"Marco, please. I know how it sounds. But everything is different now. Lorenzo is gone. He left the city. There is nothing standing between us anymore." Her voice climbed back into sweetness so fast it was almost impressive. "I can be the wife you always deserved. I'll cook for you. I'll take care of the house. I'll be devoted to you completely. No more lies, no more secrets."No more lies. From the woman who faked a pregnancy test to trap me into marriage. Marco pressed his forehead against the wall and closed his eyes, letting the silence stretch."I married you when you had nothing, Marco. Nothing. Not a car, not a house, not a dollar to your name. I chose you when every other woman would have walked away. That restaurant manager, that Giorgia, she showed up the second your lottery money hit the news. You think she actually cares about you? She's a dog chasing a bone, Marco. The moment the money runs out, she'll disappear faster than Lorenzo did."Marco opened his eyes. There it is.

Marco dismissed the notification and looked at the woman sleeping beside him. Seventy two out of a hundred. Loyalty jumps seventeen points with a contract. The system reads people better than any psychologist alive.When she woke up, he made coffee and put the offer on the table the same way he would put a business deal on a conference room desk. Clean, direct, no romantic wrapping paper."I want to set up a monthly arrangement. You'll have a fixed income and I'll buy you a car. In exchange, you're available when I need you, and you don't see anyone else." He set the mug in front of her. "No games, no pretending. You know what this is."Marta wrapped both hands around the coffee and looked at him over the rim with an expression that was equal parts amused and impressed. "Most men try to dress this up with flowers and poetry. You just handed it to me like a job offer.""Because that's what it is. And you're smart enough to appreciate that." Marco sat down across from her."What kind of

The luxury car dealership smelled like new leather and fresh money. Marco stood beside a gleaming white SUV with a price tag that would make most people's knees buckle while Marta pressed her face close to the driver's side window like a kid outside a candy store."Marco, this one. This is the one. Please tell me you're not joking." Her eyes were wide and her smile stretched so far it looked like it might split her face in half."Eighty thousand. Your name on the title. It's yours." Marco handed his card to the saleswoman behind the counter without looking at the total twice.Marta let out a noise that was somewhere between a scream and a laugh and threw her arms around his neck hard enough to lift her feet off the ground. The saleswoman processing the paperwork watched the transaction with an expression she was trying very hard to keep professional, but her eyes kept drifting to the card, then to Marco, then to Marta's body, and the envy behind her polite smile was thick enough to tas

Natalie's heels hit the hallway floor like gunshots. She was already ten feet from his apartment door when she spun around and pointed at him with a trembling finger."You are disgusting! You are a sick, disgusting man and I would rather watch my husband crawl on broken glass than let you touch me!" Her voice bounced off every wall on the eighth floor.Marco opened his mouth to respond but she was already marching toward the elevator, her face flushed crimson, her jaw locked tight. A young couple was standing by the elevator doors, grocery bags in hand, their eyes already wide from the screaming.Natalie stopped right beside them and made sure her voice carried like a megaphone. "That man right there, apartment 803, just made the most revolting proposition you can imagine. I went to him for help and he tried to buy me like I was some animal at an auction. I want you both to know what kind of filth lives on this floor."The young woman's mouth fell open. Her boyfriend turned and stared

Marco activated the pulse once in the empty garage just to test it. The air around him compressed and snapped outward like an invisible fist, sending a stack of empty crates tumbling across the concrete floor.Three meters. Ninety second cooldown. Enough to clear a doorway or knock back a group rushing me in close quarters. Not a weapon of war, but a weapon of survival.His armored SUV sat in the fortified garage, fueled and loaded with emergency supplies in case the system ever went offline. He locked the garage, armed the security system, and walked back toward his apartment building with the satisfaction of a man who had finished building his ark before the first drop of rain.He was thirty feet from the entrance when someone called his name."Marco! Marco, look at me!"He turned. A woman was standing on the sidewalk with her arms spread wide and a massive smile on her face, posing like she was waiting for a photographer. It took him three full seconds to recognize her.Valentina.