Chapter 3 - Rules of a Fake Marriage
The first rule was simple.
Separate bedrooms.
The second was even simpler.
No questions about the past.
The third rule was not written anywhere.
Don't fall in love.
Norah added it herself.
Leo laughed when she told him.
“You think that's funny?”
“No.”
“You're smiling.”
“I told you. I don't smile.”
“You're a terrible liar.”
He looked at her.
“So are you.”
Their fake marriage became a public spectacle.
Photographs appeared online.
Leo placed a ring on her finger.
Norah attended charity events beside him.
They were supposed to look happy.
She hated pretending.
Leo was disturbingly good at it.
At public dinners, his hand rested lightly against her back.
He opened doors.
He whispered jokes.
He made people believe they were deeply in love.
Then the car doors closed, and he became the cold man everyone feared.
Except when it was just them.
At home, Leo was different.
He ate breakfast in silence.
He read old books.
He played piano when he thought nobody was listening.
And he never touched her without asking.
One evening, Norah found him asleep on the living room couch.
His shirt was half open.
The scar from the bullet wound was visible.
She stood there for a moment.
He looked vulnerable.
She had never seen that side of him.
“Stop staring.”
His eyes opened.
Norah jumped.
“I wasn't.”
“You were.”
She walked away.
“I was checking whether you were dead.”
“Disappointed?”
“Not especially.”
He smiled.
She stopped.
“You did it again.”
“What?”
“Smiled.”
He looked amused.
“Maybe you bring it out.”
Norah's heart stumbled.
She ignored it.
Weeks passed.
Leo investigated Rayburn.
The evidence pointed toward a network called the Black Harbor Circle.
It connected corrupt officers, judges, shipping companies, and private security contractors.
The deeper they looked, the worse it became.
Then Leo found something.
A video.
Norah watched it on his laptop.
It showed Rayburn entering an evidence warehouse.
He met a man named Marcus Vane.
Norah recognized him.
He was the prosecutor who had handled her case.
“I thought he retired,” she whispered.
“He did.”
Leo paused the video.
“He retired three days after your conviction.”
Norah's hands clenched.
“So the prosecutor was bought.”
“Yes.”
“And who paid him?”
Leo looked at the screen.
“Someone inside my family.”
Norah looked at him.
“You don't know who.”
“No.”
“Then your family is the reason I was destroyed.”
Leo didn't answer.
She stood.
“Maybe this marriage was never fake.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
“Maybe you knew exactly who I was because someone in your family wanted to use me.”
“Norah.”
“No.”
She pointed at him.
“You knew my name before you met me. You had my records. You knew Rayburn would recognize me.”
“I needed the marriage.”
“You needed me.”
Leo stood.
“Yes.”
The word cut.
“But not the way you think.”
“Then tell me.”
He hesitated.
“I can't.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Then we are right back where we started.”
He walked closer.
“There are things I need to protect you from.”
“I don't need protection.”
“I know.”
His voice became softer.
“That's what scares me.”
Norah looked away.
“I will not become another man who decides what's best for you.”
“Then don't.”
The silence between them deepened.
Leo reached into his jacket.
He handed her a folder.
Inside was a photograph.
Her father.
She froze.
“What is this?”
Leo said quietly, “Your father was not a businessman.”
Norah looked up.
“What?”
“He was an accountant for Black Harbor.”
Her world tilted.
“My father died when I was twelve.”
“Yes.”
“You're lying.”
“No.”
“He was a school accountant.”
Leo shook his head.
“That was the cover.”
Norah stared at the photograph.
Her father was standing beside several men.
One was Rayburn.
Another was Marcus Vane.
And the third was Leo's father.
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
“Because your father disappeared after stealing a ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“The one Black Harbor wants.”
She looked at him.
“And where is it?”
Leo's face hardened.
“We don't know.”
Norah stared at the photo.
Then she remembered something.
A sentence her father used to say when she was a child.
Keep the blue box where no one looks.
She whispered it aloud.
Leo immediately noticed.
“What blue box?”
“I don't know.”
“Norah.”
“It's something my father used to say.”
Leo's eyes sharpened.
“Where is the box?”
“I don't know.”
“Think.”
She closed her eyes.
Then she remembered.
Her childhood home had burned down after her father's death.
But before the fire, she had hidden a little blue metal box in the basement.
She had forgotten it existed.
“I know where it might be.”
Leo reached for his keys.
“We're going.”
That night, they returned to the ruins of Norah's childhood home.
The house was abandoned.
Leo's men searched the perimeter.
Norah found the basement.
Nothing remained.
Then she noticed a loose brick.
Behind it was a small blue box.
Her hands shook.
Leo opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
A key.
And a handwritten note.
Norah unfolded it.
My daughter,
If you are reading this, someone finally found what I couldn't hide.
Trust no one connected to Black Harbor.
Not even the man who says he loves you.
Norah looked at Leo.
He was staring at the note.
Then the key fell from her hand.
It had the same symbol engraved on it as Leo's family ring.
Leo went completely still.
“That symbol belongs to my father.”
Norah's blood ran cold.
May you like
Her fake husband was suddenly connected to the deepest secret of her childhood.
And for the first time, she wondered whether her marriage had been arranged long before they ever met.
