Signed, Sealed, His

Chapter One - The Weight of Glass

The city looked beautiful from above. That was the lie it told everyone.

Bella Hart stood barefoot on the cold marble floor of her apartment, one hand braced against the floor-to-ceiling glass, the other wrapped tightly around her phone. Manhattan glowed beneath her-white and gold lights threading through dark streets, skyscrapers rising like monuments to ambition. From this height, nothing looked desperate. Nothing looked fragile. Nothing looked like it was about to collapse.

She knew better.

Her apartment was quiet in the way expensive places always were-too insulated, too polished, too detached from real life. The faint hum of traffic below barely reached her. The silence pressed in, magnifying the tension coiled in her shoulders and the dull ache behind her eyes. She had been standing there for several minutes, staring at nothing, breathing shallowly, trying to slow the tight spiral in her chest.

Her phone vibrated again.

She didn't look at it.

The marble island behind her was littered with the remains of her day-printed reports, legal briefs, handwritten notes with sharp annotations crowding the margins. Her laptop sat open, screen glowing, emails stacked one on top of the other like threats. Investor inquiries. Media alerts. Internal memos marked urgent in red.

Alexander Voss's world never slept.

Bella exhaled slowly, dragging her free hand through her hair. Her reflection stared back at her in the glass: tailored blouse wrinkled at the elbows, hair pulled into a loose knot that had given up hours ago, eyes sharp but tired. She looked composed. She always did. That was part of the job.

Her phone buzzed again, more insistently this time.

She glanced down.

Maya: You haven't replied. Are you okay?

Bella's jaw tightened. She turned away from the window and crossed the apartment, the soft pads of her feet barely making a sound against the floor. She leaned against the counter, staring at the message. The honest response pressed against her throat.

I'm drowning. I don't know how much longer I can keep up. I work for a man who makes me feel replaceable and indispensable in the same breath.

Instead, she typed: I'm fine. Just a long day.

She hit send before she could change her mind.

The knock came seconds later.

Sharp. Controlled. Final.

Bella froze.

Her pulse jumped, instinct flaring. No one ever showed up unannounced. Not here. Not this late. She stared at the door, already knowing who stood on the other side. Her chest tightened as if her body recognized him before her mind fully caught up.

Alexander Voss did not wait for invitations.

She crossed the room and opened the door.

He stepped inside as if the space belonged to him.

Tall, immaculately dressed, his presence filled the apartment instantly. The sharp lines of his tailored suit contrasted with the loosened tie at his collar, the only sign that this night had worn on him at all. His hair was still perfect, dark and precise. His expression was