Chapter 5 The Signature That Sold Her
Nadia didn’t remember crossing the hallway. One moment she was staring through the ICU glass at Nathan’s pale face, and the next she was standing behind Damian Blackwood, close enough to smell the faint scent of expensive cologne and cold air.
He didn’t turn immediately. He kept his eyes on Nathan as though Nadia wasn’t there.
“You moved him,” Nadia said, her voice shaking. “You took him without telling me.”
Damian finally turned his head slightly, not fully, just enough for her to see his profile,sharp jaw, calm mouth, eyes that looked like they had never begged anyone for anything in their entire life.
“He needed better care,” Damian replied.
“That wasn’t your decision!” Nadia snapped.
Damian faced her fully now. His expression didn’t change. No anger. No guilt. Nothing. It was like talking to a wall that could speak. “You were standing in a government hospital corridor counting seconds,” he said. “I paid so your brother could keep breathing. If you want to argue about pride, do it after he wakes up.”
Nadia’s hands curled into fists. “This is blackmail.”
Damian’s gaze dropped to her hands, then rose back to her face. “Call it what you like. But he is alive.”
Nadia swallowed hard. “Why are you doing this?”
Damian took one slow step closer. His presence swallowed the air. He didn’t need to shout. He didn’t need threats. His calmness carried the weight of a gun on a table. “I already told you,” he said. “I don’t do charity.”
Nadia’s heart pounded. “You want me to marry you.” The words tasted like poison as they left her mouth.
Damian nodded once, as if they were discussing something ordinary, like the weather. “Yes.”
Nadia’s eyes burned. “You’re insane.”
Damian didn’t react. “You’re desperate.”
The truth hit harder than an insult.
Nadia glanced back at Nathan through the glass. Her brother looked like a ghost. Machines did the breathing for him. The monitor beeped steadily, indifferent to her pain.
Damian followed her gaze.
“You have a choice,” he said quietly. “Sign, and Nathan gets the surgery, the ICU, the medication, the best doctors in Lagos. Refuse, and I withdraw the payment.”
Nadia’s head snapped toward him. “You can’t do that! You would kill him to force me?”
Damian leaned in just enough for his voice to cut deeper. “I won’t kill him. Poverty will. Time will. Bureaucracy will. I’m just removing the only ladder you have left if you decide to spit on it.”
Nadia’s throat tightened. Her lips trembled, but she forced the words out. “You don’t even know me.”
Damian’s eyes held hers without blinking. “I know enough. You’ve been working since you were sixteen,” he said. “Your father died owing people money. Your mother sells frozen fish from a wooden table outside the compound. Nathan is your only sibling. You have no rich uncles. No connections. No miracle.”
Nadia’s voice came out cracked. “Why are you stalking me?”
Damian’s expression didn’t soften. “I don’t stalk. I investigate.”
He closed the file and handed it to a man who had silently stepped into the room as they all walked out into the hallway down to the waiting area.
Nadia hadn’t even noticed the man until now.
“Barrister Kalu,” Damian said. “My legal counsel.”
The lawyer gave Nadia a polite nod and opened his briefcase. He pulled out a thick contract and a pen, then placed both on a small table by the ICU waiting area.
Damian gestured. “Sign.”
Nadia stared at the contract like it was a death sentence. “You think marriage is a business deal,” she said.
“It is,” Damian replied.
Nadia laughed bitterly. “You don’t even want a wife. You want a hostage.”
Damian’s gaze remained steady. “Call it whatever makes it easier for you to swallow.”
Nadia stepped closer to the table. Her eyes scanned the first page. The words blurred at first, then sharpened into cruelty.
Her hands shook. She looked up at Damian. “Three years?”
“Minimum,” Damian said.
Nadia’s throat tightened. “And after that?”
Damian shrugged slightly. “If I’m satisfied, you leave with money. If I’m not, we extend.”
Her stomach dropped. She turned to the lawyer. “This is… this is slavery.”
The lawyer’s face remained neutral. “It is a contract, madam.”
Nadia stared at the pen.
She imagined her mother’s voice on the phone the last time they talked, trembling. She imagined loan sharks entering their house again, laughing, touching what they wanted, taking what they wanted.
She imagined Nathan’s chest stopping. And she imagined herself standing over his grave, knowing she could have stopped it.
Her eyes filled with tears, but she blinked them away.
Damian watched her, unblinking. “You can hate me,” he said. “But you will still sign.”
Nadia’s fingers closed around the pen. Her hand hovered over the paper. Her voice came out small. “If I sign… you promise he lives?”
Damian’s eyes were cold steel. “I promise he gets the best chance money can buy.”
Nadia lowered the pen and wrote her name and signed. When she finished, her hand dropped to her side like it no longer belonged to her.
Damian took the contract, glanced at the signature, then handed it back to the lawyer without emotion. “Arrange everything,” he said. “Tomorrow.”
Nadia’s head snapped up. “Tomorrow?”
Damian’s tone remained flat. “The wedding will be private. No press. No ceremony. No drama.”
Her stomach churned. “You can’t do this so fast.”
Damian stepped closer, his voice low. “I can do anything fast.”
Within an hour, everything happened like a blur.
A nurse came out and told Nadia that Nathan was stable for the moment. A driver appeared as if summoned by the air itself. Nadia was escorted out of the hospital without being allowed to say goodbye properly.
Her feet dragged as she entered Damian’s car.
The interior smelled like leather and money. The seats were so soft they felt unreal. The windows were tinted dark enough to erase the outside world.
Lagos disappeared behind them.
When the gates of Damian’s mansion opened, Nadia’s mouth went dry.
The estate looked like a private fortress—tall gates, armed guards, bright lights, and a driveway that curved like a runway. The mansion itself rose in white stone and glass, massive and silent, like it had been built to intimidate the sky.
A maid led Nadia upstairs without speaking.
She was given a room larger than her entire apartment. When the door shut behind her, Nadia stood still for a long moment, listening to the silence.
This wasn’t a home. It was a cage dressed like luxury.
Hours later, after showering with trembling hands, she sat on the edge of the bed and pulled out the copy of the contract the lawyer had handed her.
She needed to see it again. To understand what she had just done.
Her fingers flipped through the pages slowly. Then her eyes stopped. The paper felt thicker near the back. Nadia frowned and turned another sheet.
There was a page attached, one she hadn’t seen at the hospital. Her breath caught as her eyes landed on the bold printed words: ADDITIONAL CLAUSE — NON-NEGOTIABLE.
