PART 2 — The Marriage That Was Never Meant to Last
The wedding was quiet.
No grand ballroom. No smiling guests. No love in the air.
Just signatures, cameras, and a carefully crafted illusion.
To the public, Maya Porter had become Mrs. Blackwood overnight—the mysterious woman who captured the attention of the most powerful CEO in the city.
To Maya, it felt like stepping into a life that didn’t belong to her.
Blackwood Estate was everything her apartment was not.
Vast. Silent. Immaculate.
Cold.
Her room was on the east wing.
William’s was on the west.
Separate lives. Shared image.
Exactly as agreed.
At first, everything remained strictly professional.
Public events.
Dinners.
Appearances.
William was always composed, distant, precise.
But he never disrespected her.
Never crossed boundaries.
Never treated her like anything less than… necessary.
“You’re doing well,” he told her one evening after a corporate gala.
Maya raised an eyebrow. “That almost sounded like a compliment.”
“It was an observation,” he replied calmly.
She almost smiled.
Meanwhile, her father’s treatment began.
The money worked.
The doctors paid attention.
Hope returned.
And for the first time in months, Maya felt like she could breathe again.
But something unexpected started to change.
Not in the contract.
In them.
It began subtly.
Shared breakfasts when schedules overlapped.
Conversations that lasted longer than necessary.
Silences that no longer felt uncomfortable.
“You don’t talk much,” Maya said one night.
“Neither do you,” William replied.
“I talk when there’s something worth saying.”
He looked at her for a moment.
“And is there something worth saying now?”
She met his eyes.
