Chapter 7 The Irresistible Devil's Contract

Kaia stared at the document in Camden's hand.

The Vantage Group legal watermark was stamped across the top.

Below it, bold black letters read: MARRIAGE CONTRACT & PRENUPTIAL AGREEMENT.

Kaia's lungs stopped working. She looked up at Camden, waiting for the punchline.

"Is this a joke?" she whispered.

Camden shoved his hands into the pockets of his suit trousers. He turned his back to her and walked toward the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Manhattan skyline.

"My family's board of directors, led by my uncle, is attempting to leverage my unmarried status to force a merger and dilute my control of the company," Camden lied effortlessly. His voice was a monotonous hum of business logic.

He turned around, his eyes sharp and calculating. "I need a wife. Immediately. Someone smart, pragmatic, and completely devoid of complicated family backing. Someone who won't be a liability."

Kaia took a step back, her defensive instincts flaring. "There are a thousand socialites in New York who would kill for this. Why me? I'm a junior employee who just caused a scandal."

Camden let out a dark chuckle. "Socialites come with greedy fathers and hidden agendas. You are a blank slate. You are easy to control."

He pointed to the document.

"The term is three years. You will perform all public duties as Mrs. William. In exchange, I will deposit five million dollars into your account."

Kaia shook her head, overwhelmed.

"Furthermore," Camden continued, his voice dropping an octave, "I will cover the entirety of your father's specialized ophthalmology treatments."

Kaia gasped. A sudden, visceral chill ran straight down her spine, temporarily freezing the blood in her veins. Her defensive instincts flared into overdrive. "How do you know about my father?" she demanded, her voice sharp with deep suspicion and a sudden, terrifying realization of how thoroughly she had been investigated. "That medical file is strictly confidential."

Camden didn't even blink at her hostility. The mention of her blind father's medical bills hit her right in the chest. Her walls began to crack.

"And," Camden took a step closer, his presence suffocating, "I will provide you with absolute physical and social immunity. Kasen Griffin will never be able to touch you."

Kaia looked down at the thick stack of paper. It was a deal with the devil. If she signed, she would be swallowed whole by a world she didn't understand.

Camden walked back to the island. He pulled a heavy Montblanc fountain pen from his breast pocket and slammed it down on top of the contract.

Kaia squeezed her eyes shut. Kasen's arrogant face flashed in her mind. Then, the negative balance in her bank account.

She didn't want to lose her job, let alone get blacklisted by the entire industry.

After breaking up with Kasen, she had no intention of plunging into another whirlwind of romance for years to come.

As it happened, her mother had been pestering her nonstop to settle down and get married, so she planned to lie and say Camden was the boyfriend she'd dated for six long years, and that the two of them were already married.

Given Camden's prominent status, her mother would surely drop the subject and have nothing more to nag about.

She opened her eyes. They were completely cold.

"Do you swear to stay out of my personal life?" she asked, her voice steady.

A microscopic muscle twitched in Camden's jaw. "We will act the part in public. In private, we live separate lives."

Kaia let out a long, shaky breath.

She reached out. Her fingers wrapped around the cold metal of the Montblanc pen.

Camden's eyes locked onto the tip of the pen. His chest stopped moving. He didn't breathe.

Kaia flipped to the last page and aggressively signed her name on the dotted line.

The second the pen lifted from the paper, the tension in Camden's broad shoulders vanished.

He snatched the contract off the counter with lightning speed, as if terrified she might rip it up. He locked it inside a biometric safe built into the wall.

He turned back to her, his face once again a mask of pure ice.

"J.D. will take you to a private clinic to flush the remaining drugs from your system," Camden ordered, grabbing his overcoat. "Meet me at City Hall tomorrow at 10:00 AM."

He walked out the front door. The heavy wood slammed shut behind him.

Kaia stood alone in the massive, silent penthouse.

She looked down at her bare left ring finger. A bitter, hollow laugh escaped her throat.

She had waited six years for Kasen to marry her. Now, in less than ten minutes, she had sold herself to the most dangerous man in New York.