Page 52 of The Billionaire’s Contract Bride

The outside had no keyhole at all.

Chapter Ten: The Blackthorne Rules

The Blackthorne rules had never been written down because everyone who mattered already knew them: loyalty was purchased, weakness was hidden, and family business remained family business no matter how much blood it cost.

Aria broke the first rule by refusing to be bought twice. She broke the second by speaking openly about fear. The third, she intended to destroy completely.

At ten in the morning, Aria walked onto the fiftieth floor of Blackthorne Tower. She had not been invited.

Twenty directors sat around a polished mahogany table long enough to make corporate governance feel like diplomacy between hostile nations. Victor smiled broadly when she entered.

Damien did not.

“My wife has a medical appointment,” Damien said smoothly, his eyes narrowing as she approached the table.

“No, I don’t,” Aria replied, her voice echoing in the vast room.

At the head of the table, Augustus tapped his silver-headed cane once against the floorboards. “Sit.”

Aria pulled back the empty leather chair beside Damien and sat down. Under the heavy wood of the table, Damien’s hand closed around her knee. The touch was invisible to everyone else in the room—his thumb moving once against her skin, recalling the heat of the night before with devastating precision.

Aria kept her face entirely neutral and firmly removed his hand.

Victor watched the exchange with sharp, delighted interest.

“The board is reviewing the Blackthorne Marital Trust,” the family attorney announced, adjusting his glasses. “A controlling block of company shares created by the late matriarch. Upon the primary heir’s legal marriage, voting authority transfers jointly to the heir and spouse.”

Aria looked down at the tablet in front of her, reading the clause twice. “Jointly?”

“Certain strategic decisions require both signatures,” the attorney confirmed.

Damien’s silence became a heavy weight in the room.

Aria turned her head slowly toward him. “Did you know about this?”

“Yes.”

“You forgot to mention that I hold voting power over your company.”

“You do not control it,” Damien said, his tone low and even.

“He dislikes the word when anyone else uses it,” Victor chimed in from across the table.

Augustus ignored them both. “The trust vote concerns the proposed liquidation and sale of twelve community hospital networks.”

Financial projections appeared on the primary monitors around the room. The sale would eliminate unprofitable regional clinics and terminate over two thousand healthcare workers. One of those clinics served the working-class neighborhood where Aria had grown up.

Damien voted in favor.

Victor voted in favor.

Augustus abstained.

The attorney turned to Aria. “Mrs. Blackthorne?”

“Vale,” she corrected clearly. “Legally, my name is Vale.”

Damien’s voice dropped to a warning whisper. “Approve the sale, Aria.”