Novels by BDEE

CHAPTER 7The midnight air was slick with fresh rain, freezing as it soaked through my sweater, but I didn't give a damn.My feet hurt, my shoulders throbbed under the weight of my bag, but every step taking me further down that winding driveway felt like absolute fucking victory. I was out. I was actually out.When my shoes finally hit the rough asphalt of the main road, a ragged laugh burst out of my chest. I doubled over for a second, tears blurring my vision as I squeezed my eyes shut. I made it.I smoothed my hand flat against my stomach, rubbing in small circles over my soaked sweater. "We're okay," I breathed, my voice cracking in the quiet night. "We're going to be okay, baby. Mommy's got you. I swear I've got you."The highway was right there. Just fifty yards. I could see the glow of distant headlights sweeping through the foggy night. I just needed to reach a gas station, call a cab with cash, find a cheap motel—anything to get us through the night.I took a step forward—A

CHAPTER 6I pressed a hand to my still-flat stomach, tears slipping silently down my cheeks. This baby hadn’t asked for any of this, hadn’t asked to be conceived on a night of drunken mistake and whispered wrong names. They hadn’t asked for a mother who was little more than a ghost in her husband’s mansion or a father who looked at her with nothing but contempt.But he or she was mine.For the first time in months, something fierce and protective ignited in my chest. I wouldn’t let them grow up in this cold, loveless house. I wouldn’t let them be raised as pawns or spares. But before I could make any real plans, I had to do one thing: I had to tell Kade.He deserved to know, even if he hated me. Even if he would see the child as another complication in his perfect business arrangement.I spent the rest of that afternoon pacing my small room, practicing the words in the mirror until my voice stopped shaking. “Kade, I’m pregnant. It’s yours. I’m not asking for anything from you, but y

CHAPTER 5The east wing guest room became my prison. It was smaller than my old room at home, with plain cream walls, a narrow bed, a single armchair, and a window that overlooked the back gardens. The Lannister staff had been given clear instructions: deliver meals to the door, speak only when necessary, and pretend I didn’t exist. I was a ghost in my husband’s house.The first few days blurred together in suffocating silence. I ate alone. I slept alone. I spent hours staring at the ceiling, replaying the wedding night in my mind until shame made my skin crawl. Kade’s voice calling out “Bella” echoed constantly. I was nothing more than a body he had used by mistake.On the fourth day, Bella arrived for her first “visit.”She swept into the mansion like she belonged there, dressed in a soft cream sweater and skirt that made her look innocent and radiant. Victoria greeted her with a forced but practiced smile. From the hallway, I heard Bella’s sweet voice: “I just wanted to check on my

CHAPTER 4Kade's face darkened. He stalked toward the bed, tossing the certificate onto the mattress between us. “You tried? I was drunk, and you let me fuck you while pretending to be someone else?” His voice rose, raw with fury. “This was a business arrangement. A clean merger with the Hale family. Bella Hale was the agreed name. And now I wake up married to… whoever the hell you are?”Shame burned through me, hot and suffocating. I could still feel the ghost of his hands on my body, the way he had groaned another woman’s name while inside me. “They didn’t give me a choice,” I said, forcing the words out. “The company was collapsing. They said Bella was too young, too delicate. They made me—”“Bullshit.” He laughed, but there was no humor in it—only cold rage. “You expect me to believe you were forced? You stood there in that dress, signed the papers, spread your legs for me, and now you’re claiming victim? This was a calculated switch. A gold-digging move to trap me into marriage.”

CHAPTER 3Looking back on that night from this king-sized bed, I almost feel a painful kind of pity for the girl I was just forty-eight hours ago. She actually thought she had a chance. She thought a duffel bag, three hundred dollars in cash, had a chance to escape her fate.It was 2:00 AM when I crept out of my third-floor room that night. I didn't know where I would go. Probably a cheap motel on the outskirts of the city, or try contacting an old friend that had no ties or allegiance to my family. I just needed to escape. Anything had been better than ending up in this marriage to a man who was currently snarling at me, all for the sake of a family that never cared for me.The hallway had been pitch black and silent save for the hum of the central air conditioning.My heart was beating so hard against my ribs I was convinced it would wake the entire house.Just make it to the kitchen door, I had told myself, taking agonizingly slow steps down the grand staircase. Just reach the gar

CHAPTER 2Under the icy, suffocating weight of his gaze, my throat seized. The crumpled paper lay between us like a bomb, and as Kade stood over me waiting for an answer, my mind flashed back to the last forty eight hours, when my actual nightmare started.It was a morning that had started like any other, with a family that saw me as nothing more than a rock, a literal rock.It was dark in the morning— as usual— when I woke up.My life had a pattern, wake up by 4 AM, prepare breakfast for my rich family, who could employ a million chefs, but choose not to because, why would there? when their daughter can do all that.I was used to it, enjoyed it even. It had become part of me now.By six o’clock, the table was set like a buffet. I stood back, hands folded, waiting for them to wake up and head down as usual.Mother was the first to appear, gliding in wearing a champagne silk robe that shimmered under the chandelier light. She paused at her plate, then looked at me with that familiar c