Chapter Three: Married, With Secrets
345 Words
The silence in the hotel room stretched thin like glass.
Damien watched her, his expression unreadable, like he was waiting for her to bolt—or worse, agree. Aria’s thoughts were spinning, trying to stitch together fragments of last night with the man standing in front of her now.
“You’re seriously not joking?” she asked.
“I never joke about contracts. Or marriage.”
She stared. “You proposed on a dare. We got married by Elvis.”
“And yet,” he said smoothly, “here we are.”
Aria pressed her palm to her forehead. “This is insane.”
“It’s temporary,” he said. “A few months. Then we dissolve it. Quietly.”
“Why would I agree to that?”
Damien crossed the room in two calm strides and picked up a sleek black folder from the desk. He handed it to her like a business transaction.
Inside: A check with more zeroes than she’d ever seen. Her name already on it.
“This is real?” she whispered, stunned.
“Very.”
“Why me?”
He hesitated for the first time.
She caught it—barely a flicker—but it was there. A c***k in the armour.
“I needed someone,” he said. “Someone no one would expect. Someone… clean.”
That last word hung in the air like smoke.
Clean?
She narrowed her eyes. “You’re hiding something.”
He didn’t deny it. He just smiled that infuriating half-smile again and moved toward the door.
“Get dressed, Aria. We’re leaving in twenty minutes.”
“Leaving where?”
He paused. “To your college.”
Her stomach dropped. “You’re coming with me?”
“You’re my wife,” he said. “And appearances matter.”
The door clicked shut behind him, and Aria stood frozen in the silence.
In her hand, the check trembled slightly.
Something wasn’t adding up.
She’d just married a stranger with a secret.
And she had a feeling…
He wasn’t the only one keeping one.
- Writer
