Chapter 5 A Marriage Without Love

Ashley's Point of View

I don't answer him right away.

The word marry hangs between us, too sharp, too absurd to touch. My fingers curl slowly into the sheets, grounding myself in the reality of the hospital bed, the dull ache in my ribs, the faint hum of machines reminding me I am still alive.

Marriage.

The word should taste like poison.

Instead, it tastes like nothing.

"Is this a joke?" I finally ask.

Richard Sterling doesn't flinch. He doesn't smile, either. He simply watches me with the same steady attention he's given me since I woke up.

"No," he says. "I don't joke about death. Or contracts."

Contracts.

Of course he would frame it that way.

"I was supposed to be married last week," I say quietly.

"I know."

That surprises me.

I look at him sharply. "How?"

"Because your collapse was filmed," he replies. "And because your name is already circulating in places you don't realize yet."

Shame curls low in my stomach.

"So this is pity," I say flatly.

"No," he says immediately. "It's pragmatism."

I let out a brittle laugh. "That's supposed to be better?"

"Yes," he replies. "Pity is useless. Pragmatism builds things."

I stare at the ceiling again. Somewhere beneath the layers of pain and exhaustion, anger stirs-slow and deep.

"You want a wife," I say, "not a partner. Not a companion. A placeholder."

"I want a legal heir," Richard corrects calmly. "A public spouse. Someone intelligent enough to protect what I've built once I'm gone."

"And why would I do that?" I ask.

He doesn't answer immediately.

Instead, he stands and walks toward the window. The city glows beyond the glass, distant and indifferent. When he turns back to me, his face is carved from something colder than steel.

"Because if you leave this hospital alone," he says, "you will be destroyed."

My throat tightens.

"You think I don't know what happens next?" he continues. "Your former fiancé will control the narrative. Your stepmother will erase you. The press will strip you down to a headline."

Rejected Bride.

Hysterical Heiress.

Public Collapse.

"You will be humiliated until there's nothing left," he finishes. "And you are too wounded to fight back."

The truth of it lands with terrifying precision.

I see it-Mira's smile, Sophia's triumph, Cole's cold indifference. The way the world had already decided I was disposable.

"And you think marrying you fixes that?" I whisper.

"It shields you," Richard says. "It gives you time. Power. Distance."

He pauses.

"And eventually," he adds, "choice."

I swallow hard.

"You're dying," I say again, softer this time. "You don't need a wife. You need peace."

A shadow crosses his face.

"I had peace once," he says quietly. "It cost me everything."

I don't ask.

Something tells me the answer would scar us both.

Silence stretches between us, heavy and deliberate.

Finally, I ask the question that truly matters.

"What would my life look like?" I say. "With you."

His answer is immediate.

"Controlled," he says. "Safe. Watched. You will be criticized. Envied. Dissected."

I nod faintly. "And freedom?"

He considers that.

"You will have more freedom than you've ever had," he says, "once you learn how to use power without apologizing for it."

That word again.

Power.

I close my eyes.

I think of kneeling on marble floors.

Of begging my father with my eyes.

Of being shoved aside at my own wedding.

Love did nothing for me.

Honesty didn't save me.

Softness didn't protect me.

"What happens when you die?" I ask.

His gaze sharpens.

"You inherit everything," he says. "On one condition."

I open my eyes. "Which is?"

"You do not dismantle my empire," he says. "You evolve it."

A chill runs through me.

"And if I refuse?" I ask.

"Then I walk away," he says simply. "And you survive however you can."

I stare at him for a long time.

At the man offering me survival instead of romance.

At the stranger asking me to become something else entirely.

"Will you ever touch me?" I ask quietly.

"No," he answers without hesitation. "Unless you ask."

That matters more than I expect it to.

"And love?" I whisper.

A faint, sad smile touches his lips.

"I am not capable of it," he says. "And you are in no condition to offer it."

The truth stings.

But it doesn't break me.

I inhale slowly.

Then-

"I accept," I say.

The words feel final.

Heavy.

Like a door slamming shut behind me.

Richard exhales-not in relief, but in acknowledgment.

"Good," he says. "Then we will do this properly."

The paperwork arrives the next day.

Lawyers. Confidentiality agreements. Medical directives. A prenuptial agreement thicker than any book I've ever read.

I sign everything without flinching.

Ashley Marsh died at the altar.

Ashley Sterling is being born in ink.

When it's done, Richard looks at me carefully.

"You understand," he says, "that once this is public, you will never be invisible again."

I nod. "I was invisible when it mattered most."

A flicker of approval crosses his eyes.

"Rest," he says. "We'll announce the engagement in three weeks."

"Engagement?" I echo.

"Yes," he replies. "No one marries a dying man without questions. We will give them a story."

"And what is the story?" I ask.

His gaze hardens.

"That you were chosen," he says. "Not rescued."

I close my eyes that night with my arm in a cast, my ribs aching, my name already changing in places I can't see.

I don't dream of Cole.

I don't dream of Mira.

I dream of standing very still, very tall, while the world rearranges itself around me.

And for the first time since the altar-

I am not afraid.