Love by Contract

Chapter 2: Sofia's Influence

James POV

I drove through the city streets with my hands clutched to the steering wheel.

Pregnant.

How could I have been so careless? How could I have let one night destroy everything I'd spent years building.

My phone buzzed on the passenger seat.

Sofia's name flashed on the screen and I answered the call

"She told you." Sofia's voice came through.

"How did you know"

"It's written all over your tone."

"It was a mistake, Sofia. We were both drunk at the gala and I wasn't thinking straight."

"Was it really a mistake?" Her voice sharpened. "Or was it a choice?"

"Don't start with the jealousy, Sofia. I'm drowning here. I have a daughter who barely speaks to me, a wife..” I paused,” a contract wife who is pregnant with a child I never wanted. My entire life is falling apart."

"And you're trying to be a good man for a woman who doesn't actually love you," Sofia said with her voice a little softer now.

"Think about your late wife, James. Think about what happened to her,” she added.

"Leave her out of this." The words came out sharper than I intended.

"I can't leave her out of it, because you haven't.

"You're terrified that if you turn your back on this pregnancy, you'll become the man who ignored his dying wife. The man who was too busy building his empire to notice she was falling apart."

My hands tightened on the steering wheel.

She was right.

Catherine. My late wife and also Lilly's mother was the woman I failed in every way that mattered.

I was twenty-five when we married. I was young, ambitious and convinced that success would solve everything.

I traveled constantly for business and poured every ounce of my energy into building Scott Industries to the powerhouse it became.

And while I was conquering the business world, my wife was dying.

She'd hidden the symptoms from me at first.. By the time I noticed something was wrong, the cancer had already spread.

She died quietly on a Tuesday afternoon while I was in a board meeting I promised I'd skip.

Lilly was five years old then. Old enough to remember her mother, but too young to understand why Daddy hadn't been there at the end.

"Do you really think Rose, a girl desperate enough to sell her dignity for hospital bills wouldn't do anything to stay in that mansion forever?" Sofia's voice pulled me back to the present.

"She seemed genuinely happy when she told me. Like she actually thought the pregnancy would give our arrangement a meaning."

"Meaning or leverage?" Sofia's laughed out, "She already knows your history, James. She knows you blame yourself for being an absent father and a neglectful husband. If you let this pregnancy continue, she'll use that guilt against you for the rest of your life."

My chest tightened. Every word she spoke echoed my own fears, the ones I'd been too afraid to voice out loud.

"She's been living in your house and playing mother to your daughter," Sofia continued. "Do you honestly believe she wants to go back to her one-bedroom apartment once the contract expires? That baby is her insurance policy."

"The contract is clear. One year, then she's out."

"Contracts are just paper, James. But a baby? That's a legal shield,

"Every headline will read: 'CEO James Scott's Contract Wife Turned Mistress.’ Is that what you want for Lilly? To have her world shattered by a sibling born from a business arrangement?"

Sofia was right. She was always right. If I brought a baby home, Lilly would feel replaced. She had already lost her mother. If I let this happen, I'd lose my daughter forever.

Better to stop a life before it began than fail another child. I thought to myself.

"I need to see you," I said quietly. "I can't think clearly right now."

"Come over. I'll be waiting."

I ended the call and turned around and started heading toward Sofia's penthouse.

Twenty minutes later, I was standing in her doorway. Sofia answered in a silk robe and a glass of wine in her hand.

"You look terrible," she said, stepping aside to let me in.

"Drink?" She gestured to the bar cart.

"No." I sank onto her leather sofa, my head in my hands. "I hit her."

The silence was deafening.

"You what?"

"I slapped Rose,” I confessed, "She was crying, begging me to listen, and I just lost control."

Sofia set her wine glass down slowly. "James..."

"I know." I looked up at her, searching for judgment or condemnation but her expression remained neutral. "I became exactly what I swore I'd never be."

She sat beside me, her hand resting on my shoulder. "You're under an incredible amount of stress. Rose pushed you to your breaking point."

"That's not an excuse."

"No," she agreed. "But it's proof that this situation is toxic. The longer it continues, the worse it will get." She paused. "You need to end this. Before you do something you truly can't take back."

"She'll never forgive me," I said quietly.

"She doesn't need to forgive you. She needs to understand that this marriage was always temporary, and the pregnancy doesn't change that." Sofia's voice was firm and steady.

"You're protecting your daughter and your future. There's no shame in that."

I wanted to believe her so badly.

But as I sat there in her penthouse, all I could see was Rose's face and the shock in her eyes when my hand connected with her cheek.

"What if I'm making a mistake?" The words escaped before I could stop them.

Sofia's expression hardened. "The mistake would be letting guilt cloud your judgment. Rose is using her sister as a shield, but you can use that same leverage to your advantage."

"What do you mean?"

She leaned closer, her voice dropping. "Make her choose. If she keeps the baby, the hospital payments stop. She'll have to decide between her sister's life and a pregnancy that was never supposed to happen."

My stomach turned. "You want me to threaten her with her sister life?"

"I want you to be strategic. Rose came into this arrangement for money. Money is the only language she understands," Sofia's fingers traced along my jaw, "Don't let false judgement destroy everything we've built, James. You're so close to having the life you deserve, the life Catherine would have wanted for you and Lilly."

The mention of Catherine's name was deliberate. Sofia knew exactly which buttons to push.

"Fine." The word came out hollow. "I'll handle it."

Sofia smiled, triumphant. "Good. But don't go back there tonight, let her sit with the reality of what she's done and understand the consequences."

I pulled out my phone, opened my email, and typed a message to Rose:

Appointment confirmed. 9 AM, Bluewood Clinic. Procedure scheduled. If you miss this appointment, all payments to St. Joseph Hospital will cease immediately. Your sister's treatment, medication, and everything will be gone. Choose wisely.

My finger hovered over the send button.

One press, and there'd be no going back.

I pressed send.

Sofia's hand slid over mine as the confirmation appeared on screen. Her smile widened with satisfaction.

"Now," she said, standing and extending her hand, "let's not waste the evening thinking about her. You've made your decision already."

I let her pull me to my feet and she lead me deeper into her apartment, away from the guilt and confusion and mess of my real life.

But even as I tried to lose myself in Sofia's carefully constructed world, all I could see was Rose's face and the slowly spreading bruise on her cheek that looked exactly like my handprint.