Chapter 1

I needed twenty thousand dollars within thirty days.

If I failed to pay the bank, I would lose the bakery my mother had left me.

Adrian Vale needed a wife before Friday.

His grandmother believed we could solve each other’s problems.

I thought the idea was insane.

Then I looked down at the foreclosure notice in my hand.

AMOUNT DUE: $20,000

DEADLINE: 30 DAYS

“Nora?”

My sister’s voice came from my phone. Lily was sitting in a rehabilitation center bed, two weeks after surgery. She still couldn’t walk without help.

I pushed the notice beneath the counter before she could see it on the video call.

“Is something wrong with the bakery?”

“No. Everything’s fine.”

I had used the bakery’s loan payment to cover her surgery. If Lily learned the truth, she would leave rehabilitation early and try to return the money.

I wouldn’t allow that.

Our mother had left me this bakery. I intended to keep it.

The bell above the door rang.

Evelyn Vale walked in wearing a cream-colored coat and carrying her silver-topped cane. Three months earlier, I had found her unconscious outside the bakery and called an ambulance. Since then, she had visited every Saturday for coffee and a cinnamon roll.

Today was Wednesday.

“You just lied to your sister,” Evelyn said.

Before I could stop her, she picked up the notice.

“I don’t need charity.”

“I’m not offering charity.” She placed the paper between us. “My grandson needs a wife.”

I waited for her to smile.

She didn’t.

“He must establish a legal household before an independent trustee certifies Friday’s succession vote,” she said. “The requirement came from my late husband’s plan, and the family’s lawyers have already reviewed it. The marriage must last six months.” She tapped the notice. “Adrian will pay you twenty thousand dollars.”

Heat rushed into my face. “You want me to sell myself to your grandson?”

“I want you to consider an agreement that protects both of you. Separate bedrooms. Separate property. The right to leave whenever you choose.”

“No. I don’t know him.”

“That’s why I arranged a meeting, not a wedding.”

I looked around the bakery. My mother had painted the yellow walls herself. In thirty days, the bank could take all of it.

“Where is he?”

Evelyn smiled. “Across the street.”

Adrian Vale stood when I approached his table in the coffee shop. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and dressed in a dark coat that cost more than anything I owned. His expression suggested he hated the arrangement as much as I did.

That helped.

“Why do you need a wife?” I asked after refusing the chair he offered.

“To keep a relative from taking control of something my family built.”

“What does your family own?”

“A hospitality business.”

The answer came easily and revealed almost nothing.

“Why not marry someone you know?”

“I wouldn’t ask someone I know to enter a marriage she might mistake for love.”

The coldness should have offended me. Instead, I appreciated the honesty.

“And you think I won’t?”

“I think you need the money more than you need romance.”

My fingers tightened around the notice.

“That doesn’t give you the right to humiliate me.”

“You’re right.” His apology was immediate. “The payment is for six months of your time and the inconvenience of sharing my home. It is not a price placed on you.”

Evelyn set two contracts on the table.

The terms were plain: six months, separate property, twenty thousand dollars, no required physical relationship, and either person free to leave.

I reached the final clause.

Neither party may deliberately conceal information that could materially affect the other party’s decision to remain married.

I read it twice.

Then I looked up.

Adrian’s expression had changed.

Only slightly, but I saw it.

“Is there something about you I should know before I sign?” I asked.