Gina's POV:

I ducked around a corner at the end of the street and paused.

I hid behind the wall and peered at the store.

I wanted to make sure he was gone before making my final run.

He was about leaving the store owner, when I leaned against the wall swiftly. My hand shook a bit-I don't really want to get caught again.

Just freedom. I wanted just that.

I peeped back and he was back at the car.

He opened the driver's door-he clearly does not know I had run.

I looked carefully,not knowing what his next action would be.

And probably after noticing I was not there, he immediately got out.

He looked up and down the street, right and left-clearly tense. He walked back to the store owner and mumbled something I couldn't hear but could guess the meaning of.

He walked back to the car and checked again, now carefully-he probably thought I was hiding at the back seat like a fool.

He walked to passersby, asking questions I couldn't hear, he couldn't get a clue or so it seemed-probably.

I had maintained a good cover-even though I'm not used to hiding, this could cost me my freedom so I have to take actions.

I pressed my back against the wall and held my breath.

He asked another passerby-a woman with a shopping bag-and she shook her head. He thanked her anyway. Even from here, I could see the way his shoulders dropped after each refusal.

"Just give up," I thought. "Just leave."

But he didn't.

He walked the length of the block, then doubled back. He checked the alley across the street. He stood at the corner, turning slowly, scanning every shadow, every doorway.

I had never been watched like this. Not by Kaint's men-they hunted with numbers and orders. This was different. Personal. Like I was something he couldn't afford to lose.

No, I told myself. He's just good at his job. Whatever that job is.

I waited until he disappeared around the next corner. Then I moved.

I didn't run this time. Running drew attention. I walked-fast, but not fast enough to make anyone look twice. I kept my head down, my cap low, my arms wrapped around myself against the cold that had started to settle in my bones.

I didn't know where I was going. I didn't have a plan. I only knew I needed to put distance between us.

The streets of Sunshine City blurred past. Shop windows, streetlights, parked cars. I walked until my feet ached, until my legs felt like they might give out, until the city around me grew quieter and the buildings shorter and the shadows longer.

I found an alley-narrow, dark, hidden from the main road by a row of dumpsters. I slipped into it, pressed my back against the brick wall, and let myself breathe.

I was alone.

I was safe.

I was-

Cold.

The rain started without warning. Not the gentle drizzle I had run through earlier, but a hard, driving rain that soaked through my coat in seconds. I pulled my cap lower, but it did nothing. Water dripped down my neck, my spine, my legs. I was shivering before I could stop myself.

I should move. Find shelter. But my body wouldn't obey. I slid down the wall, my legs folding beneath me, and sat in the wet dirt of the alley with my knees drawn to my chest.

This is fine, I told myself. Just rest for a minute. Then you'll figure it out.

But the minutes passed, and I didn't move. My thoughts grew thick and slow. Evan's face floated behind my eyes. His voice. The last time I saw him-the way he had looked at me like he was saying goodbye before he even left.

He knew, I thought. He knew what was coming, and he didn't tell me.

I don't know how long I sat there. Long enough for the rain to soften. Long enough for my shivering to stop, which I knew, somewhere in the distant part of my brain that was still functioning, was a bad sign.

I heard footsteps.

My eyes snapped open. I hadn't meant to close them.

A figure stood at the mouth of the alley, silhouetted against the dim streetlight. Broad shoulders. Dark coat. Water dripping from his hair.

No.

I scrambled backward, my hands slipping in the mud, my back hitting the wall.

He didn't move. Didn't lunge. Didn't call out.

He just stood there, breathing hard, looking at me like I was something he had been searching for his whole life.

Then he sat down.

On the wet ground, across the alley, his back against the opposite wall. He didn't say anything. He didn't come closer.

The rain fell between us.

I watched him for a long time, waiting for the act to drop, waiting for the mask to crack. It didn't. He sat there, soaked through, shivering just like me, and said nothing.

It was him. The man from earlier.

Finally-I don't know how long-I found my voice.

"Why?"

He looked at me. In the dim light, his eyes were dark, steady, sad.

"Because Evan asked me to protect you."

The name hit me like a physical blow. I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling my heart hammer against my ribs.

"What did you say?"

"Evan." He said it like a prayer. " he asked me to keep you safe."

I stared at him. The rain kept falling. Neither of us moved.

And for the first time since this nightmare began, I felt something other than fear.

I felt the possibility of hope.

"You know him?" I shook and shivered at the same time-the cold and my fear combined.

He smacked his lips. "Let's just go already. Knowing too much truth at a time would break you, you have to rest now."

The numbness ended and somehow, I stood and he gripped my wrist slowly.

"Let's go."

The walk to the car was very silent, like hearing more from him would break me for real.

He opened the door and I entered slowly.

He entered too and started the car.

My eyes closed slowly.

I didn't mean to sleep. I meant to stay awake, to watch him, to figure out who he was and why he'd risked everything for a stranger.

But exhaustion was heavier than fear.

And somewhere between one breath and the next, the darkness took me.

Gina's POV:

My eyes blurred open slowly, vision still unclear.

The first thing I noticed was silence. Real silence.

No loud footsteps coming for me. No threatening words from my father. No muffled whispers from relatives and maids. And most of all-no Jax. No cold voice telling me my duty. No presence of the man I was supposed to marry.

Just silence.

Then I felt it-the softness that surrounded my body. No aches. No exhaustion. Just relief and relaxation. Beneath me, the source of that softness. I struggled lightly against the grip of the blanket wrapped tightly around me.

Then I stopped.

I touched the blanket again and my eyes widened, fully awake now.

Silk?

I gazed at the ceiling-or rather, I stared through it, my mind still catching up. It was high and white, with a delicate crystal chandelier that caught the light and scattered it into tiny rainbows across the walls.

"Where am I?" I whispered.

I sat up, resting my back against the headboard, and turned my head slowly, studying the room.

It exuded luxury. The massive master bed I lay on was the kind someone orders when they never want to reach the edge. Rich fabric. Silk, everywhere.

Straight ahead, a fireplace sat dark and cold. Above it hung a painting I almost recognized-familiar, like a rough sketch I'd seen somewhere, now transformed into a masterpiece of wealth.

I turned my head, mesmerized by it all.

I stood, expecting pain. Instead, comfort traveled down my nerves. My vein felt loose and fluid, as though I'd been massaged while asleep.

I think I was right-because I was wearing a white robe.

Two ladies entered. They wore matching uniforms, clearly organized, but still luxurious. The kind of beauty a billionaire would want to witness every day.

They bowed slightly.

I stepped back, startled.

"The young master wants you to rest more," the taller one said, her hands clasped behind her.

The young master.

My blood ran cold.

Jax. They meant Jax.

Of course. The man who rescued me-he was working for Jax all along. He brought me here, to Jax's mansion, to deliver me like a package. I had trusted a stranger, and now I was exactly where I never wanted to be: in the home of the man I was fleeing.

But why would Jax care if I rested? Why the silk sheets, the luxury, the concern for my health?

Unless he was trying to soften me. Make me comfortable so I'd lower my guard. So I'd accept my fate.

I thought of Evan-my dead fiancé, Jax's brother. The new heir, forced on me by his father. The same father who sent men to kidnap me. The same family that saw me as a pawn to be traded.

And now I was in their home.

My stomach turned.

"And how is he concerned about that?" My voice shook, but I forced the words out.

The maid straightened from her bow. "I'm sorry?" She looked genuinely confused. "But he was really worried about you when he brought you here."

He brought you here. The rescuer. Working for Jax. Just like everyone else.

"Whatever." I hissed and stepped toward the door.

I stopped and looked back. "Where is he?"

The taller one spoke again-clearly the head maid. "At the garden, down the terrace." She pointed toward a glass enclosure.

I stared through the glass and saw a male figure examining flowers. I frowned, eyebrows rising.

Jax. In a garden. Tending flowers.

The Jax I knew-the cold, distant man my father praised, the heir to an empire-he didn't tend flowers. He didn't stand in sunlight examining roses like some poet.

But maybe I never knew him at all. Maybe the gossip, the rumors, the distant glimpses-none of it was real.

Why do men like him even care about flowers?

I walked into the hallway.

The hallway stretched before me, elegant and endless. A mansion. Jax's mansion. I didn't recognize the location, but the wealth was unmistakable. This was Kings Group territory.

I would have liked him to be my brother-in-law. That I could have tolerated. But my husband? I would rather die.

Even when Evan was alive, I avoided Jax. Kept my distance. There was something about him that unsettled me-not cruelty, exactly. Something deeper. Sadder, maybe.

I remember the last night I saw Evan. He seemed down, hiding something. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. I kept asking what was wrong, but he couldn't say anything.

Complicated family shit.

I reached the garden and opened the glass door. The fragrance of flowers mingled in the warm air, alluring and sweet.

Then I spotted him.

Dressed in white-shirt and trousers. The trousers were long, decorated with tiny glittering stones. Diamonds, probably.

I saw him from behind. His shoulders seemed broader than I remembered. Taller, too. He faced a red rose, examining it like it held secrets.

I stopped, took a breath, and tightened the rope on my white robe. Then I walked closer, ready to face my captor, my almost-husband, my prison.

He heard my footsteps. Slowly, he looked back at me.

The sun cast a perfect beam of light across his face. He wore black sunglasses. But those lips-I'd seen them before.

He removed the sunglasses.

The real face emerged.

Not Jax.

Him. The man who rescued me.

My mind crashed.

This wasn't Jax's mansion. This was his home. The stranger who pulled me from Kaint's grip, who drove me through the night, who carried me to this room and covered me in silk-

He wasn't Jax's man.

He was someone else entirely.

But who?

I stood frozen, my heart pounding, my mind racing through possibilities that made no sense.

"Who are you?"

My voice came out mixed-eagerness and surprise tangled together with something else. Something that felt dangerously like hope.

I asked him slowly, afraid of the answer.

Afraid it might shatter the only good thing that had happened to me in years.

Gina's POV:

I stared blankly, my jaw dropped.

"Uhm! I'm the master of the house." he said lightly, like I needn't to ask more.

"How? And why am I supposed to be here when you are the master of the house." Overly confused. I can't even have a correct guess of ten percentage about what's going on.

"You are in danger." He said folding his arms and turned to look at the long field beside the greenhouse. "Is saving you a crime or something?"

He sounded really calm even when I'm loaded with unanswered questions. He made me even confused of where to start asking them.

I stepped closer to him, mesmerizing the field view together beside him.

"Just tell me." I rested my back by the wall. "Who are you?"

He smacked his lips and faced me. "Since you demand an answer." he paused. "I'll give you one."

"I'm Damon." he dropped the name, floating in the warm air.

Everything stiffened.

"What?" I meant to exclaim inside, but it somehow found its way out of my throat.

"Yeah. I'm Damon."

"So the rumors are real." Damon was a name that went viral around the Kings sometimes. It happened that someone said the chairman had an illegitimate child named Damon. But he declined it, and avoided the rumor getting to the public.

But if he was real, and the chairman's son. How does me being here relate to that?

"So why disguise to get me off there when you can send someone do that as a billionaire child."

"A billionaire child?" he chuckled. "Who is hidden from the public." he completed the sentence, and I nodded.

I then understood, the chairman decided to hide him or maybe erase his existence by enriching him and delete him off list.

"I know you're my half-brother's fiancé-Evan." he broke the silence.

The part he touched made my heart pumped so fast, my stomach turning. I can't even understand what is trying to get at.

"I know how much you love each other and all that."

My eyes turned red. Not from rage but sadness. Remembering he was gone-that he could not be by my side anymore- hit me more than I'd expected. Especially now more than ever.

"He was supposed to be the heir to Kings which is really fine by him." he released his folded arm. "Everyone loves him anyway."

He is sounding more serious now, and that made my heart beats more faster. Like some great deal of crap are going to be revealed at the end of the conversation.

"And he was a good brother to me." I was shocked by that, Evan knew about him too?

"But now!" his voice sounded like he had gotten to the main part of the conversation, so I tried to listen well-paying more attention.

"The problem is my father's legacy." What? Is he trying to be the heir or something?

"Jax can't have it."

I interrupted. I had to.

"So you're trying to be the successor too?"

"He gave me the opportunity to shoot my shots!" he said and sat by the bench beside us. The eagerness in the conversation made my eye blind to it.

"Who?" I sat too.

"Father." Then he raised a finger. "But with a condition."

"And what's that?" It was getting more interesting then.

"I should prove myself worthier than Jax."

"And how are you going to do that exactly."

"That start with you."

I paused. Me? How?

Then I said it aloud. "How?"

"This is the point of the bargain." He brought a paper from a bag beside the bench we were sitting on. And a pen too.

A contract.

"Be my wife for a year and I guarantee you safety afterwards." He said and stood. "I'll make the succession really fast.

"What are you saying?"

I was a bit shocked.

"See." he stood behind me, and I looked up to him from where I was sitting. Those face I saw in the car earlier. The softness. "I really know how much you hate Jax, and I do too. Let's just have our each victories. And it's a win win."

"Then... What if I refuse?" I tried weighing the probabilities.

"You ended up marrying someone you hate. And a real marriage I mean here!" My heart pounded and I hold stiffly to the bench underneath me.

He noticed it and patted me slightly, making no noise out of it.

"And I might still probably be the successor." He sat back. "Then, I can do anything to you and your husband."

I hate being intimidated. "What if I marry you and you failed to be the heir. Won't Jax do the same?"

"Then you have your freedom." He was quite right. "Jax need you just for the succession. So if you're with me and he gained it without you. He would not need you afterwards."

Yes! He was right. Jax needed me to impress his father and become the next chairman.

"But why do your father needed mine's alliance anyways?" I tried asking if he could know too.

"That's more than you can know right now."

"I still can't rush over this. I need to settle down and weigh the odds." I stood.

"Uhm! You have to be here till you make your decision." He said looking blankly at me.

"Sure." I walked out slowly. "I think I'm safer here."

I could hear him clapping loudly as I walked out.

A contract marriage? Things are getting more complicated and more questions kept emerging. I just can't get my head off it.

Anyway! I have to make the best decision for myself. I can't just follow Evan to the grave anymore - like I've been blabbing right after his death. Things are getting more interesting right now on earth.

I walked back to the end of the terrace and stopped by the door to the master bedroom I came out from earlier. It has changed within those few minutes. Now completely feminine, especially my taste exactly like my bedroom but with some additions of luxury.

A maid came by. Bowed. "My lady, lunch is ready."

"Oh!" I nearly forgot I need to eat. Reminded of that made my stomach groaned- the hunger I had endured since.

"Let me pick something to wear."

"Okay." She walked away.

I sighed and entered.