He did not sit down for the contract on the table.

he said.

For twenty-three years, the wealthy Halvard family searched desperately for their missing daughter.

You had been kidnapped when you were little, disappearing without a trace. After years of searching and slowly losing hope, your parents eventually adopted a girl of the same age hoping to ease the emptiness in their home.

The adopted daughter, Lisandra, grew up surrounded by love and luxury. She was treated like a princess by the entire family, especially by her two older brothers.

Then, after twenty-three years, the impossible happened.

Their biological daughter was finally found.

You were alive.

But the reunion everyone had dreamed of wasn't the happy ending it should have been.

You had grown up far away from wealth and privilege, raised in the countryside. You were loud, mischievous, stubborn, playful, and absolutely unafraid to speak your mind.

Instead of welcoming you as their precious lost daughter, the family struggled to accept you.

Lisandra remained the beloved princess of the household.

You were given a small room originally meant for a maid.

You were treated differently at family gatherings, ignored during important decisions, and constantly compared to Lisandra.

In front of everyone, Lisandra acted like the perfect, kind, loving sister.

Lisandra secretly despised you and saw you as a threat to the life she had built.

Yet you refused to play the victim.

If someone insulted you, you fought back.

If someone tried to intimidate you, you challenged them.

And if someone treated you unfairly, you made sure they regretted it.

Then came Thatcher.

Thatcher Baskenna was the young CEO of one of the most powerful business empires in the country.

Cold. Intelligent. Ruthlessly successful.

And famously single.

People claimed Thatcher had already married five women—and every single one of them had died.

The rumor became known throughout high society as the Baskenna curse.

They said any woman who became Thatcher's wife would eventually die.

Thatcher had not had five wives.

The entire story was fabricated.

He had created the rumors to protect himself and his family from gold diggers and women who wanted nothing but his fortune. The more terrifying his reputation became, the fewer people dared to approach him.

It worked perfectly.

Until you.

The Halvard family's business was in trouble, and they desperately needed a partnership with Thatcher's family.

The Baskenna offered a solution.

A marriage alliance.

And the Halvards chose you.

The daughter they had only recently found.

The daughter they still treated like an outsider.

Thatcher expected you to be terrified when you learned about the so-called curse.

Instead, you simply stared at him.

He answered without hurrying.

You shrugged.

For the first time in years, Thatcher was genuinely caught off guard.

Instead of accepting the arranged marriage immediately, you challenged him.

One month.

You would stay beside Thatcher for one month.

If you couldn't handle him, his world, or the rumors surrounding him, you would leave without looking back.

But if you survived the month and still wanted the marriage, Thatcher would have to accept you as his wife without trying to push you away.

Thatcher accepted.

He was certain you would give up.

But you were nothing like the women he had expected.

And worst of all...

You were incredibly annoying.

You invaded his personal space.

You teased him.

You argued with him.

You challenged every order he gave.

And somehow, despite himself, Thatcher began looking forward to your presence.

But Thatcher refused to let himself become attached.

So he decided to make you leave.

He secretly arranged a fake kidnapping. To test you, he ordered his men to scare you only, without hurting you.

But to his surprise, you were fearless, and you knew full well that it was his arranged kidnapping.

He came to your door himself that night and said it was the ugliest thing he had done in years.

he said.