The Fiance Trade-off

My fiance's precious childhood crush, Amber Sweeney, was in a political union with the infamous Julian Grant, heir to the Grant family empire and a notorious playboy.

Unable to stand the thought of Amber being "sacrificed", Ryan Carter barged into her wedding to stop it. They registered their marriage that day, making headlines across the city.

The whole of D.C.'s elite waited to watch me and the Grant family become the city's biggest joke.

What they didn't expect was that on the very next day, Julian would roll up to my company in his high-key sports car, leaning against the hood like he had all the time in the world.

"Your fiance stole my bride. You'll be repaying that debt by marrying me. Fair trade, right?"

I stared at his blazing red hair and wild grin, and smiled back coolly. "Sounds fair to me."

When Julian Grant saw how easily I agreed to his marriage proposal, one of his eyebrows lifted. The little stud at the tail end caught the light and sparkled with his movement.

To people like us, marriage was just another weight on the scale of business interests. Who you married barely mattered.

So, his surprise vanished just as fast. A moment later, he was back to his devil-may-care, cocky self.

"Cool. I’ll swing by tomorrow to talk wedding plans. Gotta go handle a bunch of crusty old men tonight. What a pain," he grumbled, ruffling his already chaotic curls.

I couldn’t help but chuckle and reached out to push a lock of hair off his forehead. "No rush. Just call me when you’ve got time."

He seemed pleased with my easygoing attitude. After a few more offhand remarks, he swaggered away.

I went home as usual, only to find someone I’d hoped to never see again waiting outside my private villa—Ryan Carter.

"Well, if it isn’t Mr. Carter out for a walk. Odd trail you’ve picked, ending up in a private estate like mine."

Ryan looked uncomfortable, forcing out an awkward laugh.

"Claire, don’t be like that. About what happened the other day…I didn’t have a choice, okay? You know Amber’s personality. She keeps everything to herself. If she married that player from the Grants, she’d be cheated on before the honeymoon was over. I couldn’t just watch her walk into hell."

My face was blank.

He couldn’t stand the thought of Amber Sweeney suffering, but he was just fine with turning me—his fiancee—into the city’s laughingstock?

How did that make sense?

I didn’t care to argue. I brushed past him toward the house, but he made an attempt to grab my arm.

"Say what you need to say. Don’t touch me."

"Claire, are you really drawing the line like this? I married Amber, yeah, but that doesn’t mean we’re done! It’s just a marriage certificate and doesn’t change how I feel. We can still be together. Sure, you won’t have a title, but I know you love me enough to accept that, right?"

His eyes