The Mind-Reading CEO's Emotionless Contract Wife

The headache was the first thing she registered. A sharp, splitting pain behind her eyes, as if a server was crashing and rebooting inside her skull.

Red error codes flickered across her vision, faint and translucent against the silk canopy of a four-poster bed. `[CRITICAL_FAILURE: USER_DATA_CORRUPTED]`.

Jazmin blinked, and the codes vanished.

She was in a bedroom. Not her small apartment with the worn-out couch and the lingering smell of instant noodles, but a vast, opulent space that smelled of money and gardenias. White marble floors, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a glittering cityscape, a walk-in closet the size of her entire living room.

A string of words, alien yet familiar, echoed in the silent space of her mind: Legacy of Ruin: The Garretts' Contract Wife. It felt like a title, a designation for the bizarre reality she had woken up in. The headache pulsed again, a system warning against probing too deeply. All she knew for certain was that this place was a cage, and the raw, unfamiliar power humming beneath her skin was the key.

The sound of the shower cut off from the adjoining bathroom. A moment later, Adrian Garrett walked out, a white towel slung low on his hips. Water droplets traced paths down his perfectly sculpted abs. He was exactly as the fragmented memory had rendered him: devastatingly handsome and radiating a chilling arrogance.

His eyes, the color of cold steel, landed on her. There was no warmth, only disdain.

"Finally awake?" he drawled.

He crossed the room, his bare feet silent on the marble. He wasn't walking toward her, but toward a mahogany desk. He picked up a sheaf of papers and tossed them onto the bed. They scattered across the silk duvet, one of the sharp edges slicing a thin, white line across her cheek. Strangely, no blood welled up, as if her skin were made of something other than flesh.

"Sign it," he commanded. The words were clipped, devoid of emotion. "It's the divorce agreement."

Jazmin didn't flinch. She picked up a page. Her eyes scanned the text, not with the horror of a spurned wife, but with the detached focus of a tester reviewing a spec sheet.

Division of Assets: Zero.

Alimony: Zero.

Penalty for Breach of Marital Contract: Ten Million Dollars.

"You get nothing," Adrian said, as if reading her mind. He walked to his closet, pulling out a tailored suit. "Melody is the one I love. She deserves everything. You were just a placeholder, a pretty piece of furniture my grandmother insisted on."

Jazmin's fingers tightened on the paper. A strange sound, a low creak like stressed metal, echoed from her knuckles. Her bones felt... dense. Different.

A new notification glowed in the corner of her vision.

`[ABNORMAL_PHYSICAL_PARAMETERS: LOADED 100%]`

She pushed herself up from the bed. The movement was too powerful. The solid oak nightstand beside the bed scraped against the floor and toppled over with a heavy crash, a crystal lamp shattering into a thousand pieces.

Adrian whipped around,