EVERYONE LAUGHED WHEN THE HOUSEKEEPER SAID SHE LOVED THE MOST FEARED MAN IN MADRID… BUT DOMINIC STOOD UP, WRAPPED AN ARM AROUND HER WAIST, AND ASKED, “ANY PROBLEM WITH MY FIANCÉE?”
PART 1 — THE LIE DOMINIC TOLD IN FRONT OF EVERYONE
“You?”
Alexander Reed looked Sophia Miller up and down in her gray uniform.
Then he gave a quiet laugh.
“You’re just an employee.”
The room went silent.
Sophia felt her cheeks burn.
She had worked at the Moretti estate for three years.
She prepared guest rooms.
Organized dinners.
Helped coordinate the staff during private meetings.
She had never pretended to be something she wasn’t.
Until that week.
“And that means I’m not allowed to love someone?” she asked.
Alexander smiled with contempt.
“No. But it helps to know your place.”
Sophia clenched her hands.
At the far end of the table, Dominic Moretti remained seated.
Black suit.
Open collar.
Tattoos visible along his neck.
A gold cross resting against his chest.
Everyone in Madrid knew the Moretti name.
Businessmen.
Politicians.
Police officers.
And people who preferred not to talk about him at all.
Dominic hadn’t said a word.
Sophia turned toward him.
“Then say it, Dominic.”
Alexander looked at him too.
“Yes. Tell her.”
Sophia could feel her heart pounding against her ribs.
This wasn’t part of their agreement.
Dominic was supposed to introduce her as his fiancée during dinner.
But only hours earlier, he had changed his mind.
“It’s better if you keep working tonight,” he had told her. “I’ll handle it.”
Sophia hadn’t understood why.
Now she thought she did.
He was ashamed of her.
Or maybe he had realized that seating an employee beside him could create consequences he didn’t want.
Dominic slowly pushed his chair back.
He stood.
Alexander stopped smiling.
Dominic walked around the table.
He stopped beside Sophia.
She looked up at him.
He placed one firm but gentle hand around her waist.
Then asked:
“Any problem with my fiancée?”
Alexander went pale.
So did Sophia.
“Fiancée?” Alexander repeated.
“Do you need me to say it again?”
“I thought—”
“That’s usually your problem.”
Alexander looked at Sophia.
“Since when?”
Dominic answered:
“Since it stopped being any of your business.”
Alexander didn’t speak again.
Sophia waited until everyone had left the room.
Then she closed the door.
She turned toward Dominic.
“What the hell was that?”
“What we agreed on.”
“No.”
She pointed toward her uniform.
“We agreed that I would pretend to be your fiancée for one dinner. Then you told me it wasn’t necessary anymore.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Why?”
Dominic stayed silent.
Sophia understood.
“Because of Alexander.”
“In part.”
“Who is he really?”
Dominic walked toward the window.
“He’s the Bellini family’s attorney.”
Sophia knew the name.
Everyone did.
The Bellinis controlled several port-related businesses and had been at odds with the Morettis for years.
“What does that have to do with me?”
“They want me to marry Valerie Bellini.”
Sophia’s eyes widened.
“A marriage?”
“An agreement.”
“We’re living in the twenty-first century.”
“Tell our families that.”
Dominic had rejected the arrangement three times.
But Valerie’s father was threatening to cancel contracts that could put hundreds of employees at legitimate Moretti-owned businesses out of work.
So Dominic came up with what even he admitted was a stupid idea.
Four days earlier, he had called Sophia into his office.
“I need a fiancée.”
Sophia nearly dropped the tray in her hands.
“Excuse me?”
“A fake fiancée.”
“Hire an actress.”
“I need someone I trust.”
“And you trust your employee?”
“More than almost everyone who sits at my table.”
Sophia agreed for one reason.
A year earlier, Dominic had quietly paid for her mother’s surgery.
He had never asked to be repaid.
Sophia wanted to return the favor.
It was supposed to last one night.
But when Dominic called her “my fiancée” in front of Alexander…
the lie suddenly felt far too real.
PART 2 — THE PRICE OF PRETENDING TOO WELL
Over the next two weeks, the rumor spread.
Dominic Moretti was engaged.
And the woman wasn’t from a powerful family.
She was Sophia Miller.
An employee in his own home.
The reaction was brutal.
Some people mocked her.
Others claimed she was after his money.
The Moretti family thought Dominic had lost his mind.
His uncle, Charles Moretti, was blunt.
“This has to end.”
“No.”
“The Bellinis can destroy months of negotiations.”
“Then we’ll negotiate something else.”
“For a maid?”
Dominic slammed his hand against the table.
“Don’t ever call her that in front of me again.”
Sophia heard everything from the hallway.
That night, she decided she wanted out.
“This has gone far enough.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What happened?”
“This isn’t a small lie anymore.”
“I never said it was.”
“People are talking about me.”
“People always talk.”
“You’re used to it. I’m not.”
Dominic went quiet.
Sophia continued.
“And there’s something else.”
“What?”
“You’re starting to act like it’s real.”
He took too long to answer.
That frightened Sophia more than any threat could have.
“Dominic…”
“At first, it was a lie.”
Sophia swallowed.
“And now?”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Now I’m not sure.”
She stepped backward.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Turn an arrangement into something I never chose.”
Dominic stopped.
The words hit him.
“You’re right.”
Sophia expected him to push back.
He didn’t.
“The engagement ends tomorrow.”
She stared at him.
“That easily?”
“You said you want it to end.”
“Yes.”
“Then it ends.”
For the first time, Sophia understood something no one ever said about Dominic.
He was feared.
Controlling.
Used to making decisions.
But when she set a boundary, he respected it.
The next morning, before they could announce the end of their fake engagement, Alexander arrived.
He brought documents.
“The Bellinis know the engagement isn’t real.”
Dominic’s expression didn’t change.
“And?”
Alexander smiled.
“We have statements from two employees.”
Sophia felt cold.
One of them had overheard part of the original conversation.
If the lie became public, the Bellinis could portray the situation as deliberate manipulation and walk away from the negotiations.
But Alexander wanted something.
“Convince Sophia to sign this.”
It was a statement.
It claimed Sophia had invented the engagement on her own in order to get money.
She read it twice.
“You want me to take the blame for everything.”
“You’ll receive generous compensation.”
Dominic ripped the document out of Alexander’s hands.
“Get out.”
Alexander smiled.
“Then tomorrow, all of Madrid will know the truth.”
Sophia spoke.
“Wait.”
Dominic turned.
“No.”
“Let me think.”
That night, Sophia made her decision.
She wasn’t going to sign.
But she wasn’t going to hide anymore either.
The next day, with both families and their attorneys present, Sophia spoke first.
“Yes. The engagement started as a lie.”
A murmur spread through the room.
Dominic remained still.
Sophia continued:
“I agreed because Dominic needed a way out of a marriage being negotiated like a business contract.”
Valerie Bellini’s father stood.
“This is an insult.”
Then another voice answered:
“No. The insult was trying to decide who I was supposed to marry.”
Everyone turned toward the door.
It was Valerie Bellini.
PART 3 — THE BRIDE WHO NEVER WANTED TO MARRY DOMINIC
Valerie walked in alone.
Thirty years old.
Black suit.
Exhausted expression.
She stopped in front of her father.
“I didn’t want that marriage either.”
The man clenched his jaw.
“Valerie.”
“I’ve been telling you that for two years.”
Then she looked at Dominic.
“And you’ve spent two years making excuses instead of publicly admitting you don’t want to marry me either.”
Dominic lowered his head.
“You’re right.”
Sophia was stunned.
Valerie gave a small smile.
“Did all of you seriously think I dreamed about marrying a man who can barely say three full sentences to me?”
For the first time, the tension broke.
Even Sophia had to hold back a smile.
Valerie placed several documents on the table.
She had secretly been working with members of her own family’s board.
The contracts everyone claimed depended on the marriage could continue without it.
There were other commercial options.
The engagement had never truly been necessary.
It was simply an old family tradition disguised as a business requirement.
“It’s over,” Valerie said. “I am not a bargaining chip.”
That sentence changed the negotiations.
Not in an hour.
Not in a day.
There were weeks of arguments.
But eventually, the two families signed a strictly commercial agreement.
No wedding.
No personal alliance.
No Sophia acting as Dominic’s shield.
Three days later, Sophia left her uniform neatly folded on the bed.
Dominic found her packing a suitcase.
“You’re leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Because of Alexander?”
“No.”
“Because of me?”
Sophia took a breath.
“In part.”
Dominic didn’t try to stop her.
“Where will you go?”
“My sister owns a small hotel in Segovia. She needs a manager.”
“I could offer you—”
“No.”
Dominic smiled faintly.
“I didn’t even finish.”
“Exactly.”
He nodded.
“Then I wish you luck.”
Sophia expected to feel relieved.
Instead, she felt sad.
“That’s it?”
Dominic looked at her.
“You once asked me not to make decisions for you.”
He gestured toward the door.
“I’m not going to start now.”
Sophia left.
Eight months passed.
One winter afternoon, she was reviewing reservations at her sister’s small hotel when a man walked through the door.
Black coat.
Dark hair.
No bodyguards.
No expensive suit.
No entourage.
Dominic.
Sophia raised one eyebrow.
“Do you need a room?”
“Maybe.”
“How many nights?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Whether you’ll have dinner with me.”
Sophia leaned against the front desk.
“As your fake fiancée?”
“No.”
“As your employee?”
“Never again.”
“Then as what?”
Dominic took a breath.
“As a woman I want to get to know without contracts, without families, and without asking her to pretend to be anything.”
Sophia remained quiet.
“And if I say no?”
“I’ll get a room, have dinner alone, and leave tomorrow.”
“No threats?”
“No threats.”
“No ‘my fiancée’?”
Dominic smiled.
“Not until you decide you want to call yourself that.”
Sophia tried not to smile.
She failed.
“One dinner.”
“One.”
“And it doesn’t mean anything.”
“I know.”
Their first date was awkward.
The second was less so.
By the third, they were both laughing about how everything had started.
A full year passed before Dominic brought out a ring.
Not in a mansion.
Not in front of dangerous men.
Not during a negotiation.
In the hotel kitchen.
Sophia was slicing bread.
“No.”
Dominic immediately put the ring box away.
Sophia stared at him.
“What are you doing?”
“You said no.”
She started laughing.
“I said don’t get down on one knee while I’m holding a bread knife.”
Dominic blinked.
“Oh.”
“Try again.”
He waited.
“Now?”
Sophia put the knife down.
“Now.”
This time, when Dominic asked her to marry him, there was no Alexander watching.
No family negotiating.
No uniform.
No lie.
Sophia said yes.
A few months later, they had a small wedding.
Valerie was one of the guests.
Alexander wasn’t.
Before the ceremony began, Dominic saw Sophia in her white dress.
“Nervous?”
“Very.”
“You can still run.”
She smiled.
“The first time, I pretended to be your fiancée to save you from a wedding.”
She took his hand.
“It would be pretty ridiculous to run away now that I’m the one who chose this one.”
Dominic laughed.
And Sophia finally understood why, that first night in front of Alexander, she had felt so afraid when Dominic said:
“Any problem with my fiancée?”
Because at that moment, the words were a lie.
May you like
But somewhere inside her, a part of her already hoped that one day…
he could say them without pretending.
