Page 12 of The Final Contract
Because if I let them end it here, I’ll never get the words out.
I clear my throat, shifting in my chair. “Actually … there’s something else.”
Three pairs of eyes land on me.
I force myself to sit taller. “I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. The Ledger has been my home for years. My family. But …” I pause, swallowing the lump in my throat. “I think it’s time to move on.”
Lucian doesn’t flinch, though I catch the faint crease of thought at the corner of his brow. He has always respected when Companions are ready to transition—whether it’s to their own businesses, quiet retirements, or entirely new lives. His rule is unshakable: once Ledger, always Ledger.
“I thought this would be coming soon.” His voice is calm, steady. “What do you have in mind?”
“This,” I say softly, “is where you may be able to help me. With one last thing. My final contract.”
Silence presses in. Sienna straightens slightly in her chair. Killian looks at me like he’s trying to predict what I’ll say next.
Lucian’s hard gaze doesn’t waver. He studies me, the wheels turning behind his eyes.
“A marriage,” I say.
Sienna blinks, then narrows her eyes like she’s already racing through a million logistical thoughts. Killian’s brows draw low, thunderclouds already forming.
But Lucian—Lucian just watches me. I can almost feel him weighing the words, turning the shape of them over in his mind.
The Ledger has always provided Companions to the world’s elite—temporary arrangements, carefully brokered deals where intimacy and power are transacted in equal measure.
But what I’m proposing is something entirely different. Not a contract measured in weeks or months. Not companionship for a season.
A partnership. A marriage.
My final contract.
Killian’s voice cuts first, rough as gravel. “Do you really think that’s safe with everything going on? A stalker still on the prowl?”
I meet his storm-colored eyes. “Companions take a risk with every contract. I know that better than most.”
The air shifts, the weight of memory pressing between us.
After my abduction, Lucian tore down his old policies and rebuilt the systems, the security, the tech. Jaxon had come in like some boy-genius billionaire from another world, inventing trackers for every Companion—devices that could measure heart rate, speed, even altitude.
Tiny. Unassuming. But powerful enough to ensure no Companion could ever vanish again.
I rub my thumb over the polished nail hiding my own tracker, mindlessly tracing the glossy curve. I’ve worn one since the night I came back. Quiet protection. A secret anchor if my phantom ever did decide to reach for me again.
But this isn’t about him.
“This is my life,” I say, steady now. “And I want more out of it. A family. Children.”
“This,” Sienna starts, nodding slowly, “is going to be epic. Hell yes. Let’s do it.”
A laugh slips out of me, but it rings a little empty. Especially with Killian sitting close, fury radiating from his silence. I hadn’t mentioned this to him. Hadn’t wanted to look him in the eye when I said it. I’m not even sure why.
Lucian’s gaze pins me. “How do you envision this working?”
I lift my chin. “Put out a query. Build a catalog of suitors. There have to be billionaires out there looking to buy a bride—someone to give them an heir. A strong prenup, of course.”
Lucian studies me for a long beat. “This wouldn’t be a love match.”
My mind flickers to Stasia and Daniel—their love is real, rare, once in a lifetime. But that kind of bond doesn’t grow on trees. I’ve seen the other side of it too many times. I’ve been the secret escape for married men who slip away from their wives, who hand me diamonds or first-class tickets in exchange for pretending they’re still capable of feeling something true. I know how men work. I know what love looks like when it rots.
