THE RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE CEO DOCTOR HATED NURSE

The hospital was filled with the regular sounds: the shuffle of nurses' shoes on the polished floors, the murmur of people drifting in and out of rooms. Standing behind the nurse's station, Melissa St. Clair couldn't help but feel something had changed. The air seems charged. A new presence had arrived at the hospital; it wasn't only the hum of the structure that seemed different; it was the energy in the room, an electric undercurrent causing everyone to stop.

The door at the end of the passage opened, and he appeared. Alex Blackwood The latest chief executive officer. His tall, broad-shouldered body filled the entrance, and every head in the room turned naturally toward him. Almost right away, the murmurs began. Whispered about in quiet tones among the staff, his reputation preceded him like a bad cloud. The heartless tycoon who spared no one. The man whose frigid gaze could stop you dead. There he was, his black, wavy hair somewhat unkempt, his piercing blue eyes methodically surveying the room.

He let his presence hang over the room like a weight instead of speaking right away.

Melissa observed him walk down the corridor, the quiet in his wake obvious. Though his fitted suit was clean and polished, the gaze in his eyes kept everyone still. Chilly. Computing. He radiated strength. He was here to lead, not to socialize or make friends.

His eyes fell on her as he walked past the nurse's station. Melissa stood still.

For a time, the world appeared to halt. His piercing blue eyes met hers, and for a single second, it felt as if the gap between them shrank. There was an unspoken tension, a recognition. She knew who he was, but what surprised her was that he appeared to know precisely who she was, too. It was more than a passing look. Something private.

"Melissa St. Clair," he murmured, nearly growling in a low tone. Studying her with terrifying intensity, his eyes narrowed.

The time was painfully long.

She swallowed hard and made herself talk. Mr. Blackwood, of course?

He ignored her. Rather, he kept strolling by her with a slight, nearly undetectable grin at the edges of his mouth. But that quick conversation, that glance, it made her uncomfortable.

Just as fast as he came, Alex Blackwood was gone, his departure leaving a chill that appeared to hang in the air.

For Melissa, the rest of the day flew by. Thoughts of the new CEO upset her normal routine. She had seen him in passing, his frigid attitude, and the way everyone appeared to step aside as he walked through a room, but there was something about the way he stared at her. That quick but powerful time.

She couldn't get rid of the impression that he knew her. Not only who she was but also what she was. The daughter of the man who had destroyed his life.

She attempted to dismiss it as merely a coincidence, but as she entered the break room and seen Alex Blackwood conversing with a group of senior doctors, her breath caught. His look grabbed her across the room and once more it was that same severe scrutiny.

His eyes narrowed as he evaluated her as though reading every aspect of her soul. A shiver ran down her back. She knew, without a question, that he was aware of who she was, the lady whose father's deeds had shattered his universe.

Nurse St. Clair, may I assist you? Alex's voice pierced her musings.

Melissa's heart skipped a beat. Though the strain between them was obvious, she pushed herself to go to him. As she walked nearer, her feet felt like lead. Alex first remained silent when she stood in front of him. He simply looked at her as though waiting for her to shatter. She stood her ground and refused to let him know how much his presence disturbed her.

At last, Alex whispered quietly, "You'll be mine, Melissa," his words icy.

She blinked, confident she had misheard him. "Pardon me?"

A slight smile formed on his lips. "I said, you will be mine."

His words set in as the room appeared to get colder. She wanted to reply, to brush it off as a perverse joke, but the chill in his gaze revealed to her he wasn't joking. His stare was so heavy it suffocated her and made her feel as though she were drowning in it.

Alex didn't wait for her to reply. His footsteps reverberating down the corridor, he turned and went away, leaving a quiet that weighed painfully on her chest.

Sharp, the knock on her office door pierced the room's deep stillness. Startled, Melissa looked up. She had not anticipated anyone, especially not him.

Alex was standing there when she opened the door, framed by the weak hallway light. He did not grin. For a time, he said nothing. He only looked at her as though judging whether she would let him in or slam the door in his face.

At last, after what seemed like an age, he spoke. We have to talk.

Melissa stepped aside to let him in and nodded. The strain was unbearable. The instant he walked in, she could sense his presence bearing down on her. The room appeared smaller in some way and the air denser.

Sitting down opposite her, Alex's posture was stiff and under control. He never looked away from her eyes.

"I'm making you a deal, Melissa," he continued, his voice silky, perhaps too quiet. A contract for marriage. You will be tied to me. In return, you will have access to a life free from your father's chaos.

Melissa choked on her breath. The chaos left by her father. The one thing that had kept her stuck for so long was the cause she had not been able to leave his shadow. But to be attached to Alex Blackwood in such a personal way, to be bound to him?

You want me to marry you? she said, doubtful.

His eyes grew darker. "Not only inquiring." I'm offering you a choice: either accept my conditions and leave the past behind or stay here and continue living the life you now have.

Melissa remained motionless, her thoughts whirling. Inside her, wrath and dread combined with a peculiar sense of interest. Could she truly pull this off? Could she enter into a deal with this man and escape all that had kept her back?

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" the words escaping her lips before she could stop them, she said.

Alex's lips twitched into something resembling a grin. Melissa, you always have an option. You always have a choice, Melissa. But refusing this opportunity will make you sorry.

He pushed a contract toward her over the desk. The papers were like chains in their weight. Her hand floated above the signature line as she gazed at them.

Should you decline, you remain in the chaos your father left behind. You will always remain bound.

Her heart raced in her chest. She understood the significance of this. She was being given a lifeline, but at what price?

Alex's icy stare remained constant. Sign it, and I will guarantee your release. Refuse and you will always remain his daughter, trapped in the past.

She thought for only a second before grabbing the pen.

Sitting alone in her tiny apartment, the walls surrounding her seeming to close in, Melissa felt the burden of the ultimatum pressing down on her chest. Alex Blackwood's words sliced through the stillness in her head: "You'll be mine." His voice had never sounded so definitive to her. Not after everything she had suffered due to her father's heritage could she refuse the contract, the deal he had offered. But the thought of marrying him, of being tied to a guy she hardly knew, sickened her.

Picking up the phone and calling the one person who could possibly understand made her fingers shake. Victoria, her closest friend, answered the phone after two rings.

Melisa? Though Victoria's voice was friendly, there was a hint of worry that immediately made Melissa anxious.

Melissa's voice was a blend of anger and dread. "I don't know what to do," she murmured. Alex Blackwood... he seems to be offering me a decision but it really feels like I'm stuck. The burden of it all is smothering me.

Victoria's voice became softer, revealing a subtle strength. "I understand your fear." You have to question whether you want to be free or if you want to stay trapped for all time in your father's errors.

Melissa shut her eyes. Victoria was correct. She could not run from her background, but could she actually walk into a marriage founded on manipulation? Was sacrificing herself for someone else's vengeance worth freedom?

Melissa said softly, her voice strained, "I don't want to be controlled." "But... I don't know whether I have a choice."

Victoria said, "You always have a choice." But remaining will bind you for all time. You will always be under his control. You will be stuck.

Melissa's mind raced, her breath catching. Victoria's words seemed like chains binding her in position. She looked at the kitchen table's contract lying there. Though the ink had dried, the effects of signing it hung in the air.

She was choose her future, not only a guy or a life.

Though her thoughts were elsewhere, caught between two worlds, Melissa stood by the window gazing down at the city lights. In the still chamber, the clock on the wall kept ticking, its monotonous noise nearly deafening.

She had spent hours battling the choice. Every conceivable result crossed her mind, each one more suffocating than the last. Years of bondage from her family's history had passed; Alex Blackwood's offer, albeit harsh, was the way out. She might abandon the shadows of her history, flee her father's errors' stifling hold... but at what price?

She sighed and moved to the table where the contract lay mocking her. Alex had been clear: sign and you will be free. Refuse it and you remain where you are, always linked to your father's destruction.

Dark and forceful, she could nearly hear his voice in her head saying, "You'll be mine."

It was inescapable. She was ensnared. It made her stomach turn to think about it.

Her fingers floated above the pen.

"You don't have to do this, Melissa," she said softly, her voice echoing in the vacant space. "But you have no other option."

Picking up the pen made her heart race. In her hand, the gravity of the choice felt like a thousand pounds. She signed the contract with a fast movement.

The sound of the pen striking the paper was like an earthquake, rocking the very basis of her world. Pushing the contract aside, she gazed at the empty sheet now signed.

She felt neither victory nor comfort. Just the frigid truth of what she had only done.

Sitting back, she heard a voice from the entrance. Alex stood in the shadows.

"You have made a smart decision," he remarked quietly, nearly sarcastically. You now belong to me.

The words made her shiver.

Melissa remained silent. She was unable to. She had only now signed away her future.