Three months.
That was the time she had asked for.
Three months to prove she could stand on her own and break free from a deal she never wanted but time didn't wait.
The city had become her battlefield.
Aria worked endlessly. Day and night blurred into each other. She took extra shifts at the café, picked up other works in her free time , sold things she once held onto for memories. Also sold all her properties to pay the debt. Every dollar she earned carried the weight of desperation and still It wasn't enough.
Fifty million dollars wasn't something you earned. It was something that owned you.
On the last night she sat alone in her apartment, the silence pressing in on her from every corner. The table in front of her was covered with papers, calculations, numbers that refused to add up no matter how many times she tried. Her hands trembled slightly as she stared at the final amount. It was far from what she needed.
"I tried…" she whispered.
The words felt empty because trying didn't matter, not in this world.
Her eyes closed slowly and for the first time in three months her thoughts went back to him.
Rafael.
Not as the man who held a deal over her but as the man who stood too close. Who looked at her like she was something he couldn't walk away from.
Who gave her space… when he could have taken everything.
"Why now…" she whispered.
Because she had spent every single day trying not to think about him, not to remember the way his presence felt and not to miss something she didn't want to admit she missed.
A soft knock broke the silence. Aria's eyes opened.
The knock on the door wasn't loud but to Aria, it felt like thunder.
She froze. Something in her chest stirred a feeling she had been suppressing for three long months.
Another knock slower this time. She didn't need to ask who it was.
She knew.
Her breath became uneven.
"No…" she whispered to herself. "Not now…" but her feet moved anyway.
When she opened the door there he was.
Rafael.
Standing exactly the same… yet not the same at all.
His eyes found hers instantly, sharp and unreadable but beneath that control, there was something deeper. Something restless. Something that had been waiting for her.
"Three months," he said quietly.
Aria's fingers tightened around the edge of the door. She couldn't meet his gaze for long .
She said, her voice barely steady. "I just needed more time—"
"You said three months." His tone wasn't loud but it cut through her words effortlessly. Silence fell between them again.
Heavy. Familiar. Dangerous.
"I tried," she continued, forcing herself to look at him. "I sold everything I could. I worked nonstop. I calculated everything… but it's still not enough."
Rafael stepped closer.
Just one step and it was enough to make her heartbeat lose rhythm.
"I know."
Her eyes widened slightly.
Of course he knew. He always knew.
"You've been watching me?" she asked, a mix of anger and something else rising within her.
"I never stopped."
The honesty in his voice shook her more than denial ever could.
Aria turned away, stepping back into the apartment, giving him space to enter but not willingly.
Not completely.
"I don't belong to you," she said, her voice firmer now. "Not until I pay everything."
Rafael closed the door behind him. Softly.
But the sound echoed.
"You came back into my life the moment you left that letter," he replied. "Debt or not… that didn't change anything."
Aria's chest tightened.
"Don't," she warned. "Don't make this about something else."
"Then what is this about, Aria?"
His voice dropped, deeper now. More dangerous.
He moved closer again, slowly, giving her time to stop him.
She didn't. That was her mistake.
"You left because you were afraid," he continued. "Not of the debt or me."
Her breath caught.
"You were afraid of this." He stopped just inches away.
Close enough for her to feel his presence. Close enough to remember everything she had tried to forget, the way he looked at her, the way he made her feel… the way she lost control.
"I'm not afraid," she said, though her voice betrayed her.
Rafael lifted his hand slowly, his fingers brushing lightly against her chin, tilting her face up just enough so she couldn't look away again.
"Then why won't you look at me?" He said.
She did.
And that was worse because everything she had buried for three months came rushing back at once.
The tension. The closeness. The unfinished emotions.
"I don't want this," she whispered.
"Liar."
The word wasn't harsh. It was certain.
Her eyes trembled, but she didn't step back.
"I don't want to feel like this, at least not for you" she corrected.
That made him pause.
For the first time since he entered.
Something softened in his expression but only slightly.
"Neither do I," he admitted quietly.
And that truth…
That rare, unguarded truth…shook her more than anything else.
Silence returned.
But this time, it wasn't empty. It was filled with everything they refused to say.
Rafael finally stepped back.
Giving her space but not distance.
"Three months," he said again, calmer now. "You tried to run from it."
His eyes locked onto hers once more.
"Now stop running."he said, his voice lowering,
"the deal stands."
Her heart pounded. The words she had been avoiding, the reality she had been running from stood right in front of her now.
"And what does that mean?" she asked, even though she already knew.
Rafael stopped just in front of her, Close enough for the air to shift again.
"It means," he said quietly, "you belong to me now."
Silence.
Aria swallowed hard because deep down she knew that she wasn't running from the debt anymore.
She was running from him and she was losing.
"Come back," he added.
Not an order or command. It felt like something deeper.
The document lay on the table between them. Aria stared at it for a long moment before picking it up, her fingers tightening slightly against the paper as her eyes moved across each line.
Every word felt heavier than the last.
Clause 1:
All outstanding financial debt owed by Aria will be considered fully settled upon completion of the terms stated within this agreement.
Her breath slowed.
Clause 2:
Aria will reside under Rafael's roof for the duration of the agreement.
Clause 3:
During this time, Aria agrees to follow Rafael's instructions in all matters concerning her presence, conduct, and responsibilities.
Her eyes paused on that line. Her grip on the paper tightened.
Clause 4:
No harm—physical or intentional emotional will be inflicted upon Aria under any circumstance.
For a moment she stilled because that line didn't belong with the others.
It softened something that wasn't meant to be soft.
Her eyes flickered up at him briefly.
Clause 5:
Aria retains the right to refuse any command that crosses her personal boundaries, without consequence to the agreement.
Now that confused her.
Her brows furrowed slightly.
"If I can refuse… then what kind of control is this?" she asked quietly.
Rafael finally spoke.
"The kind you choose to give." Silence filled the room.
Clause 6:
The agreement will end only when Rafael declares the debt fulfilled.
That line made her chest tighten because it meant one thing.
This wasn't just about time, It was about him.
At the bottom of the page—
Two blank lines waited.
One for her.
One for him.
Aria lowered the paper slowly. "This isn't a contract," she said softly.
"It's a cage."
Rafael stepped closer.
"Then walk away," he replied calmly.
Her eyes met his.
"You know I can't." she said.
"I know you won't." he told her by looking at her eyes.
That difference, that truth hit harder than anything else. Her fingers hovered over the pen.
She had nothing left, Nowhere else to go.
And somehow that wasn't the only reason she stayed.
"You expect me to just follow whatever you say?" she asked, one last attempt to hold onto control.
Rafael's gaze didn't waver.
"No," he said quietly.
"I expect you to fight me."
That surprised her.
"But in the end…" he continued, his voice lowering slightly,
"You'll stay."
Aria looked at him for a long moment.
Trying to understand him or trying to understand herself.
Then slowly she signed.
Rafael took the document after her. He signed beneath her name.
And just like that the deal was sealed. Aria exhaled slowly, her heart heavier than before.
"What happens now?" she asked quietly. Rafael looked at her.
Not like a man who had won but like someone who had been waiting.
"Now…" he said softly,
"You stay."
There was nothing left to argue, so she left with him to his mansion like his property... by signing the contract.