Nina Bennett’s mother needs an experimental treatment that only Pierce Medical can provide. The price? CEO Adrian Pierce gives her seven days to walk away from her wedding and return to him—no ring, no fiancé, no questions. When Nina pushes open a private room and catches her groom-to-be, Damian Holt, in a kiss he never meant her to see, returning the ring becomes the easiest choice and the cruelest cut. Now Nina is bound to a contract that forbids “emotional entanglement,” escorted by bodyguards, shadowed by tabloids, and tugged between two men who own the city’s boardrooms—and her past. Adrian wants a second chance. Damian wants her back. From rain-slick streets to glass-walled boardrooms, press conferences to midnight ER runs, Harbor City turns into a battleground. A viral scandal explodes, a clause is broken, and the real price of a cure is revealed. In a world where love is leverage and loyalty is currency, Nina must decide which man will stand with her when the cameras go dark—and which promise was a lie from the start.
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Chapter 1
“Nina, Mr. Pierce asked me to pass on a message. If you want access to Pierce Medical’s latest treatment for your mother, there’s only one condition, break up with your fiancé and go back to him.”
“Otherwise, Pierce Medical will turn down your application.”
“His patience is limited, you have one week to decide.”
The line went quiet.
Nina Bennett ended the call. She stared at the wedding countdown on her screen, her voice steady.
“Fine, I accept.”
Whoever was on the other end sounded surprised, then slipped back to business.
“Alright, in a week a car from Pierce Medical will pick you up.”
The moment the call disconnected, the private room exploded with rowdy cheers.
Nina pushed the door open and saw Damian Holt with his secretary. The woman had just pressed a kiss on him, smug and spoiled.
Behind them sat a cake for Nina Bennett and Damian Holt, a neat little display for their upcoming wedding.
The noise died at once. Every gaze shifted to Nina.
Vera Quinn scrambled off Damian.
When she looked at Nina, her doe eyes brimmed with tears.
“Nina, you two are getting married so soon, I didn’t want any regrets, I acted on impulse when I kissed him. I’m sorry.”
Vera had that fragile, delicate look, and the wavering voice that made people want to defend her.
Sure enough, Damian stepped in.
“Come on, it was a joke. Vera brought the cake to congratulate us. Everyone’s waiting for you to cut it.”
His light tone heated the room again. Laughter returned as if nothing had happened.
Nina lowered her gaze and walked over. She lifted the lid on the unopened cake.
When the whole cake showed, the room froze.
“Congrats on the wedding, Vera Quinn and Damian Holt,” the frosting read in big cheerful letters.
Vera gasped.
“Oh no, I forgot to tell the bakery your name. The clerk must have thought it was for me and Damian.”
“Nina, you’re not mad, right?”
Damian frowned at the cake. He put on a show of irritation and snapped at Vera.
“Still hopeless. Forget this month’s bonus.”
Then he turned to Nina, voice soft.
“It’s just a cake, don’t make a thing out of it.”
Nina’s laugh stayed in her chest, cold.
Since the day Vera became Damian’s secretary, these slipups kept happening.
Every time Nina asked him to fire Vera, he brushed it off.
She had swallowed it again and again.
Now she was tired. She was done.
“If it’s wrong, buy another.”
Thunder rolled outside, rain pounding so hard it felt like it shook the walls.
Damian’s face cooled.
He knew better than anyone that Vera wasn’t in the best health. For years she had called herself his secretary, yet the treatment she got outshone what his fiancée received.
“If you want, I’ll have the driver get a new one. Vera isn’t well.”
Nina met his eyes and let out a breath of a laugh.
“If she isn’t well, she shouldn’t be a secretary. Or is it that you can’t let her go?”
Damian said nothing. Vera’s soft sobs filled the silence.
She bit her lip and twisted the hem of her dress, tears streaking her small face.
“Nina, I’ll go. As long as I can stay near Damian, I’ll do anything.”
She spun and ran out of the room. In minutes, her tiny figure appeared downstairs in the rain.
One step, two, then she crumpled.
Chapter 2
Damian couldn’t sit there any longer. He grabbed his coat and looked at Nina, disappointed.
“Nina, it’s a cake. What are you even mad about?”
He walked out without a backward glance.
Nina didn’t stop him. She sat still and stared at the cake.
People traded looks. In the old days she would have cried, made a scene, and turned the place upside down.
So calm now. Maybe she was done with him.
“Think she’s really over Mr. Holt?”
“I heard Mr. Pierce is back from the States, maybe she plans to drop Mr. Holt and run to Mr. Pierce.”
“Come on, a man like Mr. Pierce probably forgot her a long time ago, he’s not looking her way. Besides, these years she’s been head over heels for Mr. Holt, she’ll never let go.”
“True. The Bennetts went bankrupt and her mom’s really sick, she needs to hold on to Mr. Holt. She’s just putting on airs in front of us.”
The whispers drifted off. The noisy private room shrank to silence, leaving Nina alone.
Downstairs, two figures held each other in the rain as if Nina was only making trouble.
But when she and Damian first got together, he couldn’t bear to let her settle for less.
Back in college, a roommate’s boyfriend gave the girl a gorgeous bracelet. Nina fell for it at first glance.
It was too expensive. She couldn’t afford it.
When Damian said he would buy it, she turned him down.
She knew his family had money, but it wasn’t his to spend on her. She wouldn’t take it.
She thought that was the end of it. Instead, Damian shelved his rich-kid pride and worked a month at a side job, just to buy that bracelet for her.
She could still recite what he said that day word for word.
“Our Nina doesn’t get shortchanged. Not on my watch.”
That story made the rounds at Southridge University, and everyone envied them.
Now the bending over backward was for Vera, again and again.
The wedding countdown Nina had cherished for years had turned into the deadline for her exit.
From this day on, she didn’t want to see Damian again.
She went home and started to pack. There wasn’t much. She left everything Damian had given her.
She only took what was truly hers.
When she finished, the rain had stopped.
She picked up her phone. The screen showed more than ninety-nine notifications.
It was the company’s internal work chat. Earlier, under the pretext of having the CEO’s fiancée oversee operations, Damian had added Nina to the group.
There was rarely any traffic, so she never paid attention. Over time she forgot it existed.
Tonight the chat was buzzing.
Vera had posted a photo.
Damian wore a sharp, almost severe suit, and sat in a bakery, patiently helping her decorate a cake.
[Vera] The boss made it up to me with a replacement cake, any guesses on how it tastes?
The replies came fast.
[Staff 1] Vera, you’re so lucky. On a normal day one look from the boss has me starstruck, and now you’ve got cake.
[Staff 2] It has to be sweet, just like you and the boss.
Most of them had no idea Nina was in the group.
They kept shipping the couple while Vera kept feeding them sugar, sharing little sweet moments from work.
Plenty of those were things Nina had never experienced with Damian.
None of it mattered now.
She scrolled through, expression flat. Right before she closed the app, a private message from Vera popped up.
[Vera] Nina, this cake is amazing. Too bad there’s only enough for me and Damian, otherwise I’d let you try a bite.
She attached a photo of Damian feeding her cake.
Nina knew Vera had done it on purpose. She knew Nina could see everything.
In the past, Nina would have called Damian and started a fight.
Now she simply typed.
[Nina] I can’t speak for the cake, but I do know how Damian tastes. Not great. He’s all yours.
She hit send, powered down the phone, and stretched out on the bed.
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