Her legs felt rooted to the floor, her fingers curling into the soft fabric of her dress like they were bracing for impact.
She wasn’t even sure she heard him right, except she knew she did. His words still echoed in her ears, calm and flat, like he’d just asked her to pass the salt.
"I..." Her voice cracked into a whisper. "Is this a joke?"
But Theo didn’t answer.
Instead, he turned his back and walked to his desk, his movements unhurried. With one smooth pull, he slid open a drawer and took out a sheet of paper.
"Write down everything you want," he said, placing it neatly on the desk in front of the couch with a pen. "Conditions. Rules. Terms. Whatever makes you say yes."
Daisy raised her hand slightly, like she was trying to stop whatever coming with her palm. "Wait... hold on a second." Her voice was breathless. "You’re serious?"
He looked at her then. Eyes steady, unreadable. "I don’t say things I don’t mean."
She stared at the paper. Then at him. Then back at the paper.
Theo remained exactly as he was, calm, composed, and maddeningly unreadable. His posture didn’t shift, his expression didn’t flicker.
And maybe that was what made it feel worse.
A slow heaviness settled in her chest. He must’ve thought she was desperate. That she’d been reduced to the kind of woman who’d agree to anything if the paycheck was high enough.
"So..." She pressed her lips together tightly, her voice lower now. "I must have looked desperate enough for you to casually propose that nonsense?"
Theo didn’t flinch. He didn’t shift or defend himself. He merely watched her, like her reaction had been calculated long before she stepped into his office.
"You are desperate," he said plainly.
The words hit harder than she expected. Her brows drew in, and her mouth parted slightly in disbelief.
"I’m not mocking you," he added, tone still unchanging. "You need money. I need something else. I’m offering a solution."
"A solution," she repeated, voice sharpening. "You’re offering marriage like you’re selling me a used car."
At that, Theo tilted his head then walked back toward his desk with slow, unhurried steps. "You can’t even afford a used car at this moment." His low voice reached Daisy’s ears, sharp and cutting like the edge of a glass shard.
Daisy stiffened. Her throat tightened, a flicker of heat rising to her cheeks, not from embarrassment, but from the sting of humiliation.
He didn’t even say it with cruelty. That made it worse. It was simply a fact to him. A statement of her reality.
She turned to face him fully, her jaw clenched. "It seems like you know everything about me? Did you already investigate me?"
Theo’s eyes met hers again. "I didn’t have to," he said, voice calm and almost infuriatingly composed. "You made it easy."
Daisy’s heart dropped, her breath catching somewhere between fury and disbelief. "Excuse me?"
"You needed money," he continued, not missing a beat. "You were desperate enough to come back after quitting the same day. That’s not hard to read. It doesn’t take surveillance to figure out someone’s falling apart."
"Right... I made it obvious." She nodded, a bitter laugh escaping her lips, soft and broken, the kind you let out when you’ve already lost. "I guess I should thank you for pointing it out."
Theo blinked, his face unchanged, no flinch, no apology, not even the faintest crack in that emotionless mask. Like he hadn’t just driven a knife through someone already bleeding.
Daisy let out a shaky breath, forcing herself to laugh again, this time more for survival than sarcasm. "You really don’t feel a thing, do you?" she asked, her voice hushed, as though she didn’t expect an answer. "You just look at people and measure them by how useful they are to you. I get it now."
She turned her body halfway toward the door but stopped, her fingers trembling as they brushed against the bandage. "You don’t even need a wife, do you? You just want a solution with no feelings attached. An answer to whatever thing you’re hiding behind all this..."
For a moment, Theo didn’t move, but his eyes flickered, like a match almost catching flame, then burning out before it could become anything real.
"I’m sorry to disappoint you," Daisy said, her voice firmer now, "but I refuse."
And with that, she stepped toward the door.
The cold edge of his voice stopped her mid-reach. Her hand hovered above the doorknob, frozen.
She turned her head slightly, her voice low and sharp. "What do you mean I can’t?"
Theo finally took a seat in his chair, unbothered. "It is what it is. In the end, you’ll agree."
Daisy narrowed her eyes, incredulous. "Excuse me?"
"Or to put it plainly," he said, fingers lacing together in front of him, "I’ll make you."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Daisy stared at him, like she’d just heard thunder crack through a still sky. Her voice, when it came, was tight. "You think I’m that easy to corner?"
"I think you’re smart enough to see there’s no better deal waiting for you out there." He paused, gaze locked on hers.
Daisy turned back to face him and suddenly forced a smile, one that didn’t reach her eyes. "I’m really sorry to break it to you," she said, lifting her chin defiantly. "I’m not that desperate. I have a rich boyfriend I could ask—"
Theo’s voice sliced through her lie before she could finish it.
The words struck her like a slap. She blinked, stunned, her lips parting but no sound came out.
A few beats of silence passed before she found her voice again. Her eyes narrowed as she jabbed a finger in his direction.
"You freaking bad stalker," she snapped, her voice cracking slightly as her cheeks flushed. "You lied! You did investigate me! Didn’t even bother hiding it now, huh?"