She wasn’t marrying for love, she was marrying to survive.

When Elena Moore, a quiet and selfless woman, agrees to a marriage contract with Adrian Blackwood, the cold and calculating CEO of Blackwood Holdings, it’s purely business. Her family’s debt is drowning them, and he needs a wife to secure his inheritance before his ruthless board tears him apart.

They both sign on the dotted line, promising a year of no emotions, no strings attached.
But love, as Elena soon learns, has never cared much for contracts.

Adrian is everything she’s sworn to avoid, detached, controlling, unreadable. Yet beneath the marble exterior is a man scarred by betrayal and incapable of trusting anyone. Elena, with her warmth and quiet resilience, begins to thaw his icy resolve.

As fake smiles turn to lingering glances, and staged affection starts to feel real, both of them face a painful truth: the line between obligation and desire is fading fast.

But when secrets about the contract, and Adrian’s true motives, come to light, Elena must decide whether love can bloom from lies… or if she’s once again fallen for the wrong man.

The morning began like any other—or at least it should have. The sun rose over the city in muted gold and silver, bathing the skyscrapers in deceptive tranquility. But Elena Moore's world shattered before her first sip of coffee.


Her phone buzzed incessantly on the kitchen counter, a red, glaring warning of the storm about to engulf her. She picked it up with trembling hands, scanning the screen. Messages from friends, family, even strangers, all frantic:


Her stomach dropped. Tapping the top notification, the city's most notorious tabloid glared back at her:


"Blackwood Marriage: Contract or Love? CEO's Shocking Deal Exposed!"


Chapter 29 - The Newspaper Leak