Synopsis
“Take off your dress, Meadow.”
“Why?”
“Because your sister and your ex are watching,” he said calmly. “And I want them to understand exactly what they lost.”
••••••••••••*
Meadow Russell was supposed to get married in Vegas to the man she believed was the love of her life. Instead, she walked into a hotel room and found her twin sister tangled in bed with her fiancé, smiling, unapologetic, and cruel. One drink at the bar turned into too many. One shattered night turned into a reckless decision. And one powerful stranger’s attention turned into a contract she signed with trembling hands, and a diamond ring she never expected.
Alaric Ashford is the devil wrapped in a tailored black suit. Billionaire CEO. Cold, controlled, and feared. A man born into power, blood, and steel. He also suffers from a rare neurological condition, he cannot feel. Not pain. Not pleasure. Not even human touch.
Until Meadow touches him, and everything changes.
Now she belongs to him.
On paper. In public. And behind closed doors.
She wants him to break her. To take what no one else ever could.
He wants control, obedience… and revenge.
But what begins as a transaction slowly twists into something neither of them planned. Obsession. Buried secrets. And a past soaked in pain that threatens to destroy everything they’ve built.
Alaric Ashford does not share what belongs to him.
Not his empire.
Not his wife.
And never his vengeance.

The words stayed on the screen longer than they should have. NEXT SEQUENCE WILL FORCE DIRECT LOSS. PREPARE. You did not move right away. None of you did. It felt like the room itself was waiting, as if even the machines understood that something irreversible was about to happen. The soft hum of the systems continued, steady and indifferent, but everything else felt tense, stretched thin like a wire ready to snap.


Chapter 34 - The First Loss