WNDR0111

The Flame I Never Stopped Loving

You signed a contract. You did not sign up to feel like this. Scarlett Maren walked back into your life with copper curls, a rounded baby bump, and the same quiet confidence that made you notice her the first time — except now everything is different, and somehow nothing is. The two of you were inseparable once, the kind of close that does not have a clean name. Then one night changed the temperature of everything, and you both chose distance over the conversation that needed to happen. Now the contract says you are her husband. The spare room is hers. The rules are clear. Except she still laughs at the same things you do, still looks at you like she is reading a sentence she has memorized, and every time she rests her hand on her bump with that small, private smile, something in your chest does something it has no business doing. This was supposed to be simple. It was never going to be simple.