I stopped in front of him, arms crossed, arching a brow. "And what are you doing here?"
"Came to drop you off at work," Aiden said casually, like it was the most natural thing in the world for a man in a three-piece Armani suit to be standing outside my building before 8 a.m.
I narrowed my eyes before replying. "I'm perfectly capable of driving myself."
His smirk was maddening. "About that… I don't know if you noticed, but your car didn't arrive last night."
I blinked, my eyes darting to the garage. "What?"
He sipped from his coffee. "It was taken to my place. For safekeeping."
I gaped. "Why would it need safekeeping?"
"Because," he drawled, setting the coffee cup on the roof of the car, "you'll be moving in soon, and I figured we might as well start easing into it."
"I haven't agreed to live there yet," I snapped.
"You will," he said smoothly.
"I—excuse me?" I blinked, shocked by his confidence. "What makes you so sure?"
He stepped closer, gaze steady. "Because the public already sees us as married, Jasmine. The press is having a field day with our announcement, and frankly, I'd prefer not to start a PR crisis on day one of our takeover."
I opened my mouth to protest, then snapped it shut. A PR crisis was the last thing I needed when I was walking into a boardroom to take over my family's company.
Still. "I think I'll be fine with taking a cab," I muttered.
"A cab?" Aiden's brow lifted slightly, almost as if I'd just offended his entire bloodline. "You want me to let my wife stand on a street corner hailing a cab during rush hour? That's insulting."
"I'm not your—" I stopped myself, realising I was actually his wife, so that argument was invalid.
I glanced at the time on my phone—7:47 a.m. Damn it. He was right about the traffic. Finding a cab right now would be a nightmare, especially in heels. And I had no patience for being late today of all days.
With a sigh that probably gave away too much, I conceded. "Fine."
I walked past him and slid into the back of the car. I didn't need to look to see if he was smiling, but I could feel the smug satisfaction rolling off him like heat.
He joined me a moment later, the scent of his cologne settling into the air—cool, clean, and unfairly distracting.
We sat in silence for a few blocks, the city buzzing outside the tinted windows. I stared straight ahead, determined not to engage.
"Your things will be moved in today," Aiden said casually, like we were discussing the weather.
I slowly turned to look at him. "You really don't do subtle, do you?"
He didn't glance at me. "You want this deal to work, right?"
"And living with you is part of that?"
"To the public, we're already married," he replied smoothly, and in an annoyingly reasonable voice too. "The little stunt we pulled last night? The media ate it up. Headlines this morning are calling us a corporate power couple."
I groaned. "That's disgusting."
"But effective." He turned to me, eyes meeting mine. "Right now, the illusion of unity matters. We can't afford cracks."
I hated that he made sense. I hated even more that he knew it.
"Let's just focus on getting to the office."
Aiden hummed in agreement. "We're not going straight to the boardroom."
I frowned. "We're not?"
He shook his head. "Nope."
"Then where to?"
He glanced at me, all business now. "You're about to become the majority stakeholder of Heart Enterprises, Jasmine. You need to sign for it."
My stomach flipped.
Right.
The reality of it suddenly pressed in on me. Last night, the words had come out with ease—I'm buying the company—but now, it was real.
The transfer. The control. The responsibility.
We arrived at a building with the sign: Frost & Vale, Corporate Law Division.
"So where are we?" I asked slowly.
"This," he said, buttoning his jacket as the driver opened his door. "... is where we make you queen."
Dramatic bastard, I thought.
Still, I followed him out of the car and into the pristine lobby.
An elevator ride later, we stepped into a private floor where a conference room waited—large table, panoramic city views, and three lawyers already seated with open folders and neutral expressions.
"Mrs Frost," one of them greeted me, standing as I entered. "Everything is prepared. We're transferring seventy-three percent of Heart Enterprises' shares under your name, as instructed."
"Seventy-three?" I echoed, blinking. "Wait—you're putting the shares in my name?"
Aiden didn't sit—he stood behind me, hands resting lightly on the back of my chair. "You wanted control. This is it. Sign, and you're no one's pawn anymore."
I stared at the top page, heart thudding.
A transaction summary in bold: $950,000,000 transferred in total asset value, enough to buy out a majority stake and a few key board members' loyalties along the way.
"You did all this overnight?" I asked.
Aiden's smirk ghosted at the edge of my vision. "Money talks fast when it's this loud."
My hands trembled slightly as I picked up the pen. "I hope you know what you're doing," I murmured.
"I do," Aiden said. "Do you?"
I glanced at him, then back at the documents. One pen stroke, and I'd become the most powerful person in the room my uncle ruled over for years.
My uncle's voice echoed in my head: You have no idea what you've done.
Maybe. But I was about to find out.
I signed.
The lawyers moved quickly after that—confirming wire transfers, notarising forms, uploading updates to the shareholder registry in real time. Aiden's legal machine was terrifying in its efficiency.
Within fifteen minutes, it was done.
I owned Heart Enterprises.
I sat back in my chair, stunned. It didn't feel real. Not yet.
Aiden slipped a leather folder toward me. "One last thing. This makes you interim CEO. Just a formality until the board votes—but we both know how that vote's going to go."
I flipped it open, scanned the details, then signed without hesitation.
"You okay?" he asked.
I closed the folder. "No."
He smirked. "Good. That means you understand what this means."
Then he stood, adjusting the cuffs of his suit. "Let's go ruin some careers."
—
A short drive later, we arrived at the Heart Enterprises building. The guards at the lobby barely blinked as Aiden and I swept through the entrance.
The boardroom was already full—executives in tailored suits, half-whispers, coffee cups trembling just slightly as they noticed us walk in unannounced.
The CFO stood up, flustered. "Mr. Frost—Ms. Heart—we weren't expecting—"
Aiden didn't even slow down. "It's Mrs Frost now. And I didn't realise I needed to RSVP to my wife's company."