Chapter 3 - The Wedding Announcement That Turned Me Into a Target Before I Even Wore the Ring
The engagement announcement went public at nine.
By noon, my landlord had received three offers to purchase our building. My manager had been asked to dismiss me. A woman I had never met called my mother a criminal on live television.
Lorenzo's attorney, Naomi Chen, handed me a contract in a glass conference room.
"This is a legal marriage," she said. "Not ownership. Your money stays yours. You can leave whenever you want."
I read every page. I made her change the section that permitted Lorenzo's security team to track my phone.
"You don't trust him," Naomi observed.
"I'm learning not to confuse protection with control."
She smiled faintly. "Good."
At the courthouse, reporters shouted about my old debts. Someone had leaked the overdue bills from Maya's treatment.
Lorenzo offered his arm. I ignored it until the crowd surged and a camera struck my shoulder. He stepped between me and the photographers without touching me.
Inside, we signed the papers. There were no flowers. No promises of forever. Only my trembling signature and his steady one.
Afterward he took me to a townhouse overlooking the river. He showed me a guest suite with its own lock, then gave me both keys.
"You can keep working," he said. "You can leave the house. You can tell me no."
"And Maya?"
His face tightened.
"My investigator found the clinic where she was held. It was emptied this morning."
I looked at the medical bracelet again.
A small piece of tape had been folded beneath its clasp. I peeled it free with my fingernail.
May you like
Written in Maya's tiny handwriting was a name.
NAOMI CHEN.
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