Ethan sat in his private office, his desk scattered with documents and a steaming cup of coffee growing cold. The manila folder in front of him was marked Mia Carson.
It had taken his trusted investigator, Jacob, less than a week to compile, and now it sat before Ethan, brimming with answers he wasn't sure he was ready for.
He leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. Why couldn't he leave it alone? She
was supposed to be a convenient solution to his family's incessant meddling about marriage. Instead, Mia had become a maddening enigma. The waitress with
quick comebacks and guarded eyes wasn't just a puzzle—she was a vortex, pulling him deeper into a world he didn't fully understand.
Ethan tore the envelope open and began reading.
Mia's childhood wasn't a surprise—her upbringing in a working-class neighborhood fit the profile of someone who'd grown up scraping by. Her father's departure when
she was fifteen had left her mother with mounting bills and Mia with more responsibility than any teenager should bear.
But what caught Ethan's attention was her life over the past five years. During the day,
she had been bouncing between low-paying jobs, including her current one at the pastry shop. At night, she transformed into Veil, the star performer at Eclipse, a nightclub known for its exclusivity and mystery.
Ethan paused on a photograph of Mia on stage, her face obscured by a black and gold veil, her posture exuding confidence. The image contrasted starkly with the Mia he knew. In her performance attire, she seemed untouchable, untamed.
Flipping through more pages, Ethan discovered financial records: regular payments to her mother's care facility and an apparent lack of frivolous spending. Everything about her screamed survival. Yet, she had agreed to his fake engagement without hesitation.
What kind of person could balance two such opposing lives? And more importantly, why had she agreed to entangle herself with him?