Chapter 7 - THE SCANDAL THAT ALMOST BROKE US
The headline was brutal.
BILLIONAIRE'S CONTRACT MARRIAGE EXPOSED: DID ETHAN WHITMORE BUY A WIFE TO CONTROL FAMILY EMPIRE?
My photograph appeared beside Ethan's.
Below it were excerpts from our private agreement.
By noon, reporters surrounded Wild June.
Customers canceled orders.
An event planner terminated a contract.
Someone posted my apartment address online.
Mia locked the shop door.
“Claire, go upstairs.”
I stared at the screen.
“They're calling me a gold digger.”
Mia took my phone.
“Stop reading.”
Then another article appeared.
It claimed I'd targeted Ethan since high school.
Someone had leaked excerpts from my old journal.
My stomach dropped.
Victoria.
Or someone who had access to her belongings.
I called Ethan.
He answered immediately.
“Claire.”
“Did you see?”
“Yes.”
“Someone has my journal.”
His voice hardened.
“I know.”
He arrived twenty minutes later.
His security team helped keep reporters away.
But the damage was already spreading.
That evening, Ethan found me sitting on the floor of my apartment above Wild June.
I was holding an old photograph of my mother.
He sat beside me.
“Claire.”
I shook my head.
“I can't do this.”
His face changed.
I looked at him.
“I can survive people thinking I'm poor. I can survive them thinking I'm foolish. But I can't survive being turned into a joke because I loved you.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“I'm sorry.”
I began crying.
“I never wanted your money.”
“I know.”
“I never wanted your company.”
“I know.”
I looked at him.
“Then why does everyone think I married you for those things?”
He took my hands.
“Because I gave them a contract that made it easy to believe.”
Silence.
Then he whispered:
“I was so afraid of love that I turned marriage into a transaction.”
I stared.
He looked devastated.
“And you deserved better.”
For a moment, I wanted to tell him everything.
That I'd loved him since sixteen.
That every dinner had felt like a miracle.
That I'd been waiting for him to choose me without needing anything in return.
But I couldn't.
Not while the entire city was laughing at me.
I stood.
“Ethan, I need time.”
His expression crumpled.
“Are you leaving?”
I swallowed.
“I'm asking you to let me breathe.”
He nodded slowly.
Then stood.
At the door, he turned.
“Claire.”
I looked up.
“I don't know how to fix this yet.”
His voice broke.
“But I will never let you face it alone.”
May you like
After he left, I sat beside the window.
And wondered whether love could survive being exposed to people who only understood power.
