Chapter 6 - Stripped ContractsBy midnight, the storm had passed. The media had scrambled to cover the downfall of Vance Holdings, and Roman Blackwell’s empire stood stronger, cleaner, and more untouchable than ever before.
Back at the Blackwell estate, the heavy iron gates closed behind the Maybach.
Inside the grand foyer, the silence felt different tonight. It wasn't the cold, suffocating absence of warmth that had marked their wedding night. It was heavy with unspoken truth.
Roman removed his suit jacket, tossing it onto the velvet settee. He turned to Elena, who stood near the grand staircase, unfastening the diamond necklace at her throat.
"You risked everything tonight by standing beside me in that ballroom," Roman said, his voice unusually low, stripped of all armor.
"I stood beside my husband," Elena replied simply, letting the necklace drop into its velvet case.
Roman walked toward her, slowly, stopping just a breath away. His blue eyes searched her face, looking for any trace of the resentment he believed he deserved. "Your father's debts are fully cleared. The contracts he signed... I had our legal team void the collateral clauses. You are entirely free, Elena. If you want a divorce, if you want out of this marriage now that the danger has passed... the papers are already drawn up. You can walk away with everything you ever wanted."
Elena froze. She looked down at the divorce papers he pulled from his inner jacket pocket—already signed in his sharp, decisive handwriting.
She looked back up at him, her heart hammering against her ribs. "Is that what you want? For me to leave?"
"It's what you deserve," Roman whispered, his voice cracking with a vulnerability he had never shown another human being. "I told you on our wedding day... I bought the marriage, not your heart. I didn't think love was something I was allowed to have, let alone something you could ever feel for a monster like me."
Elena stepped closer, closing the final inch between them. She reached out, taking the divorce papers from his hand, and calmly ripped them in half before letting them flutter to the marble floor.
"You fool," she whispered, a fierce, tender smile touching her lips. "You still don't get it, do you?"
May you like
Roman stared down at her, breathless. "Get what?"
"You didn't buy my heart, Roman," she said, her hands sliding up to rest flat against his chest, right over his racing heart. "I gave it to you. Long before you ever figured out how to ask."
