The silence in the grand foyer was heavy, broken only by the steady ticking of the grandfather clock. My eyes stayed glued to the signature on the document. It was unmistakable—the same jagged 'S' my father used in his private medical journals. My breath hitched.
"Is there a problem?" Aunt Catherine asked, her voice sharp as a blade. She stepped closer, her expensive perfume filling the air. "You look as though you've seen a ghost."
"It's just... the complexity of the legal language," I lied, quickly looking up. "I wasn't expecting such a formal review so soon after the wedding."
Alexander stepped in front of me, shielding me from her gaze. "Sterling, my spouse is a partner, not a suspect. If the Board has questions about a 'Divine Medic,' they can bring them to me. My family's private life is not a laboratory for your investigations."
Mr. Sterling adjusted his glasses, his expression unmoved. "The Board is concerned about the sudden interest in the 'Ancient Pulse' records, Alexander. Someone has been accessing the secure servers from this IP address. Since you were at the global summit, that leaves only one person."
He looked directly at me. The trap was closing.
"I was researching medical journals for my own studies," I said, my voice gaining strength. "I didn't realize that a billionaire's library was off-limits to his own family. Is this a marriage, or am I a prisoner?"
Catherine's eyes narrowed. "A marriage in this family is a business merger. If you cannot handle the scrutiny, perhaps you shouldn't have signed the contract."
"That's enough," Alexander growled. The air in the room seemed to vibrate with his anger. "Sterling, take your papers and leave. Catherine, if you want to stay for dinner, we will discuss the merger—and nothing else. But if you're here to interrogate my spouse, the door is right there."
The defiance in his voice surprised me. He was protecting me, even though our marriage was a lie. Was he doing it for the contract, or was something shifting between us?
As Catherine and the lawyer retreated toward the dining hall, Alexander turned to me. His face was a mask of tension. He grabbed my hand and led me toward the balcony, away from prying ears.
"You actually did it," he whispered, his eyes searching mine. "You broke into the servers. Who are you really? And what does the 'Divine Medic' have to do with my father's empire?"
I looked out over the sprawling estate of Anambra, the lights of the city flickering in the distance. The truth was a heavy burden, but the lies were becoming even heavier.
"If I tell you," I whispered back, "there's no going back to the way things were. The contract will be broken."
"The contract was broken the moment I started caring," Alexander replied.
The mystery was deep, the romance was dangerous, and for the first time, I realized that I wasn't just fighting for the truth—I was fighting for us.