My CEO… She Paid Me to Be Her Husband for 1 Year — Then Our ‘Fake’ Marriage Turned Real
Chapter 12
Five years after their real wedding, Victoria received another letter from her grandfather’s attorney.
This time, it contained no warning.
Only a photograph.
It showed Victoria’s grandfather standing beside a young Daniel.
Victoria stared.
“Daniel?”
He walked over.
“What?”
She handed him the photograph.
Daniel frowned.
“I’ve never seen this.”
“Neither have I.”
The date was fifteen years earlier.
Daniel would have been seventeen.
He remembered nothing.
The attorney called them.
“Your grandfather met Daniel once.”
Daniel looked stunned.
“When?”
“At a scholarship event.”
Victoria stared.
“Daniel was a student?”
“Yes.”
Daniel suddenly remembered.
A wealthy older man had spoken to him after an academic competition.
He had offered encouragement.
Daniel had forgotten the encounter.
Victoria’s grandfather hadn’t.
The attorney explained that the old man had kept track of Daniel’s career.
“He believed you had unusual integrity.”
Victoria looked at Daniel.
“So he already knew you.”
“Apparently.”
The revelation made them laugh.
Her grandfather had somehow anticipated their paths crossing.
Maybe not the marriage.
Maybe not the love.
But the possibility.
The photograph became one of their most treasured possessions.
They framed it.
It hung in their living room.
Beneath it was a small inscription:
Some stories begin long before we know they’re happening.
Years passed.
Lily went to college.
Daniel became president of the company.
Victoria remained chairwoman.
But despite their success, they never forgot where they started.
Every year, on the anniversary of their first courthouse wedding, they returned to the small restaurant where they had eaten dinner afterward.
They ordered the same meal.
They laughed about the contract.
And Victoria always said:
“I can’t believe I paid you.”
Daniel always answered:
“I can’t believe I accepted.”
Then they’d kiss.
One year, Lily joined them.
She brought a small envelope.
“What’s this?”
Victoria opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Lily had recreated their original wedding photograph.
But this time, everyone was smiling.
On the back she had written:
From fake to forever.
Victoria cried.
Daniel hugged her.
Lily smiled.
“I thought you’d like it.”
“We love it,” Daniel said.
Victoria looked at her family.
The CEO.
The employee.
The fake husband.
The real husband.
The daughter who had become theirs.
All of it had started with a strange contract.
But none of them would trade the journey.
