One

May’s POV

Today was our two-year anniversary. He said he had something for me, and my own surprise for him was a full table of his favorites.

The timer chimed, signaling that the pecan pie I had been baking was ready. I grabbed the mitts behind me and carefully pulled it out, setting it on the counter to cool, the sweet aroma filling the kitchen. Even though Asher might take a while to return from the office, I couldn’t help but hurry because I was eager to be washed and dressed before his arrival. 

I didn’t think getting him a gift would be okay because, to be honest, I had no idea what to get for someone who owns everything. I just knew cooking a romantic dinner, with flower petals scattered and candlelight lit around us, seemed like the best way to make today memorable.

Our marriage wasn’t the natural bond between two people in love. He needed a wife back then, and my father needed money. Well, my step-father. This was the base of my marriage, a trade. I didn’t want it, I didn’t have another choice, and I didn’t know I would fall in love with him.

The truth was, to me, they were just details, and they would be to anyone else if their husband was Asher Campbell, the CEO of one of the most powerful companies in the country. What I found attractive was his hot looks though, and how intense those grey eyes were. He was gorgeous, and he would make even those male models look mundane beside him.

Maybe that was why I kept forgetting the base of our marriage.

As I looked around the kitchen to make sure everything was in order, I grabbed my phone and went upstairs to my room. Quickly, I showered and dressed up in a white lace dress that stopped just above my knee, and then I went back downstairs to see if Asher was back.

He was standing in front of the jacket hanger in the hall when I stepped off the last stair, and I smiled, glad he was back. “Hi, welcome back home. I made dinner,” I said sweetly.

“Okay.” That was all he said, his voice clipped, and I wondered what was wrong. Maybe there was a business deal that didn’t go according to plan or something. As if he had read my thoughts, he sighed and said, “I’ll just go upstairs and change, then I’ll be right down with you.”

Nodding, I walked to the kitchen to take the food to the dining room, and then I lit the candles and scattered the flowers. It was the only thing I had thought to do for our anniversary that would create a memory.

Asher came back downstairs five minutes later in a white t-shirt and black pants, looking around at the flowers and candles, but he said nothing. “Happy anniversary…” I started to say the same time he said, “I have something for you.”

I smiled as I heard that. “Oh, you shouldn’t have,” I said as he poured himself some wine with a laid-back, cool exterior before he handed me an envelope.

“What gift comes in an envelope?” I asked, but he just sat there, sipping the wine and staring at me, making me all nervous.

With a frown, I opened the envelope and pulled out its content.

Jerking my head up, I looked at Asher with a frown on my face to see him seated there like nothing was happening. “Are these divorce papers?” I asked him even though that was what it clearly said.

He calmly refilled his wine glass for the second time as I looked at him in disbelief when I was anything but calm. How could he be anyway, when he had just handed me the divorce papers on our second-year anniversary?

“Is this a joke, Asher?” I asked, because that could probably be the reason for giving me a divorce paper to sign out of nowhere. I knew our marriage wasn’t a pairing of love or whatnot, and I did know that this was a marriage based on a trade, but he is such a good actor I thought he had fallen for me like I did for him.

Maybe I had just forgotten myself and it made me believe it was real.

“Does it look like a joke to you?” Asher finally spoke, his expression very unreadable as he raised his wine glass to his mouth and took a sip.

I knew I had to say something now, before I weakened or succumbed. “No, Asher,” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

He stared at me like I didn’t just refuse to sign the divorce papers, all expression on his face frozen. At last, he inhaled. “Is that supposed to tell me something, May?” His voice was clipped now, cold as well, as if he could cut through me with it.

“I just said no to signing the papers.” I repeated when I realized he thought I said no to his earlier question about me thinking it was a joke.

Puzzlement and watchfulness hovered in his eyes as he looked at me, then he sighed and lifted his shoulder in a shrug as if he had just come to some conclusion.

My gaze wavered at those dark intense eyes staring at me, my lungs closing as well. I hadn’t thought for a second that his response to me saying I wouldn’t sign that would be a sigh and a shrug. His unexpected reaction cornered me and it made me feel uneasy, so I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. “I think you should say something. Acting like you don’t care isn’t helping.”

Harshness crept into his eyes, into his voice for a second, then he said, “Just sign the papers, and let’s get this over with.”

I had been cleaning all day, then I had cooked him a big dinner tonight after all that dusting and cleaning, but this is what I get? I stared down at the papers in my hand and I shook my head. “But why?” I asked before I could stop myself.

He looked at me as if I had said something I shouldn’t have said. “Are you serious? Do you think our marriage is a real one? You haven’t gone ahead and fooled yourself into thinking it is, right? Because you and I know it’s not. It’s just a marriage on paper, a contract marriage I paid your stepfather a million dollars for.”

At the mention of the price it was to have me, my mouth dropped open, staring at him, but it really shouldn’t come as a surprise. I thought the deal was him helping my step-father with the crisis in the company, I didn’t know it was this direct…

A million dollars, for a wife on paper.

I was just a tool that none of them cared about, a fool that only fooled myself.

I always knew there was disdain in his eyes when he looked at me, especially the early days of our marriage. But now I know who those eyes are for: a gold digger. That’s how my beloved husband saw me.

It would be easier to just take a pen and sign the damn papers in my hands than to look at him in the eyes right now. His voice wasn’t harsh though, like I expected it to be, seeing as he wanted something I was clearly not sure why he wanted.

Pushing back his chair, Asher stood up and walked around the table between us to me. As he walked to me though, all I could think of was how a man can be this hot. He was about six feet and three inches tall, with lean muscles that always filled out his shirt as it stretched across his shoulders. He had intense grey eyes, eyes that could make you get lost in them if care was taken.

I swallowed the lump in my throat when he reached the space between the desk and where I was sitting, and then he sat on the edge. “Look, I know our contract is for three years, May, and we still have a full year to go, but I will compensate you if you just sign the papers and make this as easy as possible.” He said.

“Compensation?” What the hell was he talking about?

I saw Asher’s jaw tighten as I repeated his word and he nodded. “Yes. I’ll give another million dollars if you sign those papers right now, and I’ll make sure the money is paid into your account and not your stepfather’s.”

Was that all he could think about? Using money to get anything he wanted? When he needed me to get married to him, he had thrown money around and now he was doing the same thing, offering me money. I didn’t want his money, and I didn’t want a divorce either, but I couldn’t admit that out loud.

That would mean admitting that I had forgotten this wasn’t a real marriage and that I wanted to stay married to him. I did want to stay married to him though, funny how the heart worked. When I had been told I was marrying Asher, I hadn’t even wanted the marriage.

Shaking my head at his proposal, I said the first thing that came to my mind. “I will sign the papers, but I don’t want your money.” 

He stared at me in shock, as if seeing me for the first time.