The $500 Million Contracted Bride: Bound to Mr. Blackwood

MAYA

"Maya, please. Just get to the office. It’s an emergency.”

As I sprinted toward my father’s office, I realized my mother really should have swallowed me in a blowjob. Or at the very least, I should have lost the race to be born. Why did I swim so hard? Was the prize really this?

I was running in four-inch heels that were about to snap. My hair was a bird's nest, and I looked more like a runaway than a corporate heiress. Judging by my father’s nineteenth voicemail, getting kidnapped would have been a better way to spend my Tuesday.

I could barely hear him through his sobbing. I wondered which girl he wanted me to pay off this time. Was it the twenty-two-year-old yoga instructor or the cocktail waitress who finally realized his credit cards were made of plastic and lies?

I knew the truth, even if he refused to accept it. The Sullivan fortune was a house of cards. It was held together by my willpower and the last few pieces of my mother’s jewelry that he hadn't gambled away yet. My father couldn't handle a single crisis without dragging me into the middle to make it my problem, too.

I reached the heavy doors of my father’s office, leaning against the wood for support. My lungs were burning, and I needed a second just to catch my breath.

Marcus, my father’s secretary, was standing there. He had been my father's right-hand man for a decade, but today he looked like he was waiting for a funeral to start. He looked like he’d aged ten years overnight.

"Good god, Marcus. What did he have you doing all night?" I panted. I pointed a finger at my messy hair. "Don't even look at me. I got into a fight with the wind, and the wind won."

Marcus didn't laugh. He didn't even crack a smile.

"Just give me the rating," I said, keeping my voice low. "On a scale of one to ten, how much of a disaster am I walking into?"

Marcus swallowed hard and looked away. "Just go in, Miss Sullivan," he whispered.

He pulled the doors open, and the heavy hinges groaned as I stepped inside.

"He’s finally knocked up some woman, right?" I sighed. I didn't wait for a reply. I didn't have time for this, especially with a date with Liam in an hour. I just wanted one normal night with Liam this week. He was the only thing in my life that was sturdy, predictable, and safe.

I wasn't going to let my father’s latest crisis ruin my evening. I stepped inside, my voice already loaded and ready to fire.

"Dad! If I’m here because you’ve managed to create a secret sibling, I’m changing my name and moving to a different continent. I am not babysitting a mistake born from cheap tequila and a hunt for a paycheck.”

He didn't answer me.

"Dad?" I panted, wiping a stray hair from my forehead.