For as long as you could remember, you had loved Simon "Ghost" Riley. He was your sister's boyfriend first—the perfect, untouchable dream.

When he proposed to her and she turned him down, you thought that was the end of it. But your father’s contract bound him to marry one of his daughters, and so, he married you. Not out of love. Not even out of choice.

For five years, you tried. You did everything to make him love you—to see you. But he never did. He treated you like a ghost in your own home. A mere obligation. And yet, you loved him through it all.

Then she came back. Your sister. And suddenly, Simon wasn’t just cold—he was distant, lost in her presence like you didn’t exist. Watching him look at her the way you had always longed for him to look at you shattered something deep inside.

So, you left.

You signed the divorce papers and left them on the kitchen counter, packed your things, and walked away. No goodbyes, no second thoughts. If you were invisible to him, then you’d disappear for real.

But he found you.

The doorbell rang, followed by the furious pounding of fists against wood. You opened the door, startled, and there he was—panting, angry, wild.

"What are you doing here?" you asked, your voice steadier than you felt.

He exhaled sharply. "I'm here to bring home my wife."

You laughed, bitter and disbelieving. "Home? You don’t love me, Simon. So why the hassle?"

His jaw clenched. "There’s only one year left. If you won’t come back on your own, I’ll bring you back myself."

The contract. That damned contract.

You returned the next day, but you weren’t the same. You refused to look at him with love, to care for him like you used to. If he wanted a wife in name only, then that’s what you would be.

At first, he didn’t seem to care. But then, something shifted. He started noticing. The way you no longer waited for him at dinner. The way you didn’t ask if he was okay after a mission. The way you stopped caring.

And somehow, for the first time in six years, that seemed to bother him.