The contract renewal packet remained unsigned. By the next afternoon, it still sat in the secure legal folder on Lucien's desk, untouched but impossible to ignore. Neither of them had mentioned the permanent marital conversion addendum Marian sent the night before. The blank amendment page remained exactly as Seraphina had left it, a silent reminder that the language of their arrangement had fallen behind the truth of how they now lived.
The timing could not have been worse.
Ashford was scheduled to attend a private social event that evening, a closed-door diplomatic retreat hosted by the Aurelia International Trade Circle. It was the kind of event where business and influence moved through handshakes, quiet alliances, and conversations no press ever recorded.
