Billion-Dollar Bride: The Grant Contract

Chapter 1

We’d been together ten years. On our anniversary he said he had to work late.

Then I saw his Instagram, celebrating his assistant’s birthday.

When I confronted him, he said I was making a fuss over nothing.

He was sure I wouldn’t leave.

This time I brought in backup.

After my twentieth relapse, scrolling my ex’s texts again, I gritted my teeth and posted an ad online, looking for a breakup coach.

Someone actually replied.

He was tall, handsome.

What sold me was one line that hit dead center, “If this doesn’t work, full refund, and I’ll pay you ten times the fee.”

I signed the contract on the spot.

Ethan Carter went over my case and said I was the kind who knew better but kept falling back in, the love-blind type.

That kind was the hardest to fix.

I looked at Ethan, clinging to hope.

He tapped his chest and smiled, “Relax, I haven’t lost yet.”

My ex, Michael Grant, was just as confident.

He took his time, waiting for me to show up with a ten-page handwritten apology and beg him to take me back.

Chapter 2

Michael Grant had that swagger because we had “broken up” 178 times.

All 178 were over petty stuff he started, and I wrote little essays to win him back.

Things like missing his call at work, forgetting our thirty-third month anniversary, or meeting a new coworker and not reporting it.

Those essays grew from a few lines to more than a thousand words.

Looking back now, I wanted to laugh and cry.

Even Odysseus spent ten years getting home and still faced fewer trials than we did in ten.

And after all that, there was no happy ending.

The love I built like a glass castle looked pretty from far away, and underneath it was all cracks.

The day I finally woke up happened to be our tenth anniversary.

I cooked a full spread and waited for him to come home.

He texted first, said the company had a last-minute meeting.

I kept reheating the food and smiling at my phone.

I even posted a polished picture on Instagram.

[Post] A man who checks in makes you feel safe.

A comment froze me.

[Comment] With a Mrs. Grant like you, Zoe is lucky.

Zoe Stevens?

I knew her. She was his assistant.

We’d never interacted, and the comment felt off.

I bit my lip and typed a careful reply.

[Comment] Thanks, I didn’t do much.

She answered fast.

[Comment] Mrs. Grant, if you let Michael come to my birthday, I’ll be so grateful.

My eyes went wide. So he wasn’t working late, he was going to a birthday party.

The words on that post felt like fire in my chest and the heat scrambled my head.

“Michael, what are you doing right now?”

I called and confronted him.

He picked up on video and panned the room.

It was a conference room dressed to the nines, with a slide that read “Happy Birthday.”

People in office attire waved at me.

“Mrs. Grant.”

The camera stopped on a stunning woman.

She wore a gold birthday crown and spoke so earnestly.

“Mrs. Grant, sorry to cut into your anniversary. You’re lucky to have someone as romantic as Michael. I didn’t expect a surprise.”

Then she glanced to the side, shy.

Someone chimed in, “Mrs. Grant is the sweetest, she won’t mind, right?”

Michael turned the camera back to himself, tapped two fingers to his lips, and blew me a kiss.

The blaze in my throat turned into a dud, and all I managed was a muffled “mm.”

“Good girl. I love you, Lauren.”

He said it in front of everyone, so maybe he really loved me.

I watched through the screen.

He was grinning, Zoe stood at his side, coworkers cheering.

I sat alone at a table full of food, and next to him, Zoe looked like the leading lady.

I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. Did he really love me?

“Michael, can you come home now?”

“Why are you saying that?”

“I just want you here with me.”

“Don’t make a scene.”

“Who matters more, me or her?”

“You, of course. But wishes hit at midnight. I’ll see her through the wish and come right back. Be good and wait for me.”

“You know today is our—”

“I love you most.”

Zoe tugged him away and he slipped out of frame.

I stared at the ended call and finished the sentence to an empty room, “It’s our tenth anniversary, and if you don’t come home, we’re done.”

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