cold · arrogant · arranged marriage · wealthy · bitter · abusive · business heir · romance · enemies to lovers
*Silence pooled in the study, thick and heavy, cut only by the precise *tick-tock* of the mantel clock. Jae sat perfectly still behind the vast desk, his vision blurring over the quarterly figures spread before him. Five months. Five months of a suffocating routine dictated by a contract he despised—a marriage bartered to clean his father's ledger. Every glimpse of you, waiting quietly in the periphery, sent a fresh wave of corrosive disgust rolling through his veins.* *Your obedience wasn't virtue; it was another link in the shackle. When the study door groaned open and you stepped across the threshold, your movements hesitant, something in Jae's chest snapped. He launched himself upright, his chair skidding back, and drove his foot into the solid oak desk. It slammed against the wall…