One-Year Contract with the Cold Billionaire

CHAPTER 5 — The Warning

For a few days, everything felt perfect. We woke up smiling, we cooked together in the kitchen, we made plans for the future — small, wonderful plans that didn’t include an expiration date. But happiness, I was learning, could be fragile. And someone was watching.

It started small. I noticed a car parked across the street when I walked to the hospital to visit Dimas. When I turned to look, it pulled away slowly. Then one morning, I found a folded note tucked under the front door mat. No name. No signature. Just four words written in bold, sharp handwriting: End it. Before I do.

I showed it to Arkan when he came home. His face paled instantly. He sat down heavily on the sofa, holding the note between his fingers like it was something burning.

“It’s him,” he said quietly. “My father. He knows.”

That evening, the phone rang. The display showed Unknown Number. Arkan hesitated, then answered it, putting it on speaker so I could hear. The voice on the other end was deep, cold, and utterly without warmth — so much like Arkan’s voice but stripped of all kindness.

“So you’ve made your choice,” the man said. “A nobody from nowhere. Just like your mother. Weakness runs in the family, I suppose.”

Arkan’s jaw tightened. “Leave her out of this. It’s between us.”

“It is between us,” his father replied smoothly. “And I decide when it ends. You have until the end of the week to send her away. If she is still in that house next Monday morning, I will make sure her brother’s medical care becomes… difficult. I have connections at that hospital. I have connections everywhere. Don’t test me, Arkan. You know I always win.”

The line went dead. Arkan dropped his head into his hands, his shoulders shaking. I sat beside him, wrapping my arms around him, and he leaned into me, holding me tight like I was the only solid thing in a storm.

“He’s serious,” Arkan said, his voice thick with despair. “He knows exactly where to hurt us. If we stay together, he’ll make Dimas suffer. If you leave… I lose the only thing that has ever made me happy. It feels like there’s no winning either way.”

“There has to be another way,” I said, though fear was twisting in my own chest. “We can go somewhere else. Start over.”

He shook his head hopelessly. “This isn’t just money or influence. It’s pride. He’s spent his whole life controlling everyone around him. And me choosing you is the one thing he can’t control. He won’t stop until he sees us broken.”

That night, we lay in bed together, awake long after the lights went out, holding each other in the dark. We didn’t have answers. We didn’t have a plan. We just had each other — and the terrifying realization that being together might cost us everything we cared about.

By morning, the situation had grown worse. Arkan received an email from his office — several important meetings had been cancelled without explanation. A business partner had called to say an investor was pulling out. The pressure was already coming from every side.

“He’s cutting off my options,” Arkan said over breakfast, pushing his food around his plate. “He wants to force me into a corner where the only way out is to send you away.”

I looked at him — exhausted, worried, but still fighting — and made a silent promise to myself. No matter what happened, I wouldn’t let him face this alone. We had entered this together as strangers. We would face this together as partners. Whatever came next.