MARRIED TO HER EX'S FIANCE STEPBROTHER

They met at a private restaurant Anthony had apparently reserved just for them.No other guests. No waiters constantly checking in. No noise from nearby tables.

Just a private room surrounded by floor to ceiling windows, the city glowing beneath them, and Anthony Jake sitting across from her like he belonged there.Which, knowing him, he probably did.

Ivy had only seen Anthony a couple of times over the last two years.Family dinners. Engagement parties. Events where she had been too focused on Ethan to pay attention to anyone else.

But the little she had noticed about Anthony had always been the same.

He was cold.

Distant.

Like he had never approved of her relationship with his step-brother.

Now, sitting across from him in an empty restaurant, Ivy realized something that unsettled her.

She didn't actually know him at all.

She didn't know what he wanted. She didn't know why he was here. And she definitely didn't understand why he seemed so determined to help her.

"Thank you for meeting me," Anthony said.

His voice was calm, controlled.Ivy said nothing.She waited.

"I won't waste your time with small talk," he continued. "You're in the middle of a crisis. Your wedding was supposed to happen hours ago. People are already wondering why it didn't. Your father's reputation is at risk. And you're trying to figure out how to survive what comes next."

Ivy's expression hardened.

"That's very observant," she said. "But I still don't understand why you care. We barely know each other."

Anthony nodded slightly.

"No, we don't."

His eyes stayed on hers.

"But I know my step-brother. I know what he's capable of. And I know what he did to you."

His jaw tightened.

"And I'm not going to sit back and watch him walk away from it like nothing happened.

Something shifted in his expression.Something that made Ivy wonder if this was about more than Ethan.

"I have a proposal for you," Anthony said.

A strange feeling settled in Ivy's stomach.

"What kind of proposal?"

"Marry me."

For a second, she thought she had misunderstood him.

"What?"

"Marry me," he repeated.

His tone didn't change.

"Tomorrow. Quietly. Only family. The public doesn't need to know."

Ivy stared at him.

Then she let out a disbelieving laugh.

"You're insane."

She pushed her chair back.

"Sit down," Anthony said.

His voice wasn't harsh, but there was something about it that made her stop.

She hated that she listened.

But she sat.

"Think about this logically," he said. "Right now, you're the woman Ethan Jake cheated on. The bride whose wedding fell apart before it even started. People will talk. They'll create their own version of what happened."

"That's not fair."

"No," Anthony said. "It isn't."

He leaned back slightly.

"But unfair things still happen."

Ivy looked away.

"What exactly are you suggesting?"

"That you change the story."

She looked back at him.

"What?"

"What if instead of being the woman Ethan destroyed, you become the woman who moved on? What if you marry someone who actually chooses you?"

Ivy's laugh was bitter.

"You don't choose me. You barely know me. And from what I've seen over the past two years, you've spent most of your time acting like you couldn't stand me."

Anthony's expression softened slightly.

"I never thought you were beneath me."

A pause.

"I thought you were too good for Ethan."

Ivy went quiet.

Anthony continued.

"This would be a marriage of convenience. One year. After that, if you want a divorce, you'll have it."

He watched her carefully.

"You'll have enough money to start over. Your father's reputation will be protected. And Ethan will have to live with the fact that he lost you."

Ivy narrowed her eyes.

"So this is revenge."

Anthony didn't deny it.

"Yes."

The honesty caught her off guard.

"But it's also survival."

Ivy stood.

"I need time to think."

"Of course."

Anthony didn't try to stop her.

"Sleep on it. But I'll need your answer tomorrow. After that, the offer is gone."

She left the restaurant feeling like her entire life had been turned upside down.

When she got home, she told her parents.

Her mother's face went pale.

Her father immediately shook his head.

"Absolutely not."

"Ivy, you cannot marry someone you barely know just because Ethan hurt you."

"I'm not doing this because of Ethan," she said quietly.

She looked between them.

"I'm doing this because of me."

Her parents went silent.

"If I don't do this, I'll spend years being known as the woman Ethan Jake cheated on."

Her voice cracked slightly.

"That will follow me everywhere. People will remember his betrayal before they remember anything else about me."

She looked at her father.

"But if I marry Anthony, then my life doesn't end with Ethan. I move forward. I prove that what he did didn't destroy me."

Her parents exchanged a look.

"What does Anthony get from this?" her father asked.

Ivy hesitated.

"Revenge."

A pause.

"And maybe something else. I don't know."

Her father stayed quiet for a long time.

"If anyone finds out this was planned..."

"It wasn't planned," Ivy interrupted. "Anthony made the offer. I'm considering it. That's all anyone needs to know."

"And if people find out you married Anthony days after ending your engagement?"

Ivy swallowed.

"Then the story changes."

Her mother looked confused.

"How?"

"Then I'm not the woman who was abandoned. I'm the woman who found something unexpected."

Her father sighed.

"I don't like this."

He looked at her.

"But I understand why you're thinking about it."

That night, sleep refused to come.

Ivy lay awake thinking about Anthony.

The man who had spent two years keeping his distance.

The man who barely spoke to her, yet somehow understood exactly what she was going through.

She thought about marrying a stranger.

She thought about trusting someone she didn't know.

And then she thought about the alternative.

A lifetime of being connected to Ethan's betrayal.

By morning, she had made her decision.

At exactly 10 AM, she called Anthony.

"I've decided," she said.

There was a brief silence.

"And?"

"I want to meet. We need to discuss everything. The terms. All of it."

"Dinner tonight," Anthony replied. "I'll send you the address."

"Anthony."

He paused.

"Why are you really doing this?"

For a moment, there was only silence.

Then his voice lowered.

"Because I spent two years watching you love someone who didn't deserve you."

A pause.

"And I'm not going to watch you suffer because of his mistakes."

The call ended.

And Ivy sat there wondering what exactly she had just agreed to.