The silence was broken only by the ticking of a clock that seemed to count down the minutes to my doom.

I stood in the middle of my father’s office, the De Luca file opened on top of his mahogany desk. The rage was now solidified. It wasn’t a raging inferno; it was a precious stone, hard and translucent enough to cut right through whatever lay ahead.

Aconitine. Not a heart attack but murder. My father wasn’t killed by an errant coronary artery; he was poisoned by the man who wanted the power he held.

I studied the photograph of Luca De Luca that was attached to the last page of the file. The picture depicted a man of exquisite beauty in a way that felt menacing. Perfect jawline, piercing eyes, and the title of being the most ruthless individual in the tri-state area.

I couldn’t stand against him in court. It would be an utter loss. I wouldn’t prevail against him in corporate strategy either; he’d eat me alive. He expected me to run away. He expected me to give up.

"You’re overthinking things, Arya."

I didn’t look up. The image in the window was not my own. I was too old and cold for myself. "I’m not overthinking, Elias. I’m figuring out the price of admission."

Elias was leaning against the door, shadowed in the corner of the room. "Admission to what? His kingdom? That’s just a meat grinder."

"Then I have to be the butcher," I replied softly.

I thought about all the variables involved. Luca wanted the Veritas assets. He wanted the shipping ports. More than that, he wanted absolute power. He was a man who planned long-term, and in the world we lived in, there was only one legal avenue to merge two empires without firing a single bullet.

I grabbed a pen. No letter was written; a term sheet was drafted.

Duration: Two years.

Assets: Transfer of all Sterling shipping routes upon completion.

Clause: Access to all De Luca company servers.

It was a suicide mission, packaged in an investment strategy. I would allow him to have me every night and every day until I found the proof to bring him down from the inside out. I would be his trophy catch, and his last mistake.

“Are you serious?” Elias demanded, stepping forward when he read the title on the page. “He will know what you’re doing.”

“I don’t care,” I answered, calm but my heart cold as stone. “He sees me as a prize. He doesn’t know that I am a Trojan horse.”

I glanced at the clock. Midnight. Below me, in the darkness, Luca De Luca was rejoicing in his defeat of my father, thinking that he had ended the lineage of the Veritas family.

But he did not know what I was planning.

“What are you going to do?” Elias asked, horror coloring his voice.

I grabbed the folder and tucked it under my arm. I could feel the bizarre sense of peace settling over me. No grief here anymore; only the plan. I would infiltrate the enemy’s camp, and fool him into believing he had already won.

Until it was too late.

“I’m marrying Luca De Luca.”

The air in the office of Luca De Luca was a vacuum that aimed at strangling anyone who wasn't in control.

I was standing right at the entrance, my heart pounding furiously in my chest like a jackhammer. I had chosen to wear all-white a stark contrast to the black widow he expected. I wore armor under my silk dress.

Luca didn't even bother to lift his gaze from his paperwork. He continued scribbling, "You have precisely two minutes, Miss Veritas, before security hauls you out of here by your hair."

I remained perfectly still. I walked across the dark floor of the room, my footsteps sounding like gunfire. I did not sit on the chair on the other side of his table; rather, I placed a piece of paper right above the one he was signing.

He paused.

Lucas raised his head slowly. His eyes were icy blue and looked like the frozen sea; they were beautiful but deadly. He scanned me, looking for the sorrow he had planted in my life.

Luca lifted his head slowly, horrifyingly. His eyes were the color of icebergs vast, beautiful, and utterly deadly. They followed the line of my jaw, seeking the sorrow he himself had fabricated. I could give him nothing but the coldest gaze.

"Term sheet," Luca rumbled, in that soft, dark, velvety voice of his. No, he did not even lay a hand on the document. "Arya, your empire bleeds, and yet you come to me with a term sheet?"

"I come to you with a surrender, and terms," I lied. The lie felt like poison on my tongue. "With conditions."

He lounged back in his chair, his hands steepled together, elbows resting on the chair's armrests. He looked like a monarch who was considering an especially amusing subject from his court. "Conditions? I don't make concessions, Arya. I take what I want."

"And you want the Veritas shipping lanes, the coastal ports?" I answered him, in the same dull tone. "A hostile takeover bid? You'll be tied up in courts for ten years. And by the time you win, your prize won't be worth a thing."

The muscle in his defined jaw tightened in response. He knew that I was right.

"Read it," I dared.

Luca took hold of the paper, letting his eyes move down its length. For just a moment, the mask broke. Shock flashed in his gaze before a predatory grin took its place.

"A marriage. You're putting yourself on the market to secure your family's reputation?"

I dug my fingernails into the palms of my hands until my skin bled. I'm getting close enough to locate the weapon he killed my father with.

"A contract of twenty-four months. Complete asset integration. I'll be your wife, and you'll receive control of the ports immediately, no litigation involved. As a part of the deal, the Veritas name will continue to exist under law and I maintain my place on the subsidiary board."

"A business transaction."

"A purely professional one."

Luca stood up from behind his desk. It was intimidating how large he was. He stepped away from the desk, walking until there was no space left between us, until the scent of his cologne invaded all of my senses. My feet stayed planted on the floor.

He froze mere inches from my face, invading my personal space.

He stared down at me, looking away from my eyes and then back into them after landing on my lips.

"You hate me," he murmured.

"I don't hate or care about you at all," I responded.

He moved closer, so close that my neck was tickled by the warmth of his breath.

Luca smirks. "Watch yourself, Arya.

"You will regret this."

The contract was between us like a loaded gun.

Fifty pages of contractual mumbo jumbo making me sign on the dotted line for the man who orchestrated the murder of my father. We sat in the dining area of his penthouse, with floor-to-ceiling windows, giving a sweeping view of the empire that he wanted to take from me.

There were no legal representatives around to witness our proceedings, having already shed their quota of blood and left us alone to sort out the matter. "Read it again if you have to," Luca spoke, while pouring two glasses of scotch at the bar. "As soon as that pen hits the paper, there is nothing you can do about it."

"I understand the terms of this agreement," I muttered, as my mind screamed, He killed him. He poisoned his drink. The same one in his hand right now. My stomach rolled violently inside me, feeling the waves of sickness hitting me. I was about to lock myself into a cage with this man, selling my freedom for some kind of access to his computer and his life.

I reached for the pen. It was chilling to touch.

Luca stepped forward and placed a crystal tumbler filled with an amber-colored liquid beside the contract. He didn’t sit down. Instead, he stood by my side, his intense gaze fixated on me. I felt his burning gaze on the back of my neck.

Does he know? My heart beat rapidly in fear. Could he be suspicious about my plans seeing the report?

Without even considering the consequences for long, I put my pen down on the paper and wrote in bold letters “Arya Veritas.”

I slid the contract towards him.

Luca snatched the pen from my hand and signed “Luca De Luca” right next to mine with ruthless efficiency.

We both now belonged to each other.

I didn’t touch my glass but kept staring at the contents of his with the taste of aconitine in my mouth and eyes filled with pure hatred. I raised my eyes towards him, trying to make sure the intensity of my rage would be masked behind an icy calmness.

If he believed that he had won or made me bend, he hadn’t known yet what had really been brought into his bedroom.

"Tomorrow, we will make the announcement," said Luca, his mocking tone turning into one of command. "You are going to move all your belongings to the master bedroom by Friday. No more separate rooms. For us to make a sale out of this, to sell this to the press and my board, everything must be perfect."

"All I promised was that I would marry you on paper," I retorted.

"And the terms of the contract dictate that I have your total compliance in the public arena," Luca answered coldly, his voice deepening as he leaned towards me and stared at me through narrowed eyes, removing the layer of civility he had put up before me. "You are mine, Arya. Completely mine."

I glared back at him, giving only a hint of defiance so that he could misinterpret my actions.

"We shall see about that," I said softly.

Luca picked up the contract, folding it with deliberate slowness. The smirk was gone, replaced by something far more dangerous. Something that looked like anticipation.

"This marriage will destroy you.”