The morning sun filtered through the heavy velvet curtains of the safehouse, casting long, golden streaks across the rumpled silk sheets. For the first time in months, I didn't wake up to the sound of a heart monitor or the buzzing of a corporate phone. I woke up to the steady, rhythmic breathing of the woman beside me.
I stayed still, watching her. Alexandra—the Ice Queen—looked different in the early light. The sharp lines of her face were soft, her dark hair fanned out across the pillow like a halo. She wasn't a CEO right now. She was just mine.
I reached out, my fingers tracing the line of her shoulder. She stirred, a small, sleepy smile touching her lips before she even opened her eyes.
"Is it Monday yet?" she whispered, her voice husky with sleep.
"It's Tuesday," I replied, leaning closer until our foreheads touched. "The world didn't end. The company didn't collapse. And we're still here."
She opened her eyes, and the warmth I saw there made my heart skip. She reached up, her hand cupping my jaw, her thumb grazing the stubble on my chin. "I used to hate waking up. It meant putting on the mask, going to the office, and fighting people who wanted me to fail. But today... today I don't want to be anywhere else."
I pulled her closer, the heat of her body a reminder of everything we had shared in the dark. I kissed her forehead, then her nose, then finally her lips—a slow, lingering kiss that tasted like a promise. "Then stay. We don't have to be the Billionaire and the Hidden Husband today. We can just be two people in a room."
She laughed softly, a sound that was pure music. "I think the Board would have a heart attack if they saw me like this."
"Let them," I said, my hand sliding down to the small of her back. "They've had enough of your time. This day belongs to us."
We spent the morning in that quiet bubble, talking about things that had nothing to do with contracts or money. I told her about the streets of Onitsha, and she told me about the lonely years she spent in boarding school in Europe. We were filling in the gaps of our lives, stitching together a real marriage out of the rags of a fake one.
But as I went to the kitchen to make coffee, I saw her phone light up on the nightstand. It was a message from the hospital. My heart tightened. Was it my brother?
I picked it up, ready for bad news, but the message was from a private investigator she had hired weeks ago.
"We found the second ledger. It wasn't in The Sector. It was in her mother's old house. You aren't going to believe whose name is on the first page."
I looked back at the bed. Alexandra was sitting up, wrapping a sheet around herself, looking at me with so much love it hurt.
I put the phone down. I wasn't going to break the peace. Not yet. Whatever was in that ledger could wait another hour. For now, I just wanted to be the man who loved her.