A legal promise.
I picture Camden again, the way he looked across that table. Guarded. Closed off.
He hated the idea just as much as I did. I could see that clearly.
I let out a shaky breath and straighten slowly, wiping my palms against my skirt. The fountain keeps murmuring. The sky stays stubbornly blue.
Marriage feels like the ultimate loss of control. It doesn't matter if it's real, fake, or anything blurred in between.
It isn’t just a headline or a PR strategy. It’s a door that locks behind you, even if everyone swears you can leave whenever you want.
Camden Drake doesn’t change that.
If anything, he makes it worse.
He is composed. Guarded. Used to being in control. A man who understands pressure and public narratives.
The kind of man who would notice my cracks even when I try to hide them.
The kind of man who could leave and take a piece of me with him.
I don’t want to know him. I don’t want to trust him.
And I don’t want to be trapped with someone who already looks like he resents being here.
I can handle security protocols. I can handle schedules and escorts and reinforced doors. I can handle inconvenience.
What I cannot handle is giving someone power over the last place I still feel safe.
My heart.
***
After a few minutes alone in the courtyard, Manny appears.
One moment I’m staring at the fountain, and the next his shadow stretches across the pale stone in front of me. Solid. Familiar. Unmoving.
He doesn’t say anything right away.
He stands beside me with his arms crossed, gaze fixed somewhere past the hedges like he’s giving me room to exist without commentary.
Manny has always been good at that. Letting silence do the work until I’m ready.
When I finally look up, his expression is calm. “You good?” he asks quietly.
I let out a short laugh that surprises even me. It comes out thin and brittle around the edges.
“No,” I say. “Not even a little.”
“I can’t do this, Manny,” I continue, words spilling now that I’ve started. “I can’t marry someone. I don’t even know him.”
I swallow and look away, blinking fast.
“I don’t want to know him.”
Manny nods once, slow and steady. “I know today was a shock,” he says. “And I know that meeting went sideways fast.”
That’s one way to put it.
