The CEO's Contractual Wife (Olivia and Alexander) novel Chapter 297

Chapter 297

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Olivia

The Cornerstone Resort Group materials covered every surface of the study: property profiles, market analyses, guest demographic breakdowns, and competitive positioning reports.

Two days. I had two days to finish organizing all this chaos into something coherent before Monday’s meeting.

The grandfather clock in the hallway chimed eight, the sound echoing through the quiet house. Alfred had already retired for the evening. Chef had left dinner warming in the kitchen, but I’d been too focused to eat.

I pulled up the Aspen property files again, cross–referencing their guest reviews with their social media engagement. The patterns were starting to emerge, but I needed more time to-

The front door opened and closed. Alexander’s footsteps crossed the marble foyer, heading toward the study.

“You’re still working,” he said from the doorway, loosening his tie.

I glanced up briefly. “Yeah. Cornerstone prep. Where did you go?”

“Meeting.”

“Kind of late for a meeting.”

“It ran long.” He moved into the room, studying the papers spread across the desk. “Making progress?”

“Slowly.” I turned back to my laptop and clicked through another property profile. “How was your meeting?”

“Fine. Productive. His voice was tight, clipped.

I finally looked at him properly. His jaw was set, shoulders tense beneath his expensive suit. This wasn’t normal Alexander’s post–meeting energy.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing. Just work stuff.” He poured himself a scotch from the bar cart, draining half of it in one swallow.

I closed my laptop. “What happened?”

He stared into his glass for a long moment. “I met with Victoria.”

“Victoria? Why?”

“Because she’s making moves.” He refilled his glass. “And I needed to understand what she’s planning”

“What kind of moves?”

Alexander set down his glass with deliberate care. “She has a copy of our arrangement

The words hit me like ice water. “What?”

“The papers we signed. The terms. Everything.” His voice was flat, emotionless. “She showed me

I stood up so fast my chair rolled backward. “How? How did she get that?”

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4:08 pm P DD

Chapter 297

“I don’t know yet. But she has it. Every detail. The timeline, the money, the conditions.”

My heart hammered against my ribs. “What did she say?”

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“That she’ll leak it if I don’t back off.” He met my eyes. “Expose the whole thing. Make it public that our marriage was arranged.”

I pressed my hand against my stomach, feeling sick. “And? What did you tell her?”

“That I have evidence of her embezzlement. Years of it. Documented fraud that could put her in prison.”

“So we’re at a stalemate.”

“For now.” He picked up his glass again. “But Victoria’s desperate. Desperate people do stupid things.”

I sank back into my chair, my mind racing. “What do we do?”

“We can say she fabricated it,” Alexander said, his tone shifting to something more calculated. “That she created fake documents to make our marriage look fraudulent.”

“Would anyone believe that?”

“Maybe. If we play it right.” He moved closer, perching on the edge of the desk. “Think about it. Victoria’s been publicly hostile to our relationship since the beginning. Everyone’s seen it. If we position this as her latest attempt to undermine us, people might buy it.”

I considered this, turning it over in my mind. “That could work. But how did she actually get the real papers?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. The originals are in my office safe. Only I have access.”

“Could someone have photographed them? Hacked the safe somehow?”

“Possibly. I’m having my security team investigate.” He rubbed his face, suddenly looking exhausted. “This is my fault. I should have been more careful.”

“It’s not your fault, Victoria’s a scheming-” I bit off the rest of that sentence. “We’ll figure this out.”

“We have to.” He stood, pacing to the window. “If she goes public with this before we can control the narrative, we’re done. Your career, my company, everything.”

The weight of it settled over me like a physical thing. All the work I’d done, the Thompson campaign, the Cornerstone opportunity, everything I’d built could collapse if Victoria leaked those papers.

“So we need a plan,” I said, forcing my voice to steady. “Something better than just calling her a liar.”

“Agreed” Alexander turned back to me. “But first, I need to know if there were any other copies. Did you keep anything?

“No. I gave you the original the night I signed it.”

“And you didn’t photograph it? Email it to yourself?”

“Why would I do that?” Irritation flared through my fear. “I wasn’t planning to blackmail you”

“I know. I just need to cover all the bases.” He moved closer. “Liv, I’m sorry. This is a mess.”

I looked up at him, saw the genuine worry in his eyes beneath the carefully controlled exterior. “We’ve handled worse.

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4:08 pm P

Chapter 297

“Have we?”

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“Victoria at family dinners. Penelope’s sabotage attempts. Anonymous threatening texts.” I stood, moving to stand beside him. “This is just another obstacle.”

His hand found mine and squeezed gently. “You’re remarkably calm about this.”

“I’m terrified, actually. But panicking won’t help.” I leaned against him, needing the solid warmth of his presence. “So. Strategy. If we can’t prove Victoria fabricated the papers, what else can we do?”

“Make them irrelevant,” he said slowly, the idea clearly forming as he spoke. “If our marriage becomes real, publicly and obviously, then the original arrangement doesn’t matter anymore.”

“We’ve been doing that already.”

“Not enough. We need to be more visible. More affectionate. More convincing.” His arm came around my waist. “Make it impossible for anyone to believe our relationship is anything but genuine.”

I tilted my head back to look at him. “You want to put on a bigger show.”

“I want people to see what I see when I look at you.” His voice dropped lower. “Someone brilliant and beautiful who drives me absolutely crazy in the best possible way.”

Heat crept up my neck despite the seriousness of the situation. “Smooth talker.”

“I mean it.” His thumb traced circles on my hip. “The contract was just a beginning. What we have now is real.”

Was it? I wanted to believe that. Wanted to believe these past weeks had transformed our arrangement into something genuine.

“Okay,” I said finally. “More public appearances. More obvious affection. We make Victoria’s evidence look like ancient history.”

“Exactly. He kissed my forehead. “Starting with Sunday dinner at Grandfather’s. We show up looking absolutely besotted with each other.”

“Won’t be hard to fake,” I admitted.

His eyes darkened. “Who said anything about faking?”

Before I could respond, he kissed me, deep and thorough and possessive.

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