Constances Power

The day I met Grey Franklin, I learned two things:

billionaires don't apologize-and they don't look at women like that unless they intend to own something.

He didn't raise his voice. He didn't need to. Power clung to him in a way that made the air feel thinner, like breathing required permission. When his eyes flicked over me-measured, bored, final-I understood exactly where I ranked in his world.

Disposable.

I should have walked away then.

Instead, I stood in the middle of his office, hands clenched around a folder that felt heavier than paper had any right to be. Floor-to-ceiling windows stretched behind him, the city spread out like it belonged to him alone. Maybe it did. Grey Franklin didn't just sit at the top-he built the ladder, then burned it behind him.

"You're late," he said, finally looking at me again.

"I'm not," I replied, surprising myself. My voice didn't shake, even though my chest felt tight. "I arrived early. Your assistant told me to wait."

His brow lifted slightly, the smallest acknowledgment that I existed beyond inconvenience. "Then you should've waited better."

I swallowed the response that rose to my lips. I wasn't here to win arguments. I was here because my world had narrowed down to a single option, and his name was printed neatly across it.

Grey leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers. Expensive suit. Perfect posture. A man who had never known what it felt like to beg. "Do you understand what this agreement entails?"

"I do," I said. That was a lie. I understood parts of it. Enough to know it would change everything.

He slid the contract across the desk. "Understanding and accepting are two very different things."

The pages stared up at me, filled with clauses and conditions, words designed to protect him and corner me. My name looked small beside his-fragile ink against something permanent.

This wasn't how my life was supposed to go.

Six months ago, I had plans. Small ones, maybe, but they were mine. Then came the hospital rooms, the hushed conversations, the bills that arrived faster than hope. Desperation doesn't knock politely. It crashes in and starts rearranging your priorities.

"This isn't charity," Grey said, as if reading my thoughts. "You'll be compensated generously."