Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE: THE SECRET

There were twenty-six girls in Room 3A—but only one wore his ring.

Kairose Martins sat in the back, legs crossed, lollipop twirling in her mouth like she was bored with the universe. Her uniform skirt was shorter than regulation, her blazer off, her white shirt rolled at the sleeves and unbuttoned just enough to say I dare you. She didn’t speak much in class. Didn’t have to. Every time Professor Katio Storm wrote on the board, she watched him. Every time he turned around, his eyes flickered toward her.

Not a single soul knew. Not her friends. Not the other girls sighing his name like a prayer. Not the Vice Principal who called him young but brilliant. And certainly not the girl who tried slipping her number into his coat pocket last week.

They didn’t know he was hers.

They didn’t know what he did to her on the night of her 18th birthday, with rain slashing at the windows and her mother screaming through the door as Katio locked it and whispered, "You're mine now."

It wasn’t love. Not yet.

It was control. A deal. A secret sealed with trembling hands and trembling thighs.

He was her punishment.

She was his sin.

"Martins," Katio’s voice cut through her thoughts like a scalpel, sharp and deep. The girls beside her snapped their heads up, jealous of the attention.

"Yes, sir?" she purred.

A muscle ticked in his jaw.

"Come solve this."

She stood slowly, letting the candy drop from her lips with a soft pop. Girls giggled. Boys stared. And Katio—he burned. She could feel it. See it. Smell it. He hated when she teased him in public. But how else could she remind him that under his tailored suit and perfect tie, he was just a man who’d married a brat in secret?

As she passed him on the way to the board, her fingers grazed his. Barely. A flicker. A spark. A promise.

He flinched.

Good.

She liked when he lost control.

FLASHBACK: THE CONTRACT

Kairose had never seen her mother cry like that—on her knees, pleading in front of a man in a charcoal suit and eyes that didn’t blink.

“I’ll do anything,” her mother choked. “Just please… don’t take the house. Don’t shame us. My daughter—she just turned 18. She’s clean. She’s yours.”

Kairose didn’t speak. She couldn’t. Her heart had already fallen out of her chest the moment Katio Storm stepped through the door.

He was her literature professor. He was respected, distant, almost cold. He wasn’t supposed to know where she lived.

He wasn’t supposed to be standing in her living room, arms folded, as her mother offered her up like a gift wrapped in ruin.

“This is illegal,” Kairose had whispered, but her voice didn’t sound like hers. “You can’t—”

“I can,” Katio said, cutting her off, voice smooth as venom. “Because your mother forged loans in your name. Because you turned eighteen two hours ago. Because I’m willing to clear it all—if you become mine.”

It wasn’t about love. Or lust.

It was about leverage.

“Say yes, Rosie,” her mother begged. “Please. Just for a year. Just until we fix everything.”

A year?

A year of being his wife in secret? A year of being touched by a man who once ignored her in class but now stared like she was already naked?

Kairose stared at him.

He didn’t look pleased.

He looked hungry.

And then she saw it—the wedding band in the box he’d already prepared. Like he knew she'd say yes. Like he never doubted he’d win.

“You want me to marry my teacher,” she said flatly.

“No,” Katio said, stepping closer. “I want to own the brat who thinks she’s smarter than me. I want to teach her lessons that won’t be written on a board.”

Her breath caught. Her cheeks flushed.

God help her, part of her wanted to know what those lessons were.

The paper was signed before midnight.

The ring slid onto her finger while her hands shook.

And by morning, she was Mrs. Kairose Storm—the property of the one man every girl at school fantasized about.

They just didn’t know he already had her.

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