Chapter 2 - The Contract In The Shadows
I stared at Nikolai Moretti, trying to discern whether this was a cruel joke orchestrated by the Moretti family to humiliate me further.
"Marry you?" I echoed, my voice barely above a whisper. "You’re out of your mind, Nikolai."
"Am I?" Nikolai took a slow sip of his whiskey, the ice clinking softly against the heavy glass. "Think about it, Evelyn. In twenty minutes, you step back into that ballroom as the pathetic, abandoned older sister. Your parents will force you to smile while your ex-fiancé toasts your younger sister with the ring that was meant for you."
His words hit like physical blows, precise and merciless, but they carried no malice. They were simple facts.
"And if I marry you?" I countered, taking a step toward him, refusing to cower.
"If you marry me, you enter that room in forty-eight hours as the future matriarch of the Moretti empire," Nikolai said smoothly. "You step above Julian. You step above Serena. Your father will have to bow his head when he speaks to you, and your mother will never dare tell you to 'smile' again."
My breath caught in my throat. The sheer audacity of his proposition was breathtaking, yet beneath the cold strategic logic, I felt a spark of something I hadn't felt all evening: power.
"What do you get out of this?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. "A man like you doesn't offer a crown out of pity."
"Pity is a useless emotion, Evelyn," Nikolai replied, his dark eyes fixing onto mine with terrifying intensity. "My father is stepping down from the syndicate council in three weeks. The family rules state that the eldest son takes the throne, provided he has an alliance secured with a established Chicago legacy. The Hart name carries three generations of judicial and political weight. Julian thought stealing Serena gave him the Hart alliance. He forgot that you are the primary trustee of the family foundation."
I blinked. "He doesn't know."
"Julian is an idiot who looks at wrapping paper instead of what's inside the box," Nikolai said dryly. "He thinks Serena is the prize because she's pretty and easy to control. He didn't check the legal deeds. You control seventy percent of the Hart family voting shares. Marrying you gives me total control over your family's political network. Marrying Serena gives Julian a trophy and a mountain of her credit card debt."
A cold, vicious satisfaction washed over me. Nikolai had done his homework. He knew my family’s legal structures better than my own father did.
"A contract," I said, my tone hardening into steel. "If we do this, it's a business arrangement. Two years. Public appearances, joint assets, absolute loyalty in front of the press and the family council. After the council vote is settled and Julian is neutralized, we dissolve it."
Nikolai raised an eyebrow, genuinely amused. "A two-year marriage of convenience? You're negotiating with the boss of the Chicago underworld, little bird."
"I'm negotiating with my future husband," I corrected, stepping right into his personal space until I could smell the cedarwood and tobacco clinging to his jacket. "Take it or leave it, Nikolai."
Nikolai looked down at me, his gaze shifting from cold calculation to something deeper, darker, and infinitely more dangerous. He set his whiskey glass down on a nearby service tray.
"Two years," Nikolai agreed softly. "On one condition."
"What condition?"
He stepped closer, his broad shoulder blocking the light from the hallway, enveloping me in his shadow. "You don't look back. When we walk into that ballroom together, you belong to the elder Moretti branch. If your sister cries, you don't comfort her. If your father begs, you don't spare him. You play for keeps, Evelyn."
May you like
I looked toward the double doors leading back to the ballroom. I could still hear the distant clinking of champagne flutes celebrating my humiliation.
"I don't have a family anymore," I said, my voice ice-cold. "Where do I sign?"
