03

FLASHBACK

Lily

The music was too loud, too sharp, rattling the insides of my skull. I shouldn’t have been there, but Maddy insisted.

“You need a distraction,” she’d said after I found out about my boyfriend and that girl from school. She grinned, sly. “I have a friend coming. Handsome. You’ll like him.”

But I didn’t want to like anybody else.

I let the alcohol blur the edges of my heartbreak. Let her steer me upstairs when she claimed she’d booked me a room. “Go rest,” she said, pressing a kiss to my cheek before vanishing into the crowd.

I opened the door to the suite and for a minute thought my eyes were playing tricks.

Musk and vanilla arrested my nostrils and I found it to be relieving. Something else other than smoke and alcohol.

I stumbled forward trying to find the light switch when my eyes caught a figure in the dark.

A man in a dark suit, tie loosened, glass abandoned on the table. His gaze lifted, perhaps it was the drink at the time but his gaze was nothing I’ve ever had before.

Liquid pooled at my center as his eyes ate me, raw, sharp and heavy, like he’d been waiting.

Maddy’s friend, I told myself. The mysterious stranger she’d promised. He stood from the chair and his steps faltered a bit. I let out a small giggle even as My heart hammered, but when he closed the space between us, I didn’t step back.

“You’re trembling,” he murmured, voice thick with drink.

“So are you.” I bit back. Loving the way this stranger brought out a side of me I’ve never seen before.

What followed was reckless and inevitable. His lips on mine, his hands urgent but soft, like he couldn’t get close enough. The alcohol made everything hazy, but the way he touched me cut through all of it. Every kiss, every brush of his mouth across my skin felt like worship.

When he realized what I was giving him, his hands stilled but then he took me with a hunger that seared into my bones. That night was Unforgettable.

I fell asleep believing I wasn’t broken anymore. That maybe this stranger, this arrangement , was what I needed to forget betrayal.

But morning told a different story.

The bed was empty.  The Sheets cold. No note. No name. No trace of him at all.

Except for the trash can.

My breath stalled when I saw it, the torn foil packet, the broken condom, proof of what had happened. Proof of how careless it had all been.

I pressed a hand to my mouth as dread coiled in my stomach.

I had given my virginity to a stranger.

And weeks later, when the nausea wouldn’t stop, when the test confirmed what I feared, I turned on the news.

His face filled the screen. His name spoken with so much admiration.

Dominic Sinclair.

The world’s youngest billionaire.

The father of my child.

LILY

“Maddy!” Mrs Croft’s hiss sank through me.  Mr Croft waved his phone behind Dominic. It was either this or my family went under…

“Yes!” My voice was high pitched.

If Dominic remembered me or not, it didn’t matter because in less than an hour, we had finalized everything.

He opened the car door, the vows still echoed in my skull.

“Maddy,” Mrs. Croft shrieked and pulled me into her before I could grasp what was going on.

She pinched my skin hard enough to send pain shooting to my skull.

“I don’t know what your problem is but get rid of it and act your part!” She pulled away from the forced hug then went behind me and gave me a little push.

I jerked forward but caught myself before Dominic noticed. I caught his eyes and quickly averted my eyes.

I bent my head and entered the car without so much as a goodbye to my family. The envelope was still carefully hidden in my gown, rubbing against my rib cage, the only assurance I had left. The only leverage.

I blinked. There was no driver. Of course. Everything about this wedding was designed to be private and well controlled.

The questions hammered me: Why sell Maddy? Why this secrecy? Why me?

I didn’t know when we got to our destination. Dominic stepped out and I followed his cue and only when I exited, did he move from the spot.

I still had the veil in front of my face, I didn’t have the courage to remove it. What if he recognized me?

Suddenly, the rumors that Maddy and I were identical felt like a curse

I walked into the house and suddenly the realness of the situation dawned on me. Tonight was my wedding night. Dominic had every right to have me after all we were married. I refused to move from the door as Dominic walked past me towards another bedroom.

He hadn’t spoken a word to me since he said “I do”. My hands were balled into fists as my mind betrayed me with memories of the last time I was in this sort of situation five years ago.

I couldn’t forget any detail of him, his rough ridges. The abs that stood out, the way he ripped my shirt off of my body. The way he pinned me to the wall, our lips merging as one as I allowed him to take my virginity…

Tears stung my eyes and I was about to turn around but my legs locked.

“Are you just going to stand there?” His voice slid over me, dark and dangerous making me gasp.

It was still the same. God.

“Come on,” he said slowly, his strides long towards me as he placed a mug of a hot liquid that smelled like chamomile tea.

The steam curled between us, chamomile and heat. I wrapped my hands around the mug, but it wasn’t the tea warming me. It was him. The way he set it down, his knuckles brushing mine for half a second too long exactly the way he had touched me once before. My body remembered even if he didn’t.

His hand touched the small of my back and I was alarmed at how quick my body recognized and responded to him. I cleared my throat and let him lead me.

He led me to a bedroom and my body went cold. Did he want to sleep with me? Now?

He had prepared the room, it was devoid of life but it showed that he had tried his best.

My brows furrowed and anger started to bubble in my throat. I wasn’t supposed to be here. This wasn’t even my life!

He sat on the bed and tapped it invitingly but I didn’t move. He suddenly stood up and tutted.

“Sit down,” he hissed and I flinched.

What the hell was going on?

“Now,” he commanded and I swallowed. I walked to the bed and sat down. After all I had no choice anyway.

He cleared his throat and grabbed a desk chair, his legs straddling the chair. An image came up in my mind and I shook my head and dropped the mug.

“Are you going to wear that?” He asked and my eyes widened.

“The veil. Take it off,” he spoke and I paused.

“Please,” he said and I don’t know if it was the “please “ he said but my hands went behind me. Feeling for the hook attaching it to my hair.

Did he know? Could he could see Anna’s face in mine?

The veil fell on the bed while my luxurious hair bounced on my shoulders.

His eyes widened, taking in all of me. My body tensed as he sighed.

Wait. What?

“I couldn’t say what I wanted with you looking like that,” his voice took on a more serious note.

“I didn’t marry you because I love you. I don’t love you,” his words sliced through me leaving me hollow.

Dominic’s face took on a more handsome note, his features had sharpened, perhaps with age… or maybe because I didn’t fall out of love for him when I realized who he was at the time of my pregnancy.

“So, here,” he said and suddenly produced a similar envelope like the one I had safely tucked in my dress.

My body tensed as I reached lightly towards the envelope.

“What is this?” I finally spoke, confusion trailing my voice.

“Open it,” he commanded and I looked at him briefly before I opened the envelope.

The heading read “A contractual marriage agreement between Maddy Croft and Dominic Sinclair” caught my eyes and I dropped it on the bed by default.

What the hell was this?

I looked at him in confusion.

“What is that!?” I asked this time with a firmer tone.

He stood up lazily, his gaze never leaving mine.

“What does it look like?” He questioned, a slight tinge of arrogance in his tone.

Irritation creased my brows as I raised one at him.

“It’s a contract agreement between you and me,” he said stating the obvious.

“Why?” I asked. Even though I should be happy with whatever it was that he was proposing because if I knew what contracts were, it was something more tangible. Something leverageable. After all, I still had one hiding in my gown. The painful reminder of the secret I still carried.

“Because I only married you because I need your help with one thing” he trailed and my breathing stopped.

The room was cold with tension.

“And what’s that?” My voice shook while  swallowing a lump down my throat.

His smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“That’s for me to know and for you to not worry about,” he said.

I should have just said yes, this contract wasn’t even about love.

I thought I was surviving. I didn’t realize I was already his property.