CHAPTER 3: A Contract Written in Darkness
1325 Words
Cassie didn’t sleep that night.
How could she?
Every time she closed her eyes not that she could see anything anyway Jason Maxine’s voice replayed in her head.
Calm.
Cold.
Like he already knew her answer.
She hated that more than anything.
She wasn’t a puppet.
She wasn’t some tool to be picked off the floor and used.
But she also wasn’t stupid.
Jason Maxine had paid her hospital bill before she said yes.
Who does that?
Nobody normal.
Nobody without an agenda.
And yet… he didn’t give her the vibe of someone who needed to trap her.
He gave her the vibe of someone who didn’t care if she said no someone who’d walk away and sleep peacefully after.
Which somehow made him even scarier.
When dawn finally hit, Cassie was sitting upright, legs crossed on the bed, fingernails digging into her palms.
She hated being helpless.
She hated darkness.
She hated this entire situation.
But what she hated most was that the only lifeline she had… was a man she couldn’t see.
✨ Meanwhile Jason Maxine Was Not Sleeping Either
Jason wasn’t calm.
He just pretended well.
He sat at the hospital’s private rooftop garden, the one no one but staff with special access codes could enter. He had planted it himself well, paid for it a quiet place that felt far from the world.
A cold wind cut across the rooftop, but he stayed still.
His assistant Duke approached carefully, as if afraid breathing too loudly would annoy him.
“Sir… you stayed all night?”
Jason didn’t respond.
“Should I bring coffee? Tea? Water? A hug?” the assistant added jokingly.
Jason shot him a look that said:
Try that again and you’ll be jobless.
The assistant coughed. “Right. Coffee it is.”
But before he turned, Jason finally spoke.
“She’ll say yes.”
“You said that yesterday.”
“She will,” Jason repeated.
“How do you know?”
Jason touched the scar on the left side of his jaw the one he always hid behind his hand, a glass, or the angle of the room.
“She’s desperate… but she’s also proud. A combination like that always chooses the choice that hurts the least.”
He paused.
“And right now… I’m her least painful option.”
“That’s very comforting, sir.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be comforting.”
“…Right.”
Jason stood, adjusting his black shirt.
“Prepare the contract. Full disclosure. No tricks. She signs once she’s read everything.”
The assistant blinked. “Full disclosure, sir? No one does that in a marriage contract”
“I’m not marrying her to trick her. I’m marrying her because I need something only a wife can give.”
The assistant raised a brow. “…And that is?”
Jason glanced at the city below.
“Control,” he whispered.
✨ Back in Cassie’s Room A Decision Made
Cassie was eating the saddest breakfast known to mankind cold oats and bread that tasted like chalk when the door clicked.
She froze.
That wasn’t a nurse.
Nurses knocked.
Whoever entered walked with calculated steps.
Quiet but not soft.
Confident.
Jason.
Cassie didn’t need eyes to know.
“You didn’t sleep,” he said.
It you were in my shoe would you sleep
Jason ignored the jab. “Have you thought about my offer?”
Cassie set her spoon down.
“Thought about it? My guy, I’ve nearly fried my brain thinking about it.”
He waited.
She took a shaky breath. “I’ll do it.”
Jason didn’t react at first.
He didn’t smile.
Didn’t nod.
Didn’t say I knew you would.
He simply turned to someone behind him.
“Bring it in.”
Footsteps.
A folder placed on her bedside table.
Cassie flinched as the thick paper brushed her hand.
“That’s the contract,” Jason said. “You don’t have to sign immediately. I’ll read it out loud. Clause by clause. You should know exactly what you’re agreeing to.”
She wasn’t expecting that.
Most rich people in movies and books hid things in fine print.
Jason was… weirdly straightforward.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Read it.”
He pulled up a chair she could hear the scrape and cleared his throat.
✨ The Contract (Read Aloud)
“RULE 1,” Jason began.
“You will be legally married to me for one year. Not a day less. Not a day more.”
“Fine.”
“Rule 2: We will not share a room unless required for public appearances.”
Cassie raised a brow. “You don’t even want to pretend inside your own house?”
“I don’t pretend,” he said simply.
“Okay… continue.”
“ 3: No physical contact is required. None at all.”
That caught her off guard.
Most billionaire stories had the man touching the girl every two seconds.
Jason was keeping a literal ocean between them.
“RULE 4: You will attend exactly nine public events with me. Not ten. Not eleven. Nine. I’ll choose them.
“Why nine?” she asked.
He hesitated.
“I don’t like crowds,” he said eventually.
She let out a small "Oh."
“rule 5: Your medical treatment, housing, clothing, and needs will be handled by my staff. You will not ask for luxury, but you will not live in discomfort.”
“I wasn’t planning to ask for a golden toothbrush,” she said quietly. "
Jason skipped the comment.
“RULE 6: You cannot reveal the truth of this contract to anyone.”
“I figured.”
“RULE 7…”
He paused.
Cassie felt the tension shift.
“RULE 8,” he repeated quietly, “states that you must never ask about my private life.”
“Never?”
“Never.”
“Like… whether you eat breakfast? Whether you’re a secret ninja? Whether you”
“Cassie.”
“Okay, okay, I get it.”
Jason continued reading, voice steady, until the final clause.
Rule 9: You may leave after one year with a settlement amount already listed. But if you leave early by your choice or mine you leave with nothing.”
“Wow,” she whispered.
“It protects both of us.”
He closed the folder.
“Any questions?”
Cassie bit her lip.
She hated this.
Hated being put in a corner.
Hated relying on anyone.
But...
“Read me the settlement amount for staying one year,” she said.
Jason flipped the page.
“It states… five hundred thousand dollars.”
Cassie choked on air.
“What?! That’s....That’s.....Jason, that’s a HOUSE. That’s ten houses. That’s..”
“Is it too little?”
Too little?!!!!
She’d never even seen that much money in her entire life put together.
“No,” she whispered. “It’s more than enough.”
Jason stood.
“Then sign.”
✨ The Pen in Her Hand
A nurse guided Cassie’s hand to the signature line.
Her heart was slamming against her chest.
This was a gamble.
Jason stood silently, hands in his pockets, waiting.
Why did he build such a hospital?
Why is a billionaire desperate for a wife?
Why choose her out of everyone?
None of it made sense.
But she needed her sight back.
She needed her life back.
She needed a chance.
So Cassie signed.
One stroke at a time.
Slow.
Shaking.
Decisive.
Jason took the contract the moment she finished, the paper whispering under his fingers.
“Welcome, Mrs. Maxine,” he said quietly.
Cassie swallowed.
“I hope,” Jason added, “you don’t regret this.”
She lifted her chin, blind but brave.
“If I regret anything,” she said, “it won’t be signing. It’ll be trusting a man I can’t see.”
Jason didn’t answer.
But for the first time…
she thought she heard him exhale like something inside him cracked.
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