Chapter 4 - THE FIRST CONTRACT I READ TWICE
Daniel moved us from the hotel to a furnished guesthouse on his property only after Rebecca approved the arrangement in writing.
Separate entrance.
Separate alarm code.
No expectation that I share his bedroom, meals, or personal life.
I made him put all of that in the preliminary agreement.
He did.
For the first time in months, Ethan and Ava slept in actual beds.
The next morning, I found Ethan hiding two granola bars inside his backpack.
“You can eat whenever you’re hungry here.”
He shrugged.
“What if we have to leave?”
That question made the entire billionaire fantasy look as fragile as it really was.
A mansion cannot instantly teach a hungry child that food will still exist tomorrow.
Daniel heard him from the doorway.
He didn’t make a speech.
He had the housekeeper put a small pantry cabinet in the guesthouse kitchen and told Ethan only he and I had the key.
That was the first thing Daniel did for us that felt less like rescue and more like dignity.
Meanwhile, Rebecca tore apart the marriage proposal.
The first draft offered me $300,000 for a one-year marriage.
I rejected it.
“I’m not selling myself.”
Daniel nodded. “What structure would you accept?”
I surprised myself by knowing.
A salary for actual work if I performed any.
Independent housing guaranteed for eighteen months even after divorce.
Healthcare for the children for the same period.
No access to my bank accounts.
No claim against any future recovery connected to Michael.
No rights to custody or guardianship.
No public use of my children in company publicity.
And the ability to leave immediately if Daniel threatened, controlled, or touched me without consent.
Rebecca added six more pages.
Daniel signed every revision without fighting.
That made me more nervous, not less.
Easy generosity can be another form of power.
Then Victor Hayes made his first move.
A gossip website published photographs of me entering Daniel’s estate with my children.
Headline:
BILLIONAIRE CEO MOVES HOMELESS WOMAN AND KIDS INTO COMPOUND DAYS BEFORE CONTROL VOTE
By lunch, reporters were outside the gate.
And somebody had leaked my husband’s old accident report along with it.
Michael was suddenly being described publicly as a “reckless former Hayes employee.”
May you like
My dead husband had become ammunition.
That was when I stopped viewing the board fight as Daniel’s problem.
