Elena took it. Her hand was cold, but as his fingers closed around hers, a spark of something that wasn't business flickered in her eyes. She put the ring on, the weight of it anchoring her to a lie they both desperately wanted to believe. "To the merger," she said.
"To the pretext," he replied, already wondering how he would convince her to stay when the twenty-four months were up. 3 : A Proposal as a Pretext
He didn't mention that he’d bought the ring six months ago. He didn't mention that the merger was the only way he could think of to keep her in the same room as him. Elena took it
Elena reached out, her fingers hovering over the stone. "And if I say yes? We have to make it look real. The galas, the press, the shared home." "To the merger," she said
"I have a solution," he said smoothly. "One that bypasses the regulatory hurdles and the internal sabotage."
Elena looked at the ring, then up at him. The logic was cold, efficient, and utterly ruthless—exactly like the man standing before her. "A pretext," she whispered, testing the weight of the word. "Purely," Julian lied.
"It’s a pretext," he corrected, his voice dropping an octave. "The board won't block a merger between husband and wife. It creates a single legal entity that’s untouchable. We sign a pre-nup tonight that dissolves the marriage in twenty-four months, once the acquisition is finalized. You get your family’s legacy back, and I get the seat at the head of the table."