THE BILLIONAIRE BEHIND MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE

The knock came at exactly eight in the morning, and I almost ignored it. Eli was still asleep a small miracle, since most nights he woke at least once asking for water or a story or his stuffed bear and I was in the kitchen trying to make breakfast with one hand while scrolling my phone with the other when the knock came again, louder. Who comes this early? I muttered, wiping my hands on a towel and heading for the door. I wasn't expecting a man in a black suit. He had the flat, unbothered look of someone who delivered bad news for a living, and something about it made my stomach tighten before he'd said a word. "Miss Morgan? Are you Elena Morgan?" "Yes. That's me." He held out a brown envelope. I need you to sign for this. What's it about? A legal matter.That was all he gave me, and the way he said it made my skin crawl. I signed anyway, and my fingers were already shaking by the time I got the door closed and tore the envelope open. The first thing I saw was the name. Richard Carter. My heart dropped before I'd even reached the second page. I flipped through it a custody petition. They were asking for custody of Eli. My son. For a few seconds I couldn't process what I was reading. When I finally looked up, the lawyer was still standing there, patient and unreadable. "What is this?" "You've been served with a petition filed by Mr. and Mrs. Carter." "The Carters?" I actually laughed not because anything was funny, but because my brain didn't know what else to do with the words. "They can't do this." They already have. Those people haven't cared about Eli since he was born. I suggest you speak with your own attorney, he said, perfectly even, and turned to go before I could ask him how anyone slept at night after trying to take a child from his mother. The door shut. I stood there holding the papers, hands trembling so badly the pages nearly slipped, my eyes catching phrase after phrase unfit parent, financial instability, inadequate living conditions, lack of family support until they blurred together and I couldn't tell if I was reading or just staring. Mummy? I froze. Eli stood in the hallway rubbing his eyes, hair messy from sleep, still in the pajamas I'd put him in the night before. "Why are you crying?" "I'm not crying." I wiped my face fast. He looked at me like he didn't believe a word of it. "You are." I forced a smile and held my arms out. "Come here." He walked into them, and I hugged him too tightly, probably, but I couldn't help it I just held my son and tried not to fall apart. Nobody was taking him from me. I had already lost enough Nathan, the life I thought I'd have, years of being judged for becoming a mother outside marriage. Eli was the one good thing that had come out of all of it, and I wasn't going to let anyone take him. By noon I'd called the only person who wouldn't ask questions before showing up. Daniel arrived in under thirty minutes, carrying a paper bag and not bothering to knock twice. "I brought food." "I'm not hungry." He stopped, studying my face. "You've been crying." "No." "Elena." I looked away instead of answering, and he set the bag down and asked again, softer. "What happened?" I handed him the papers instead of trying to explain. I watched his expression change while he read confusion first, then disbelief, then something colder. "They filed for custody?" "Richard and Evelyn Carter." His jaw tightened. "Why?" "Because apparently I'm a terrible mother." I laughed, bitter. "They've always thought I wasn't good enough. They have money, Daniel. Lawyers. Connections. People who can make one call and get whatever they want." "And you think I'm going to sit here and let them scare you?" He reached for my hand. "This isn't just your problem. It's Eli's. And he's not fighting it alone." I looked away before he could see me cry again. He wiped the tear anyway, with his thumb, and told me he'd help and for the first time since the lawyer had shown up, I let myself breathe. Then my phone rang. Unknown number. "Don't answer," Daniel said. I picked up anyway. "You received the papers?" It was a man's voice, and my whole body went rigid before he even said his name. Who is this? You know who. "Richard?" A quiet laugh. You should cooperate, Elena. If you make this difficult, you'll regret it. "You abandoned my son years ago. You don't get to "You're a young woman with no money, no husband, and no influential family," he said, voice going cold. "You have nothing. And we have everything." The line went dead. I stared at the phone until Daniel took it gently from my hand and asked what he'd said. I told him, word for word, and he listened without interrupting and when I finished, he picked up his own phone. "No," I said. "I don't want you getting involved with them." Too late. You're my best friend. "That's exactly why." He went quiet for a moment, thinking, and then something shifted in his face a kind of certainty I hadn't seen on him all day. "Maybe we need to give them something they aren't expecting. An answer they can't fight." "What are you talking about?" He didn't explain. He just looked toward Eli's room, then back at me, and said, "I think I know how we can stop them." "How?" He took a breath. "There's only one problem. It involves me." I frowned. "What does that mean?" He didn't answer that either and somehow that scared me more than the custody papers had.