Chapter 5. The Bargain Sealed
I woke up to the sound of rain falling against wide glass windows. For a second, I felt that I was still in that cell - solid concrete walls, chains of metal clads, women posing a threat to the darkness. Hooded my chest, my breath came fast, until I opened my eyes and saw white sheets instead of the gray floor.
The room was very beautiful to me. Too quiet. My body drowned in the tenderness of the bed, but my mind will not rest. I have spent three years to bear myself, to teach myself to survive, and now suddenly the rest looked like a trick. My skin prickled with suspicion.
I turned my head and saw a shape from the window. His broad shoulders were outlined by unconscious light. Raymond.
For a long time, he did not speak. His eyes were set on the outside storm, his face was unmatched. I thought about what he saw when he saw me - an old wound, a mistake, or a woman who destroyed her plans three years ago.
"Why?" His voice reduced the silence and stabilized.
I nap, confused. "Why ... what?"
His gaze went to me, sharp as a blade. "Why did you run back?"
Question deep deduction. My throat tightened. I wanted to say that because I was afraid of getting caught in a wedding that I did not choose. Because I felt that Francis loves me. Because I thought love was enough. But words will not be made.
"I don't give you the favor of that answer," I whispered, looking away. My voice looked weak, even to me.
Raymond did not argue. He was just standing there, studying me as he was trying to peel every layer of my soul back. The silence increased, everything was thick with the unheard.
Finally, he went closer. Their steps were slow, intentionally, as a person who took the weight of the decisions did not want to do it. He stopped on the bed, and his shadow fell around me.
He said, "I did not take you out of jail for charity." "I did this because I want something from you."
My stomach turned. There it was - hold. Anyone saves anyone for free. Not in this world.
He did not sit; he did not soften his stand. His presence filled the room, cold and commanding. "Francis has stepped away. He thinks that he can crawl into my company, ruin my name, and run away. He used you as his shield, Vera. He threw you to the fire so that he could remain clean. I can destroy it. But not alone."
His words burned a flame of anger in me, the same anger that had been burning since the night of my arrest. Francis's smile when he handed over the divorce papers to me. His voice told me that I have no life. It all went back, raw and sharp.
But before I could speak, Raymond dropped the real bomb.
"I want you to marry me."
The room rotates. I pushed myself to bed, my pulse racing. "What?"
"You heard me." His eyes were inserted. "I won't protect you. I will clarify your name. I will make sure that Francis never touches you again. But in return, you will become my wife. Legal. Publicly."
One laugh survived my lips, broken and bitter. "Do you think marriage is some kind of contract with which you can negotiate?"
"This is what it is." His voice was stable, almost cold. "Contract. Promises. Sauda.
I wanted to shout at him, to tell him that I have enough men to decide about my life. First Francis, now Raymond. But before I could, the door opened.
An old man stepped into a folder. His suit was impeccable, and his expression was calm. Raymond hinted that he wanted to speak.
"This is Mr. Alan," said Raymond. "Your grandfather's lawyer."
The name hurt my chest. Grandfather. The man who loved me when no one else did. Who had begged me not to remove my future. I could barely meet the eyes of the lawyer.
"Miss Address," Mr. Alan started slowly. "Your grandfather left a very special word in his will. You are the only successor to Andrace Fortune and the company. But comes with a legacy. You should marry Raymond Anderson for at least two years ... and you should have a child with you."
His words crashed on me like icy water. Play my ears. "What?" I managed to get out.
"This was his last wish," the lawyer continued. "He wanted to secure both the family's money and his legacy."
I can't breathe. A child? With Raymond? This idea burned my face with shame, with fear, I cannot name anything.
Raymond's eyes were fixed on me, stable and ineffective. "You see, Vera. It's not just about revenge. It's about existence. You have no choice."
I violently shook my head. "No. I did not let the other man control me. Not again."
"Think carefully," he said, now his voice is difficult. "Without this marriage, Francis and Diana will take everything. Your name will be dragged through the mud until you have nothing left. Do you want that?"
Images flooded my mind- Francis' mocking smile, Diana's cool eyes, whispering of Celmets, calls me a fraud in the headlines. Shame, anger, disappointment - they all got mixed until I felt that I could be separated.
I wanted freedom. I wanted to chase my dream of modeling, finally to live for myself. But I also wanted to take revenge. I wanted Francis to feel the same emptiness he had engraved in me.
I buried my face in my hands. "This is not an option. It is a cage."
Raymond's voice softened, almost irresponsible. "Whatever you make it can be."
The silence increased again. Outside, rain became heavy, drumming against windows like a heartbeat. My heartbeat. Fast, uneven, desperate.
Finally, I put my hands down. My eyes met his. They were dark, unmatched, but I felt that I had seen a flicker of something. Regret? Perhaps I had imagined it.
"I won't do this," I said, my voice was less stable. "But don't think for each other, that it makes you my savior. I am not doing this for you. I am doing it for myself. Whatever is lost for me."
Raymond did not smile. He only nodded his head, as if he had nothing less than hope. "Then it is organized."
The lawyer closed his folder with a soft click. "I will not arrange."
When he left, the room looked small, heavy. Raymond stood there, his presence filling the silence.
"Two years," I whispered to myself. The words tasted bitter. Staying with a man for two years whom I did not trust. Two years of drama. To bury the broken pieces of two years more deeply than before.
Raymond's eyes bowed to me once before going out. Echoing in his footsteps left me alone with his thoughts.
I fell back on the bed, and my body was trembling. For the first time since my arrest, I cried -not the sharp, angry tears of betrayal, but the quaint, helpless sobs of someone who has no way out.
Two years. A child. A wedding built on revenge.
Somewhere inside me, a voice whispered that I was losing myself again. But another voice - a deep one - it was my opportunity to get up. To convert pain into power.
I did not know which voice would win.
I knew that my life was no longer my own.