Chapter 2 - THE PRICE OF A DEBT
“How much do we owe?”
Adrian DeLuca looked at Madeline for a long moment before answering.
“Six hundred and forty thousand dollars.”
Carol made a broken sound behind her.
Madeline thought she had misheard him.
She actually laughed once, because the number was too large to fit inside the room.
“Six hundred and forty thousand?”
“Principal, interest, and penalties.”
“My uncle owned an antique store.”
“Your uncle also made a series of terrible decisions.”
Madeline turned toward Carol.
Her aunt was crying now.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because your parents had just died,” Carol whispered. “Then Henry got sick. He kept saying he would fix it before you ever had to know.”
“He died four years ago.”
“I know.”
Madeline looked back at Adrian.
“When do you take the building?”
“Monday.”
It was Thursday.
She stared at him.
“You came here three business days before you’re throwing my aunt into the street?”
“I came because the debt crossed my desk yesterday.”
“And that makes it better?”
“No.”
His answer stopped her.
No excuse.
No cold lecture.
Just no.
Adrian walked toward the counter and placed a black folder on the glass.
“The loan was made through a company my family controlled. I inherited the portfolio after my father died. I wasn’t aware of this one until an internal review.”
Madeline opened the folder.
Her stomach dropped.
Her uncle’s signature appeared again and again.
Henry Pierce.
Collateral: commercial property.
Personal guarantee.
Renewal agreement.
There was no obvious forgery.
No easy escape.
Carol sank into a chair.
“We’ll sell everything,” Madeline said.
“You won’t get close.”
“I wasn’t asking you.”
Adrian’s mouth almost moved.
Almost.
Then his phone vibrated.
He glanced at the screen and silenced it.
Madeline caught one word before it disappeared.
CARLO.
“Give us six months.”
“I can’t.”
“Three.”
“No.”
“One.”
“No.”
She closed the folder sharply.
“Then why are you still standing here?”
For the first time, Adrian seemed uncertain.
It lasted perhaps two seconds.
Then he said, “Because there may be another solution.”
Madeline hated the words immediately.
“What solution?”
Adrian’s gaze moved toward Carol.
“I would prefer to discuss it privately.”
“Anything you say to me, you can say in front of her.”
His jaw tightened.
“All right.”
He removed another document from his coat.
“This debt disappears if you agree to marry me.”
The clock behind the counter clicked once.
Carol stopped crying.
Madeline stared at him.
Then she laughed.
This time there was no shock in it.
Only disbelief.
“You’re insane.”
“Possibly.”
“You walk into my store, tell me we’re losing everything, and then propose marriage?”
“I did not propose.”
“That is somehow worse.”
“It is an arrangement.”
“Of course it is.”
She pushed the paper back toward him.
“No.”
Adrian did not touch it.
“My grandfather created a trust controlling a significant portion of DeLuca Strategic Security and several legitimate holdings. The terms require me to be legally married before my thirty-sixth birthday if I intend to retain sole voting control.”
“When is your birthday?”
“Eight months from now.”
“And you couldn’t find a woman willing to marry a rich, terrifying criminal?”
Carol whispered, “Madeline.”
“What? I’m curious.”
Something almost amused flickered in Adrian’s eyes.
“I could find many.”
“Then pick one.”
“My family has already picked one.”
There was something different in his voice now.
Something colder than anger.
“They want me to marry Senator Whitmore’s daughter. It would connect political influence to my uncle Carlo’s business interests. I have no intention of allowing that.”
“So you decided to buy me instead?”
“No.”
“That is exactly what this is.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“I decided to offer you something you need in exchange for something I need.”
“You hold the debt.”
“Yes.”
“You control whether my aunt loses her home and livelihood.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re using that leverage to get a wife.”
His expression changed slightly.
When he answered, his voice was quieter.
“Yes.”
At least he didn’t insult her by pretending otherwise.
Madeline folded her arms.
“How long?”
“One year.”
“Separate bedrooms?”
“If you want them.”
“No expectation of sex?”
“None.”
“No children?”
The question did something strange to him.
His face seemed to close completely.
“No children.”
There was finality in the words.
She noticed it.
“What happens after a year?”
“We divorce. The property remains yours. The debt is permanently discharged. Your aunt receives one hundred thousand dollars in an independent retirement account.”
Carol gasped.
Madeline’s anger intensified.
“You planned this before you walked in.”
“I considered it on the drive here.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“So I’m told.”
She paced toward the back room.
Every instinct screamed at her to throw him out.
But then she looked at Carol.
At the faded wallpaper.
At the store her aunt and uncle had built over thirty years.
At the staircase leading to the little apartment where Carol slept.
Adrian had placed a cage in front of her.
A velvet cage was still a cage.
“When do you need an answer?”
“Tomorrow.”
Madeline turned.
“You said Monday.”
“The foreclosure proceeds Monday. If I am going to stop it, the legal team needs time.”
Carol stood.
“No.”
Madeline looked at her.
“Maddie, no. I will not let you do this.”
“This is your home.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
“I will not let you marry a man you don’t love because Henry made a mistake.”
Adrian looked away.
Madeline noticed.
That bothered her more than if he had smiled.
She walked to him.
“If I say yes, I have conditions.”
“You haven’t said yes.”
“I’m thinking.”
“Then think carefully.”
“My aunt keeps the store.”
“Yes.”
“You never interfere with how we run it.”
“Agreed.”
“No one in your family threatens her, visits her, follows her, pressures her, or so much as breathes strangely in her direction.”
Adrian’s eyes hardened.
“That can be arranged.”
“I keep my own money.”
“Yes.”
“I work if I want to.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t tell me what to wear.”
A pause.
Then, “Within reason.”
She pointed at the door.
“You can leave.”
“All right. No restrictions on clothing.”
“Better.”
Madeline inhaled.
“And if I ever become afraid of you, truly afraid, the marriage ends immediately and the debt stays gone.”
Adrian stared at her.
That condition mattered.
Perhaps more than all the others.
“Agreed.”
“No retaliation.”
“Agreed.”
“Put it in writing.”
“I will.”
Carol started crying harder.
Madeline crossed the room and embraced her.
“I haven’t decided.”
But she knew she had.
Because love sometimes looked like sacrifice.
And sometimes sacrifice looked dangerously close to surrender.
The next afternoon, Adrian returned with his attorney.
Madeline read every page twice.
She added handwritten amendments.
Adrian accepted every one.
At 4:37 p.m., Madeline Pierce signed her name beneath his.
Adrian took the pen next.
Before signing, he looked at her.
“I want one thing understood.”
“What?”
“You are not entering my family as collateral.”
She gave him a bitter smile.
“That’s exactly what I’m doing.”
“No.”
His gaze became unnervingly steady.
“You may be marrying me because of a debt, Madeline. But from the moment the license is signed, anyone who humiliates you, harms you, or treats you as property answers to me.”
Madeline’s chest tightened despite herself.
“That includes you.”
Adrian was silent.
Then he nodded.
“Especially me.”
Three weeks later, Madeline Pierce stood in a private chapel wearing a simple ivory dress while a priest asked whether she took Adrian DeLuca as her husband.
Behind him sat the most powerful people in the DeLuca family.
One of them, a silver-haired man named Carlo DeLuca, watched Madeline with an expression that made her skin crawl.
When Adrian said, “I do,” Carlo’s smile disappeared.
And Madeline understood something she should have understood sooner.
Adrian had not merely chosen a wife.
May you like
He had chosen a side.
And by marrying him, so had she.
