Contract Marriage With My Billionaire Boss (Venus and Aaron) novel Chapter 228

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VENUS

Andrea didn’t move. Didn’t blink. She stood there in the doorway of the dim cabin like the night itself had shaped a woman out of frost and cruelty.

Her smile was small, deliberate and predatory.

The smile of someone who’d finally cornered the creature she’d been hunting for years.

“Do you know,” she murmured, voice soft as silk but threaded with venom, “that there is only one person on this planet capable of hurting Aaron Sinclair the way I want him hurt?”

The words floated into the cold air like smoke from a burning house. I didn’t answer. Couldn’t. My throat felt sealed shut, my heartbeat thundering so hard I could barely hear anything else.

She stepped closer, pine needles crunching beneath her boots, her eyes glinting under the thin moonlight.

“You,” she said simply. “You, Venus. Not even your children together would destroy him the way you would. Using them would make him angry, yes… but it wouldn’t ruin him.”

Her lips curved, slow and satisfied.

“But you?” she whispered. “You’ll shatter him. Irreparably. And that-” she exhaled like she’d savored the thought a thousand times-“is exactly the pain I want.”

My stomach twisted so sharply I barely stayed upright.

Andrea went on smoothly, like she was reciting a formula.

“I keep you compliant by holding Iris. You do what I want. You hurt him. And in the process, you hurt yourself. And your perfect little family. Simple.”

Something in me snapped.

“Stop going in circles,” I hissed, the words tearing out of my chest. “Tell me exactly what you want.”

Andrea’s smile spread, it was wide and triumphant, as though I’d just walked into a trap she’d spent years designing.

“Oh, Venus… you truly don’t remember Paris or are you being dense intentionally?”

Everything inside me went still.

The air felt colder. Sharper. Crueler.

“That whole little ‘Aaron’s cheating’ fiasco?” she continued casually. “The mysterious blonde on his arm? The conveniently blurry photos? The whispers that reached you at just the right moment?”

Her laughter sliced straight through me.

“That was me. All of it. A simple setup. A bit of manipulation. A few favors. And you-poor, trusting Venus-fell beautifully for it, even though you tried your absolute best to trust him. It still hurt.”

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My nails dug crescents into my palms.

She had orchestrated that spiral. The paranoia. The insecurity. The ache.

“And what I want this time…” Her voice dropped, hushed and hungry. “Is far from fake.”

She leaned forward until her breath touched my cheek, cold despite the proximity.

“I want you to break his heart,” she whispered. “Pulverize it. Grind it into dust. And when he’s barely holding himself together-when he can’t breathe without feeling it-then you’re going to divorce him.”

My knees buckled. Only the porch railing kept me standing.

“No,” I breathed. “Andrea-no. I can’t. He’ll never believe me. He’d never let me go. And Iris-she can’t stay with you for that long-”

“Oh, but she will.”

She shrugged lightly, as if discussing weather.

“She’ll stay with me until the job is complete. Which gives you-let’s say—three months.”

The words hit like a blow to the ribs.

“Three…? Three months?” I whispered.

“Yes.” She raised three fingers smugly. “Three months to make Aaron Sinclair believe you don’t love him anymore. To make him think you regret marrying him. To make him want out.”

“I can’t do that. It’s impossible.”

“That’s the point.” Her smile sharpened into something vicious. “Impossible pain. Impossible choices. Beautiful symmetry, don’t you think?”

My breath trembled out of me.

She wasn’t just trying to hurt Aaron.

She wanted to dismantle us.

Piece by piece.

“And if you tell anyone,” Andrea continued smoothly, “your husband, your brothers, your precious security team… even if it slips out by accident?”

Her eyes hardened into something monstrous.

“I’ll know.”

Cold slid down my spine.

“How-”

“I’ll know,” she repeated, her tone final. “And the things Gerald did to you… will look like a warm-up compared to what I will do to Iris.”

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My vision blurred. The ground felt unsteady beneath my feet. 1

Andrea took another step closer until she filled my entire world-the chill of her presence, the sick sweetness of her breath, the hatred radiating off her like heat.

“And get rid of the silly idea of finding her,” she added. “You won’t. No one will. She could be in Europe. Or the States. Underground. In a different cabin on this mountain. You’ll never know.”

My breath caught painfully.

“No one can reach her without me,” she whispered.

“No one can save her without me.”

My knees threatened to give out. My hands shook despite my attempts to hide it. 1

Andrea leaned in so closely her lips nearly brushed my ear.

“You want your daughter back?”

Her voice dipped into something soft and deadly.

“Then you’re going to destroy the love of your life.”

The world stilled around us.

“And you’re going to make him believe every word,” she finished.

Something inside me broke.

Andrea straightened, satisfied-like she’d just sealed a contract in blood.

“Three months,” she said again.

“Tick-tock, Venus.”

Then she turned, walked back toward the cabin, and disappeared into the darkness as if the night swallowed her.

Leaving me alone.

Shaking.

Sick.

And shattered.

Three months.

Break him.

Lie to him.

Destroy him.

Or lose Iris forever.

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The moon hung heavy above the trees, a pale witness to my undoing. My chest hurt so deeply I felt scraped from

the inside out.

But beneath the agony-beneath the horror-something else stirred.

A spark.

A flicker.

A cold, calculating fire.

I am Venus Sinclair.

I couldn’t let just anyone waltz into my life and take away my happiness.

Iris is mine.

I will burn the world down before I let Andrea win.

She thinks she knows me. Thinks I’m still the same frightened girl her brother tortured.

She couldn’t be more wrong.

I’ll play her game.

I’ll smile when she thinks she’s winning.

I’ll bend just enough to keep my daughter breathing.

But break?

Never.

I whispered into the cold night:

“I’m bringing my baby home. And when I do… you’ll regret underestimating me.’

Then I turned away from Cabin 9.

And walked back into my car with a plan forming in the ashes of my fear.

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