Prologue

Devon Reeves.

"I have nothing to offer you."

Those were the first words she said to me when we first met. And it was true, she indeed had nothing to offer me. At age twenty-seven, Jessica Franklin was a high school dropout, having never been to the four walls of college and being buried under a mountain of debt.

Yet, she had been one of the many women who had filled out the form of me searching for a wife online, she had shown up on our blind date in a borrowed dress which she claimed she needed to return before midnight and she kept glancing at her broken watch to see how much time had passed.

I glanced at her tired eyes, pale face, and unruly hair, my lips stretching into a smile. There was something in those weary eyes of hers that intrigued me in ways no other woman had, wanting me to know more about her.

"You don't need to offer me anything. I just need you to be my wife."

Little did we know, this would be a start of a long journey to forever.

Jessica Franklin.

I should not be doing this, I should never agree to this, I say to myself as I sit across the table, watching the man I'm about to sell my body and soul to for the next six months. As if you have anything to give, A voice taunts me. But I have to.

I have two sisters depending on me and I would be damned if anything happened to them thanks to the decisions I made in the past without being sure that they'll be able to stand on their own two feet if I'm no longer there. So I lean forward on the table, regarding the immaculately dressed man before me with careful eyes. His lips stretched to a smile, and eyes glinting with curiosity, I begin to speak, my voice as calm as the ocean, a sharp contrast to the storm raging in my head.

"So, when do we begin?"