"I don't belong here," I said, forcing the words past the lump in my throat. My hands shook, but I clenched them into fists in my lap to keep them steady. "You can't just keep me like this. You want your money? Fine. I'll pay you back. Just let me go and I'll work. I'll work every day until it's gone."
Alexander leaned against the desk at the far end of the room, his arms crossed over his chest. The light from the window cut sharp across his features, outlining the hard set of his jaw, the impossible blue of his eyes. He looked at me the way a predator looked at prey, patient, amused and certain the outcome was already his.
"You'll work?" His tone was cool, almost mocking. "Do you even know how much it is, Isabella?"
I swallowed hard, but lifted my chin. "I don't care. I'll find a way."
He gave a small, humorless laugh. "Two hundred and forty million dollars."
The words hit like a hammer. My stomach dropped, my lips parted, but nothing came out. Two hundred and forty million. I couldn't even wrap my mind around a number that big.
Alexander's gaze didn't waver. "If you spent every day of your life working, every cent you made handed directly to me, you still wouldn't scratch the surface. Not in ten lifetimes."
The air seemed to vanish from the room. I pressed my hands to my knees, digging in my nails just to feel something real. "There has to be another way."
"Oh There is." His voice softened, but it wasn't kind. It was colder, sharper. "Marry me."
I snapped my head up, my eyes locking on his. "What the fuck?"
He unfolded his arms and stepped closer, his movements precise, deliberate. " Firat off? Don't swear I don't want my woman cursing out".
I stared at him dumbfounded and too speechless at his audacity to speak, like who gave him the audacity to tell me what to do and not do, who gives a fuck if he doesn't want his woman swearin." Finally having found my ability to speak back...
"It's a good thing I'm not your woman then, you don't get to tell me wh….." he cut me short.
"Two years. That's all. You marry me, you wear my ring, you play the perfect wife and the debt disappears. No banks breathing down your neck. No collectors. No prison cell. Two years, and you walk away freely, no strings attached."
My pulse roared in my ears. "And if I say no?"
His lips curved into the faintest ghost of a smile. "Then you stay in jail for as long as it takes. A lifetime, if necessary. And you know what they say about prison, Isabella. It's no place for someone like you."
The walls felt too close, the air too heavy. I pushed up from the bed, pacing a few steps before spinning back toward him. "You can't just…this isn't even legal. It can't be legal. You can't…."
"Everything I do is legal," he cut me off smoothly. "I make sure of it. Your parents signed you off as collateral should they fail to pay back what they owe and they did fail to do that, so this is me taking back what I'm owed."
I stared at him, my chest heaving. Rage and terror tangled inside me until I couldn't tell them apart. "You're insane, that's not true, my father would never do that to me" I whispered.
"Maybe." He shrugged, his gaze never leaving mine. "But you'll still have to decide which prison you'd rather live in. The one with bars, or the one with me."
My throat ached. My hands trembled. I hated him. I hated the way he looked at me like he already knew my answer.
"I need time," I whispered, my voice breaking. "I need to think it through"
Something flickered across his face, but it was gone before I could name it. He gave a short nod. "Fine. Think over it. But don't take too long. You have a week. You're on my clock now."
I stood frozen, heart pounding, as he turned toward the door.
"Take her home," he ordered, and within seconds, a driver appeared at the threshold.
I followed, numb, my legs barely carrying me. The thought of leaving him, even just for a moment, felt like breaking through the surface after drowning. But the chains of his words clung to me still, heavy and suffocating.
Two years.
Two years with Alexander Cross a man I didn't know.
Or a lifetime behind bars.