Chapter 4

The alumni event wound down.

Liam was a little drunk, more than he intended.

The whiskey had dulled the edges of his pain, but also his judgment.

"I should get a cab," he mumbled, fumbling for his phone.

Isabelle smoothly took his arm.

"Nonsense. I'll give you a ride. Where are you staying?"

Her touch was firm, confident.

He told her the name of his boutique hotel.

"Charming," she said, a small smile playing on her lips. "My driver is waiting."

In the plush backseat of her town car, silence settled between them, thick with unspoken things.

Liam felt a strange pull towards her, an unexpected comfort in her presence.

At his hotel, she didn't just drop him off.

"I'll see you to your room," she stated, not asked.

He was too tired, too buzzed, to argue.

In the hotel's vintage, creaky elevator, the space felt suddenly small.

Isabelle turned to him.

Her eyes searched his.

Then, she leaned in and kissed him.

It wasn't a tentative kiss.

It was passionate, demanding, like a dam bursting.

Years of something unspoken were in that kiss.

Liam, caught off guard, found himself responding.

The raw emotion of it, the sheer surprise, short-circuited his grief for a moment.

They stumbled out of the elevator and into his room.

The night became a blur of intense connection, a desperate seeking of solace, of oblivion.

Isabelle was a force of nature, pulling him into her orbit.

Later, much later, tangled in the sheets, Isabelle whispered, "This was... significant for me, Liam."

She hinted at a long-held torch, something he couldn't quite grasp in his dazed state.

The next morning, sunlight streamed into the room.

Liam woke up with a pounding headache and a jumble of confused emotions.

Isabelle was already awake, dressed, looking impossibly fresh.

She sat on the edge of the bed, watching him.

"Morning," she said, her voice crisp.

"Morning," he croaked.

Then, she dropped the bombshell.

"My family has been pressuring me to settle down," she began, her tone business-like. "And honestly, I'm tired of the matchmaking."

She paused, her gaze direct.

"I want to seize the moment. Liam, marry me."

Liam stared at her, speechless. Marry her? He barely knew her. He was still reeling from Jessica.

"What?"

"A swift marriage. Cambridge City Hall. Today, if possible."

She saw the shock on his face.

"Think of it as a mutually beneficial arrangement," she continued smoothly. "A year. It gives you stability, a fresh start, a way to put distance between yourself and... Austin."

She didn't say Jessica's name, but he knew.

"It gives me a reprieve from my family's relentless efforts. We can be partners. Support each other."

Liam was overwhelmed.

His mind raced. Stability. A clean break. Someone strong, decisive.

Someone who, for some reason, wanted him.

The contrast with Jessica's casual cruelty was stark.

Isabelle was offering him a lifeline, albeit a strange one.

And a dawning respect for her audacity, her sheer will, began to form.

He was emotionally raw, vulnerable.

Maybe this was what he needed.

A radical change.

"Okay," he heard himself say. "Okay, Isabelle. Let's do it."

A slow smile spread across her face.

"Excellent."