The next morning, the sun filtered through the heavy silk curtains of the manor, casting long, golden streaks across the room. Alaina woke up with a start, the memories of the previous night's dinner still fresh and bitter in her mind. She stood before the floor-to-ceiling mirror and looked at herself—the helplessness in her eyes was slowly being replaced by a cold, hardened resolve. She knew that to survive this year, she couldn't just be a submissive puppet; she had to learn the rules of the game he played.
At exactly eight o'clock, Damien's personal assistant arrived to escort her to the Blackwood Tower. It wasn't just an office building; it was the beating heart of Damien's global power. The glass monolith pierced the sky, a symbol of dominance over the city. Inside, thousands of employees moved with a robotic, hushed discipline, but Alaina was taken straight to the top floor—Damien's private sanctuary.
The Corporate Cage and the First Assignment
Damien was seated behind his massive desk, his silhouette framed by the sprawling city skyline behind him. He didn't look up when she entered, his fingers flying across his laptop keyboard with lethal precision.
"Starting today, you will work as my personal assistant," Damien said without any greeting. His voice was as sharp as a razor. "I don't want anyone outside this office to know that our relationship is based on a contract (Contract). To the world, you are my fiancée learning the ropes of the business".
He slid a thick stack of files toward her. "Read these project reports and give me a summary by five p.m. If you are to be by my side, you must be as perfect as I am. I have no room for incompetence."
Alaina took the files, her heart heavy with the weight of billions of dollars in transactions. She realized Damien wasn't just keeping her close; he was testing her. She sat at a desk in the corner of his office and began to work. Hours passed in a tense silence, broken only by Damien's cold, authoritative voice on international calls—a voice that seemed to drop the temperature of the room by several degrees.
The Discovery of the Secret File
Around noon, Damien left for an urgent board meeting. In his haste, he had left one of his desk drawers slightly ajar. Curiosity, dangerous and persistent, began to gnaw at Alaina. She knew it was wrong, a violation of the rules she had signed, but she needed to know the truth behind the man with the stone heart.
She moved toward his desk, her breath hitching in her throat. Inside the drawer, buried under layers of legal documents, was a weathered, yellowed envelope. On the front, in bold black ink, were the words: 'Project Soul: Confidential'.
With trembling hands, Alaina opened the envelope. Her breath caught as she looked at the contents. Inside were several old photographs of a young boy in an orphanage and a legal document—an adoption decree. Damien Blackwood wasn't the biological heir to the Blackwood empire! He had been taken from an orphanage decades ago.
At the bottom of the decree was a handwritten note: "An empire in exchange for a heart." Alaina felt a pang of realization. This was why he was so cold. He had been raised to believe that nothing in this world was free—not even love. Love was just another transaction, much like the way he had bought (Sold) her.
A Dangerous Encounter
Suddenly, the sound of the door handle turning echoed through the room. Alaina frantically stuffed the papers back into the envelope and sat at her desk just as the door swung open. Her heart was hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.
Damien walked in, his expression darker than before. He stopped in his tracks, his piercing gray eyes scanning the room until they landed on her. He walked toward her, each step sounding like a death knell.
"Did you touch my desk?" Damien asked, his voice a low, dangerous whisper.
"No... I was just finishing the reports," Alaina stammered, her voice betrayed by her nerves.
Damien leaned down, looming over her, his presence suffocating. He gripped her chin, forcing her to look into his icy depths. "Do not lie to me, Alaina. I loathe liars more than anything. Remember, you are my property (Property). You don't even breathe without my permission".
Alaina met his gaze, her hazel eyes flashing with a sudden fire. "I may be your property, Mr. Blackwood, but I am still a human being. And humans have curiosity. Are you afraid I've discovered your only weakness?"
For a second, a flash of pure rage ignited in Damien's eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a frozen wall of indifference. He released her chin with a jolt. "I have no weaknesses because I care for nothing and no one. Finish the report by tonight, or your father's hospital bills will go unpaid starting tomorrow morning".
Alaina watched him walk back to his desk, but her mind was still fixed on that sentence—An empire in exchange for a heart. She realized then that beneath Damien's stony exterior lay a secret that could either destroy the Blackwood empire or set them both free.