TOP UP

Reading History

Sign out

Get the APP

The Silent Bride's Billion Dollar Contract

Chapter 2 No.2

Word Count: 1209 | Released on: 05/02/2026

and expensive perfume. It was a stark contrast to the humid, garbage-sc

orks against ceramic plates. It was a symphony o

as dark. She pressed the power button, but nothin

ia's text. Table 11. By the window. Or was it Table 1?

ear the back, tucked away in a semi-private alcove surrounded by

ked li

ng a suit jacket that fit across his shoulders perfectly-n

-Mr. Vane-had looked... wider. Sloppier. But maybe the p

rt was thumping a frantic rhythm aga

e and gripped the ba

oftly. "I'm... I'm

document in a blue folder. He slowly

breath

s not M

hair was dark blond, swept back with precision. But it was his eyes that stopped her. They were ice bl

ped to the ID badge she had forgotten to take off. It was

ow, a deep baritone that seemed t

ing again. "Yes. I'm sorry if I

er forehead, the cheap red dress that hung a little loose on

out. "I know this is awkward.

at the table. "Sir, is thi

then back at Dawn. His eyes

n said. "She

nodded an

n said. It wa

her lap, hiding the scuffed to

?" he

ater, p

h a single finger. "Water.

looked like a predator deciding whether to pla

id, her voice barely a

on the blue folder. "And Lydia

e need to fill the silence. "She said you w

n didn't change, but the air around him seemed

oked down at her hands. She was twisting the strap of her ba

m," he said. It

surprised. "Ho

r fingers when you're nervous. You'r

ed her thumb from tap

ice erupted from th

r a girl! Red d

her seat. Her

o, only sweatier. He was wearing a brown suit that was too tight, and he wa

to be here! Lydi

ber on the table she was sit

t at the w

mbled to stand up. "Oh my god. I'm so

s scanning the room. His eyes were

e hadn't moved. He was watching the scene

ered, her voice trem

t a hand shot out and c

't painful, but it was absolute. He

own,"

he'

t to Dawn. "And if you walk over there, you're going to spend the next two hours listening to him

at him. "H

her wrist, but his eyes held h

ould hear Mr. Vane arg

ty, sir," the ho

is she?" Va

ir. She wished she could

his coffee cup. He took a slow sip

ooking for a husband to solve your financial problems. A

inked.

up down. "I'm G

name. Everyone in New York knew that name. Holcom

ost of a smile touched his lips, but it didn't reach his ey

Chapter End

Claim Your Bonus at the APP

Open

The Silent Bride's Billion Dollar Contract

Landslide Modern

“My bank account showed exactly $42.18, and my student loan notifications were flashing red. I lived in a sweltering Queens apartment with my Aunt Lydia, where the air was thick with the smell of stale frying oil and the constant threat of being homeless. Lydia handed me a grainy photo of a man twice my age and told me she had already "sold" me to him. He was a dry cleaner looking for a wife, and in exchange for my hand, he would pay off her credit cards and my debt. If I didn't show up for the date that night, my boxes would be on the curb by midnight. I arrived at the cafe in a state of panic, my selective mutism making it impossible to even breathe. In the crowded room, I accidentally sat at the wrong table. Instead of the man from the photo, I found myself facing Gerhard Holcomb-the cold, terrifyingly handsome billionaire whose family owned the very museum where I worked. He didn't send me away; instead, he studied my trembling hands and offered me a different deal: a two-year contract marriage, a two-million-dollar payout, and a strict clause forbidding any children. I signed the papers and moved into his Park Avenue penthouse, thinking I was finally safe. But when I went back to the old apartment to retrieve the only memento of my dead parents, Lydia lashed out, leaving me bleeding from a head wound. Gerhard's retaliation was absolute-he had her arrested and her building foreclosed on within hours, claiming he was simply "protecting his assets." As I recovered in his silent, glass-walled home, I saw a call from a famous socialite flash on his phone, and a cold truth settled in my gut. I wasn't just a wife; I was a placeholder, a silent shield used to fend off the women from his past. I looked at the massive pink diamond on my finger and realized the silence I had lived in my whole life was about to become my most expensive prison. I had traded a life of poverty for a high-stakes game of shadows, and now I had to survive the man who claimed to own me.”