Signed the Devil’s contract
Amara never wanted a husband. She certainly never wanted this one who’s a billionaire known only as “the Devil,” feared in every boardroom he enters, forced into her life through a contract signed to save her father from ruin. She expects coldness. She doesn’t expect his children. Five-year-old twins, sharp-eyed and guarded, who somehow feel less like strangers and more like something she can’t explain. A daughter who claims her as “Mommy” within minutes. A son who watches her like he’s deciding whether she’s safe to trust. What Amara doesn’t know is that five years ago, in a night she’s spent her whole life trying to forget, she carried these very children for a father whose face she never saw, and a truth neither of them ever meant to find. Now she’s living under his roof. Sleeping down the hall from him. Falling, slowly and against every instinct she has, for a man who doesn’t yet know the secret sitting right in front of him. When the truth finally comes out, it won’t just break a marriage of convenience. It will unravel everything they thought they knew about how their family began.
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Chapter: Chapter 51: Visiting the Devil I KnewADRIEN’S POVThe visitation room smelled like bleach and old coffee, fluorescent lights buzzing overhead while I waited for them to bring Scott out.He looked different in the orange jumpsuit. Smaller. The arrogance that once filled every room he entered had been replaced by something hollowed out, though his eyes still sharpened the moment he saw me."Didn't expect a visit," he said, sitting across from me, chains rattling faintly against the table. "Come to gloat?""I need information.""Straight to business. Some things never change." He leaned back, studying me. "What could you possibly need from me?""Someone's been investigating my children. Specifically their abilities. Someone professional, well-funded, patient. I want to know if this connects to you."Something flickered across his face, too quick for me to name. "Why would I know anything about that? I'm a little preoccupied in here.""Because you're the kind of man who talks when he's desperate," I said. "And desperate men
최신 업데이트: 2026-10-14
Chapter: Chapter 50: Dead Ends and Small VictoriesADRIEN’S POV The investigation into the fake publication yielded frustratingly little over the following two weeks, each lead my security team pursued collapsing into another layer of carefully constructed anonymity. "Shell company after shell company," my head of security reported, exhaustion evident in his voice during our third debrief that week. "Whoever set this up knew exactly what they were doing. Every trail we follow leads to another dead end, another untraceable account, another business registered in a jurisdiction that doesn't require disclosure of ownership." "There has to be something," I said, frustration bleeding into my voice despite my best efforts at composure. "No one covers their tracks this thoroughly without extensive resources and considerable motivation." "Agreed. Which tells us this isn't some opportunistic individual. This is organized. Possibly corporate. Someone with the money and patience to construct layers of protection most people wouldn't bother w
최신 업데이트: 2026-10-14
Chapter: Chapter 49: What Zuri MissedAMARA’S POVThree weeks into the private tutoring arrangement, I found Zuri sitting alone in the window seat of her room, staring out at nothing in particular, a stillness in her that felt entirely wrong on a child usually so full of motion and noise."Sweetheart?"She didn't turn immediately, which worried me more than anything she might have said. "I miss recess," she finally admitted, "And lunch, where everyone talks at once and it's loud and messy and fun. Here it's just quiet all the time. Just me and Mr. Barry and his worksheets."I settled onto the window seat beside her, pulling her gently into my side. "I know this has been hard. I'm sorry, sweetheart. I wish there were an easier way to keep you safe.""Is it working, though?" she asked, looking up at me with a directness that reminded me, briefly, of her brother. "Being safe, I mean. Or is the bad person still out there?"I hesitated, unwilling to lie to her but equally unwilling to burden her further with uncertainties even
최신 업데이트: 2026-10-12
Chapter: Chapter 49: What Zuri MissedAMARA’S POV Three weeks into the private tutoring arrangement, I found Zuri sitting alone in the window seat of her room, staring out at nothing in particular, a stillness in her that felt entirely wrong on a child usually so full of motion and noise. "Sweetheart?" She didn't turn immediately, which worried me more than anything she might have said. "I miss recess," she finally admitted, "And lunch, where everyone talks at once and it's loud and messy and fun. Here it's just quiet all the time. Just me and Mr. Barry and his worksheets." I settled onto the window seat beside her, pulling her gently into my side. "I know this has been hard. I'm sorry, sweetheart. I wish there were an easier way to keep you safe." "Is it working, though?" she asked, looking up at me with a directness that reminded me, briefly, of her brother. "Being safe, I mean. Or is the bad person still out there?" I hesitated, unwilling to lie to her but equally unwilling to burden her further with uncerta
최신 업데이트: 2026-10-12
Chapter: Chapter 48: A Stranger at the GateADRIEN’S POVLife had settled into something resembling ordinary rhythm again, weeks passing in a gentle blur of sleepless nights and small, precious milestones, Aria's first genuine smile arriving on a Tuesday morning that neither Amara nor I would ever forget.I'd nearly convinced myself the earlier concern about Zuri had faded into nothing more than an isolated incident, my security team's continued monitoring turning up no further evidence of anyone actively pursuing information about her. Then, on an otherwise unremarkable Thursday afternoon, my head of security called with news that reignited every dormant fear I'd been carefully setting aside."A woman approached the school today," he said. "Claimed to be a journalist doing a feature on gifted children in private education. Asked several pointed questions about the twins specifically, wanting to know if either of them displayed unusual aptitudes."My stomach tightened immediately. "Did the school give her anything?""Nothing su
최신 업데이트: 2026-09-29
Chapter: Chapter 47: The Space Between SistersAMARA’S POVThe twenty minutes I'd promised Zuri stretched into most afternoons now, a small, sacred ritual we guarded fiercely against the chaos of newborn life pressing in from every other direction.Some days we braided hair. Some days we simply sat together on her bed while she narrated increasingly elaborate stories involving her stuffed animals, now expanded to include a new character she'd invented specifically for the occasion, a baby dragon named Ari who bore a suspicious resemblance to her actual baby sister."Ari's scared of the big dragons," Zuri explained one afternoon, arranging her stuffed animals into an elaborate hierarchy across her bedspread. "But her big sister dragon protects her from everything. Even the scary ones.""That sounds like a very good big sister dragon," I said, watching her carefully for whatever emotion lived beneath the story's careful construction."She has to be good," Zuri said matter-of-factly. "Because their mommy dragon is very busy taking ca
최신 업데이트: 2026-09-26
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