The Grand Ballroom was a gilded cage, and I was the bird on display. Every diamond around my neck felt like a cold finger choking me. Elias walked beside me, his hand a heavy weight on my waist, marking me as his property. To the world, he was the hero who saved me from Silas. But as I looked at the cold, calculating set of his jaw, I wondered: Did he save me, or did he just buy me?
The air was thick with the smell of lilies and expensive champagne, but beneath it was the stench of greed.
"Smile, Zahra," Elias murmured, his lips barely moving as he nodded to a High Court Judge. "The cameras are looking for a crack in the armor. Give them a fairy tale, not a tragedy."
"Is that what this is, Elias? A fairy tale?" I whispered back, my smile feeling like a mask made of lead.
Before he could answer, a woman stepped out from behind a pillar of white roses. She didn't just walk; she glided, her silver gown shimmering like the scales of a serpent. The crowd seemed to part for her, a hush falling over the immediate circle.
"Elias," she said, her voice a low, melodic thrum. "You didn't tell me you were finally playing the 'marriage' card. And here I thought you were waiting for me."
Elias's hand on my waist tightened so hard it bruised. His entire body turned to stone. "Elena. You were paid to stay in Paris."
"Money can buy silence, Elias, but it can't buy boredom," she said, her dark eyes shifting to me. They weren't the eyes of a jealous ex. They were the eyes of a predator looking at a meal. "So, this is the 'Morality Clause' girl? She's charming. Does she know about Project Phoenix yet? Or are you saving that for the divorce papers?"
My blood turned to ice. "Project Phoenix?"
"Don't listen to her," Elias snapped, his voice vibrating with a danger I hadn't heard before. He turned to me, his eyes dark with a desperate kind of fury. "Zahra, go to the car. Now."
"Oh, stay a moment, honey," Elena laughed, pulling a small, translucent tablet from her clutch. She tapped a button, and a digital document projected into the air between us—too small for the crowd to see, but perfectly clear to me.
It was a contract. But it wasn't my marriage contract.
It was a merger agreement between Thorne Logistics and Vance Industries. The date was tomorrow. And the primary condition for the merger? 'The dissolution of the temporary marital asset upon the acquisition of the total inheritance.'
I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. 'Temporary marital asset.' That was me. I wasn't his wife. I wasn't even a person. I was a line item in a merger.
"Is this true?" I asked, my voice barely a breath. I looked at Elias, begging him to tell me it was a fake.
But Elias didn't look at me. He was staring at Elena with a look of pure, murderous intent. "You shouldn't have done that, Elena."
"The truth is a bitch, Elias. Just like me," she hissed.
Suddenly, the lights in the ballroom flickered and died. A scream erupted from the back of the room. In the darkness, I felt a hand grab my arm—not Elias's hand. This grip was thin, metallic, and cold.
"If you want to live to see the inheritance, come with me," a voice whispered in my ear.
A heavy thud sounded beside me, followed by the sound of glass shattering. Someone had just been thrown through a table.
"Zahra!" Elias shouted through the dark, his voice sounding frantic, distant. "Zahra, stay where you are!"
But the hand on my arm pulled me toward the service exit. I had a choice: stay with the man who viewed me as a 'temporary asset,' or run into the dark with a stranger who claimed my life was in danger.
I looked back one last time. In the strobe-like flash of a photographer's camera, I saw Elias fighting off two men in tactical gear. He wasn't a CEO right then; he was a demon. And then, the darkness swallowed everything.
I made my choice. I ran.