Riley:
The elevator ride to the seventy-second floor feels like flying and falling at the same time.
My stomach lurches with each floor that passes. Forty-five. Fifty. Sixty. The numbers climb higher and I think about how easy it would be to press the button for the lobby. Walk back out. Pretend this morning never happened.
But I can't. I already came this far.
Salvatore Tower is all glass and steel reaching into the Manhattan sky like it's trying to touch heaven. The lobby was intimidating enough with its marble floors and security guards who looked at me like they knew I didn't belong. Now I'm rising higher and higher into a world I have no business entering.
The elevator doors open.
A woman in a perfect suit waits for me. Her smile is professional but her eyes assess everything about me in two seconds. My wrinkled dress from last night. My hastily applied makeup covering bruises. The fact that I look terrified.
"Mrs. Hale. Mr. Salvatore is expecting you."
She knows my name. Of course she does. Dante Salvatore probably knows everything about me down to my shoe size.
I follow her down a hallway with floor to ceiling windows showing the entire city spread out below. We're so high up that cars look like toys. People are invisible. Up here the real world doesn't exist.
Maybe that's the point.
The woman stops at a set of double doors. Knocks once. A voice from inside tells us to enter.
She opens the door and I step into the biggest office I've ever seen.
The space is enormous. Modern furniture. More windows. A desk that probably costs more than my parents' house did. And standing behind that desk wearing a black suit that makes him look even more dangerous is Dante Salvatore.
Those ice blue eyes lock onto me immediately.
"Thank you, Sarah. Hold my calls."
The woman leaves and closes the door. Suddenly I'm alone with a man who offered to murder my husband yesterday like he was offering to buy me coffee.
My heart pounds so hard I'm sure he can hear it.
"Sit." Dante gestures to the chair across from his desk.
I sit because my legs won't hold me much longer. The chair is leather and expensive and I feel like I'm leaving wrinkles just by touching it.
Dante doesn't sit. He stays standing and the power dynamic is obvious. He's in control here. This is his world. I'm just a desperate woman who made a phone call.
"You came." He sounds almost surprised.
"You told me to."
"I gave you an option. You chose to take it." He studies my face and I know he's cataloging the bruise on my cheek. "Did Marcus hurt you again last night?"
The question is casual but underneath it I hear that same deadly cold from yesterday.
"He locked me in our bedroom. Took my phone."
"But didn't hit you."
"Not last night."
Dante's jaw tightens. "That's about to change. Once he realizes you left he'll be furious."
"I know."
"Are you prepared for that?"
I think about Marcus finding me gone. About his rage. About what he'll do when he tracks me down.
"No. But I'm here anyway."
Something flickers in Dante's eyes. Respect maybe. Or approval. He finally sits down and slides a folder across the desk toward me.
"This is the contract."
My hands shake as I open it. The document inside is thick. Legal language I barely understand. But some parts are clear enough.
One year marriage between Riley Monroe and Dante Salvatore. Separate bedrooms. Public appearances as needed to maintain the image of a legitimate marriage. Riley will attend family functions and present herself as Dante's devoted wife.
In return Dante will use his legal connections to dissolve Riley's marriage to Marcus Hale through federal judicial review. Riley will receive two million dollars at the end of one year regardless of circumstances.
Two million dollars.
The number makes my vision blur. I've never seen that much money in my life. With two million dollars I could disappear. Start over. Build a life where Marcus could never find me.
But first I have to marry a stranger.
"This is insane," I whisper.
"Probably." Dante leans back in his chair. "But it's also your way out."
"Why me? You could hire an actress. Someone without complications."
The question has been burning in my brain since yesterday. Dante Salvatore could have anyone. Why choose a broken woman running from an abusive marriage?
"Actresses perform," Dante says. "I need authenticity. My grandfather will see through any act. But you're genuinely desperate. That reads as real emotion."
I should be insulted. Instead I appreciate the brutal honesty. At least he's not pretending this is about romance or attraction.
"What about Marcus? He won't just let this happen."
Dante's smile is ice. "Let him try. I've been looking for a reason to destroy a corrupt prosecutor. He just gave me one."
The casual way he says destroy makes me shiver. This man is dangerous. Maybe more dangerous than Marcus in different ways.
I look down at the contract again. At the signature line waiting for my name.
"What are you really afraid of?" Dante asks quietly.
I look up. Those ice blue eyes pin me in place. Waiting. Expecting truth.
"I'm afraid you'll be worse than Marcus."
The words fall between us like broken glass.
Dante goes very still. His expression shifts from cold to something Arctic and deadly. For a second I think I made a terrible mistake. Think maybe I should run while I still can.
Then he stands. Walks around the desk. Opens the office door.
My heart stops.
"You can leave right now," he says. His voice is controlled but I hear the edge underneath. "Walk out. No hard feelings. No consequences. I'll forget this conversation happened."
I stare at him. At the open door. At freedom in the wrong direction.
"Or you can sign that contract." Dante meets my eyes and something in his face cracks. Something human underneath all that ice. "And I promise you on my dead brother's grave that I will never hurt you. Not the way Marcus does. Not any way."
His dead brother.
The words hit me like a physical blow. Yesterday he mentioned watching Marcus grab my wrist. Said his father used that same grip on his mother. Now he's swearing on his brother's grave.
This man knows violence. Knows abuse. Knows what it's like to watch someone you love get hurt.
He's not offering me a fairy tale. He's offering me a business deal wrapped in honesty.
I look at the open door. At the elevator that would take me back down to my old life. Back to Marcus and locked bedrooms and slowly disappearing.
Then I look at Dante Salvatore standing there with ice blue eyes and a promise he's betting his dead brother on.
"If I sign this," I say slowly, "what happens next?"
"My legal team files the dissolution paperwork within the hour. Marcus receives notice by end of day. You move into my penthouse tonight. Security detail. New phone. New life."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
It sounds too easy. Nothing in life is ever that easy. But maybe that's the point. Maybe sometimes escape is simple. You just have to be brave enough to take the hand being offered.
Even if that hand belongs to someone dangerous.
I close the door. Walk back to the desk. Pick up the pen sitting next to the contract.
My hand shakes so badly the pen tip wavers above the signature line. I think about my parents. About what they would say if they knew I was marrying a stranger to escape my abusive husband.
Maybe they'd understand. Maybe they'd tell me to survive any way I can.
I press pen to paper.
"Wait."
Dante's voice stops me. I look up and he's watching me with an expression I can't read.
"Once you sign this there's no going back. Marcus will come after you. The media will tear you apart. My family will question everything. It won't be easy."
"Nothing about my life has been easy for two years."
"This will be different. Harder in new ways."
"But I'll be free."
The word hangs in the air between us. Free. Such a small word for something I haven't been in so long.
Dante studies my face. Looking for doubt. For hesitation. For any sign I'm not ready for this.
He won't find it. I'm terrified but I'm also done being Marcus's prisoner.
"Sign it," Dante says quietly. "Before you change your mind."
I don't need to be told twice.
My signature goes on the line. Riley Monroe in shaky handwriting that barely looks like mine. Then I slide the contract across the desk to Dante.
He signs below my name. Dante Salvatore in bold confident strokes.
Just like that I'm legally bound to a man I met twelve hours ago. A man who offered to kill my husband. A man whose reputation makes grown men nervous.
A man who just promised on his dead brother's grave that he won't hurt me.
Dante picks up his phone. Presses a button.
"Sarah. Send the contract to legal. I want the dissolution paperwork filed within the hour. And arrange for movers to pack Mrs. Hale's belongings from her current residence. She's moving today."
Mrs. Hale. The name makes my stomach turn.
He hangs up and looks at me. "In approximately two hours you'll stop being Mrs. Hale. How does that sound?"
Like freedom. Like terror. Like jumping off a cliff and hoping someone catches me before I hit the ground.
"It sounds perfect."