time, there won’t be a choice. Just a signature on a wedding contract.

Because I never lose.

I want my inheritance. I want my father’s empire. And I want Zara beside me because she’s the price of it all.

She’ll marry me.

The question is: Will she do it on her own… or after I break her world apart?

Either way, the end is the same.

And someday, when she finds out the truth, when the lies fall away, I wonder…

Will she hate me?

Will she fight me?

Or will she become just like me?

The game has already begun.

Zara’s POV

The silence in my room was deafening.

i sat by my window, knees pulled to my chest, the city lights below flickering like stars on the edge of a storm. my fingers played with the hem of my sleeves, tugging mindlessly as my mind refused to quiet.

Zayd’s words from earlier kept playing in loops.

“Six months. A quiet agreement. No pressure. If it doesn’t work, we walk away.”

At first, it sounded... almost reasonable. Like a rare moment of compassion from someone who didn’t seem to understand emotion at all. But even as he said it, something about the way he looked at me too steady, too unreadable made me wary.

He didn’t seem desperate. Just... certain. Too certain.

i hated how calm he was. How unfazed he seemed by the fact that my entire life was being rearranged like a corporate merger.

Six months.

Could i survive six months pretending to be someone’s wife? Sharing a home, a name, maybe even a bed, with a man i barely knew?

my stomach twisted.

i rose from the window seat and crossed the room slowly. On my desk lay a sketchbook. i flipped it open, revealing a half finished design, my dream café in Florence. Arched doorways, rustic wooden tables, vines crawling up sunlit walls. I'd been building that dream since i was fifteen.

It felt so far away now.

my phone buzzed. A message from Zayneb.

“Thinking of you. Don’t let this swallow you. Your dreams still matter.”

i smiled faintly. i love Zayneb's blind optimism. But she isn't the one facing a contract disguised as a marriage. She isn't the one being told “it’s just business.”

Zayd had offered me an out, yes. But something inside me told me he wasn’t just a man offering mercy.

He was offering a game. And i am already a piece in it.

my eyes met my reflection in the mirror. i barely recognized myself.

Maybe i am a piece in someone else’s game. But if i have to play... then I'd learn the rules.

i wiped my eyes.

Six months.

I'd survive.