*Chapter One: The Stranger with the Contract*
Amara adjusted the sleeve of her oversized coat, shielding herself from more than just the wind. The streets were loud — honking cars, impatient footsteps, voices — but inside, she was quiet.
Until she saw him again.
Ethan Carter.
The man with the sharp eyes, the unreadable smirk, and the contract that would change her life.
"I need you to sign this," he said, sliding a file across the café table. His tone was flat, but his eyes... they burned.
Amara didn't touch it. "Why me?"
"Because you owe me," he replied. "And I never forget a debt."Her fingers trembled, but she lifted the cover. A deal. Cold, calculated, and terrifying.
Live with him. Obey his rules.
Amara sat in silence, the paper between her fingers already damp from her grip. Her eyes scanned the lines, each clause cutting sharper than the last.
**Live in his penthouse.
No contact with outsiders.
Obey without hesitation.
One month. No escape.**
"This isn't a contract," she said coldly. "It's a leash."
Ethan leaned back, unbothered. "And yet, here you are, reading it."
He was calm. Too calm. The kind of man who had watched storms just to feel alive. His presence filled the room like smoke — dangerous and hard to breathe in.
Amara swallowed. "Why me, Ethan? What the hell do you want from me?"
A pause. Then, he leaned in.
"I want to remind you who you are," he said. "Before the world made you forget."
The words struck something in her. Rage. Fear. Curiosity.
But beneath it all — a pull. Deep, dark, and undeniable.
She stood abruptly. "You can't own me."
"I already do."
Amara's throat tightened. "You say that like you were some kind of savior."
"I'm not," he said flatly. "But I'm the only one who knows the truth. And I'm offering you a choice."
"This isn't a choice," she snapped, standing. "It's blackmail."
Ethan looked up at her, steady and cold. "No, Amara. Blackmail would involve dragging you through court, your name in the news, details spilled like filth. This… this is an opportunity."
She hated him. For knowing too much. For being right. For making her question everything she swore she'd buried.
"What's in it for you?" she asked, voice softer now.
Ethan stood slowly, stepping close enough for her to feel his breath. "You," he said. "For thirty nights. In my world. On my terms."
Amara felt her heartbeat in her ears. He wasn't touching her, but his presence was like a hand around her throat — not choking, but reminding her it could.
She should've walked out.
Instead, she whispered, "And when the thirty nights are over?"
He smiled, cold and unreadable. "Then you'll finally understand why this deal was necessary."
Amara looked down at the paper one last time.
*A signature. Just ink on paper. But it would change everything.*
She didn't know if she was stepping into a trap or choosing her own destruction.
Five years ago.*
Amara was just 19 — a scholarship student trying to survive the chaos of university life. She was reserved, brilliant, with walls so high no one bothered to climb.
Then came *that night*.
A party she never wanted to attend. A drink she didn't remember finishing. A blur of hands, heat, and helplessness. But through it all — one face burned into her memory. Ethan Carter.
He wasn't the attacker.
But he was there.
And he did nothing.
Or so she thought.
He disappeared after that night. No words. No confrontation. Just silence.
Until now.
Now he returns — not with guilt or apologies, but with a contract and eyes that say he's been haunted too.
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*Their Past Connection — Unspoken Truths*
- *Ethan saw what happened* that night — the assault, the cover-up, the powerful men involved.- He's been *protecting her from the shadows*, sabotaging efforts to discredit her story- His obsession with her is *twisted with guilt and desire* — wanting to fix her but on his g terms.
Amara never knew he *kept the evidence*, never knew he made *a deal* to keep her name clean at the cost of his own now he wants her for not only to control but to own