CHAPTER 1: THE PROPOSITION

Sienna's POV

"What if I told you that on the night your parents were murdered, I was there," he said, his voice steady and measured like he was discussing the weather. "Would you be my wife for one year and burn Dominic's world to the ground with everyone related to him?”

The words didn't make sense. They floated in the air between us like something foreign, something that didn't belong in this office or in my life or anywhere near reality.

I couldn't process what he was saying. Couldn't understand why he was saying it. Couldn't imagine why any of this was happening.

Sebastian Ashford sat behind his desk like he owned the world, and maybe he did. The kind of man who didn't need to speak loud because people listened when he breathed. The kind of man who made decisions that affected thousands of people without blinking.

I had no idea why his assistant had called me this morning. No idea why I was dragged here at seven in the morning like I was important enough to demand. No idea what any of this meant or why a man like Sebastian Ashford would want to see someone like me.

I was nobody. I was a girl without a family. A girl without connections. A girl who had just been fired from her job and humiliated in front of New York's elite two days ago.

"What is the meaning of this?" I asked, my voice shaking. "I needed to understand what your assistant was telling me on the phone and this is what I was dragged here to see. I don't even know you. You don't know me. What kind of game is this?"

He raised his hands slowly, silencing me before I could continue spiraling. His movements were deliberate. Controlled. Everything about him screamed power and calculation. Then he pushed a tablet across the desk toward me, the device sliding smoothly across the mahogany surface.

"Watch that," he commanded, and it wasn't a request.

I stared at him for a long moment, trying to figure out if I should trust him or run. But something in his expression told me that running wouldn't help. That he already knew everything about me. That I was here for a reason whether I understood it or not.

I picked up the tablet with trembling hands.

The screen lit up and my stomach dropped. It was a video. And it was me. From two days ago. At Dominic's wedding reception. I was wearing the dress I had borrowed from a friend, the one I had thought made me look beautiful. The one I had hoped would finally make Dominic see me as more than just his secret.

In the video, I was being pushed. Hard. By people I didn't even recognize. People who were laughing like it was the funniest thing they had ever seen. I was screaming, trying to hold onto something, anything, but there was nothing to grab. Nothing to stop my fall.

Then I was in the water. Cold water filling my lungs. My elbow hitting the concrete edge of the pool with a crack that made me wince even now, even watching it happen on screen. The pain had been sharp and immediate. The humiliation had been worse.

Dominic was standing at the edge of the pool in his wedding suit, looking at me like I was a piece of garbage he had accidentally dropped in his pool. Like I was an inconvenience. Like I meant absolutely nothing to him.

"YOU WERE JUST MY TOOL," he had said as he pulled me out, water streaming down both of us. His hands had been rough. His eyes had been cold. "I USED YOU TO FIND MY REAL LOVE."

Then he had thrown money at me. Actual cash scattered across my soaking wet body like I was a street beggar. Like I was something less than human. His friends had laughed. His new wife had laughed. The entire room had laughed at me.

I paused the video and looked up at Sebastian. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold the tablet.

"Why are you showing me these and how did you get these?" I asked.

He was pouring wine from a crystal decanter, not even bothering to look at me while he did it. Like this was just another day for him. Like he wasn't just playing a video of my worst moment in front of a stranger.

"I have seen you in meetings," he said, his voice steady and measured. "In dinner events. In galas. Serving dutifully by Dominic's side. Watching you move around his world like you belonged there. Like you were invisible to everyone except him."

He paused, taking a sip of his wine.

"Seeing this video told me something. Made me think of something." He turned to face me properly now, and his eyes were sharp. Intelligent. Like he could see straight through to the broken pieces inside me. "She reminded me of a close friend of mine."

I didn't respond. I couldn't. My mind was still back at that pool. Still feeling the water fill my lungs. Still hearing the laughter. Still feeling the shame that had wrapped around me like a second skin.

"I don't need your pity," I said, my voice coming out harder than I felt. "And I definitely don't need this. Whatever this is, I'm not interested."

He chuckled. Actually laughed. Like I had said something amusing.

He walked back to his desk and sat down in his chair like he was settling in for a long conversation. Like he had all the time in the world and I was worth it.

"I know you are angry," he said. "I can help you. I want to destroy Dominic. So also you want to."

He said it like it was a fact. Like he knew my thoughts better than I did. Like he could see the rage that had been building inside me for two days. The rage I had been trying to keep buried because I didn't know what to do with it.

He sipped his wine, his eyes never leaving my face. Studying me. Reading me. Understanding me in a way that made me deeply uncomfortable.

"I don't need your help," I replied, folding my hands into fists to stop them from shaking. "Or whatever proposition you have on ground. I can handle Dominic myself."

But I didn't believe that. Not really. What was I going to do? I was fired. I was broke. I was a laughingstock. I had no power. No resources. No way to hurt someone like Dominic Castellano.

"See this as us helping each other," Sebastian said. "Nothing more. A transaction. You give me something. I give you something. We both get what we want. After one year, we go our separate ways and pretend this never happened."

He made it sound so simple. So logical. So reasonable.

But nothing about Sebastian Ashford was simple or logical or reasonable. He was a billionaire. He was powerful. He was dangerous. And he was offering me something that seemed too good to be true because it probably was.

"Well, I don't need your help or whatever proposition you have on ground," I said again, trying to sound more confident this time.

I stood up. I picked up the tablet and slapped it on his desk, trying to make some kind of grand gesture. Trying to show him that I wasn't the kind of woman who could be bought or manipulated or controlled.

I turned to leave, my heart pounding in my chest.

But he stopped me with a single sentence.

"Have you wondered why he never wanted to make the relationship public?" he asked. "Why he insisted on you being the secret girlfriend?"

I stopped dead. My entire body went cold.

The question hit me harder than any physical blow could have. Because I had wondered. I had spent three years wondering. Three years asking Dominic why we couldn't go public. Why we had to sneak around? Why he didn't want anyone to know about me.

And he had never given me a real answer. He had just said that it was better this way. That it was safer. That people didn't need to know about us.

I turned back around slowly, very slowly, like I was moving through water.

"How do you know about that?" I asked