All Chapters of The Billionaire’s Last Clause : Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

Ava Carter The air outside the hospital pharmacy smelled like antiseptic and cold concrete. I stood under the flickering light, counting the same bills over and over as if counting them one more time would somehow make them multiply..$183.42.I already knew the number. I’d known it since I left my apartment. But some part of me kept hoping the math would change if I just tried hard enough. The medication cost over two thousand dollars.The pharmacist behind the counter looked at me with the kind of pity that made my chest ache more than anger ever could. He was a young man, maybe not much older than me, and I could tell he hated saying what he was about to say.“I’m sorry, Miss Carter.” He glanced down at the folder in his hands. “Without the payment, I can’t release it.”I forced my lips into a smile. It felt like lifting something heavy.“I understand. Thank you for checking.”He nodded slowly, guilt written all over his face, and I turned before he could see mine crack. Sometimes

Ava CarterThe alarm on Ethan’s monitor went off at 2:47 in the morning. I know the exact time because I was already awake, curled up in the plastic chair beside his bed, and I watched the numbers on the clock flip right before his whole body seized.“Ethan!”His eyes rolled back. His hand, the one I’d been holding, went rigid in mine, I screamed for the nurse before I even finished standing up.They flooded the room within seconds, a wall of scrubs and shouted numbers pushing me back against the wall. Someone pulled a curtain between us. I stood there useless, listening to words like “crashing” and “get the crash cart” and “push one of epi,” my whole body frozen except for the shaking in my hands.It felt like hours, It was probably minutes. When the surgeon finally came out, he peeled off his gloves slowly, the way people do when they’re choosing their words as carefully as their movements.“We stabilized him,” he said. “But Miss Carter, I need to be honest with you. Without the sur

Ava CarterBy the time I woke up the next morning, my name was everywhere.“Mystery Woman Marries Billionaire Damien Blackwood.” “Who Is Ava Carter?” “Blackwood Heir’s Shock Wedding Sparks Speculation.” My phone wouldn’t stop buzzing, numbers I didn’t recognize calling over and over, until I finally turned it off and shoved it under my pillow like that would make the world outside disappear too.It didn’t. When I looked out my apartment window, there were already two news vans parked across the street, cameras aimed up at my building like they expected me to perform for them.I hadn’t even signed anything with the media. I hadn’t asked for any of this. But apparently, when you marry a man like Damien Blackwood, the world decides you belong to it too.The wedding itself happened three days later, and it was nothing like the weddings I used to imagine as a little girl.There was no music. No flowers scattered down an aisle. Just a small private room inside the Blackwood family attorney’