Ruined: My best friend's father is my new obsession
Naomi has spent six long years burying a dangerous secret—she has been deeply in love with her best friend Chloe's father since she was sixteen. Now twenty-two and freshly graduated from college, she arrives at the Ashford family estate for the summer to job hunt and restart her life.
Dominic Ashford is forty-five, recently divorced, and a man of absolute control. For six years, he has forced himself to pretend Naomi is nothing more than his daughter's quiet friend. But when he catches her swimming naked in his pool at midnight, his decades of discipline completely shatter. He should send her away to protect his daughter and his life. Instead, he locks the gate.
What begins as one reckless, forbidden night quickly spirals into an obsessive addiction neither can stop. But as Chloe unknowingly plans her father's dating life and a vicious ex-wife threatens to destroy Dominic's family, Naomi finds herself walking a deadly tightrope. When their secret is finally dragged into the light, Naomi must face the ultimate choice: the man she cannot live without, or the friendship that has been her lifelong anchor.
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Chapter: Softer QuestionsChloe watched us too closely the next morning.It started small. At breakfast, she looked at Dominic when he handed me a cup, then at me when I thanked him without fully meeting his eyes. She did not say anything then. She just stirred her tea and filed it away.I felt the attention like a hand on the back of my neck.Dominic left for a call in the study. Chloe waited until his door closed before she spoke.“Has he been like this the whole time I was gone?”“Like what?” I asked.“Careful. Distant in a way that is not really distant. Like someone moved the furniture inside his head, and he has not decided where to put everything back.”I kept my voice even. “He has had a lot to deal with. The wedding. The cancellations. You are away. That is enough to make anyone quiet.”“I know.” She set the spoon down. “But it feels different with you too.”My stomach tightened. “Different how?”“You both go careful around each other. It's not cold. Just careful. Before I left, it was easier. Now the
Last Updated: 2026-11-09
Chapter: AlmostChloe went to bed early.She said the drive home and the first full day back had drained her. By ten, the upstairs hallway was dark. The house settled into that false quiet it always wore at night.Dominic found me in the kitchen.I had gone in for water and stayed longer than I needed to. He stopped in the doorway first, checked the stairs behind him, and then came in.“She is asleep,” he said.“You checked?”“Her door is closed. The light is off.”He kissed me against the counter. Careful at first, then deeper when I answered him. My hands went to his chest. His went to my waist. He lifted me onto the edge and stepped between my legs. I pulled him closer by the front of his shirt.His hand slid under my dress and pushed my underwear aside. I bit back a sound when his fingers found me. He stroked me until my forehead dropped to his shoulder, then sank two fingers inside and worked me with steady pressure. I held onto him and tried to stay quiet.He went to his knees, pulled my underw
Last Updated: 2026-11-09
Chapter: It Goes BadlyDominic left the house mid-morning without saying where he was going.Chloe was in the living room with a blanket over her legs, scrolling through her phone and answering messages she had ignored at the retreat. I sat with her for a while and tried to look normal. When she asked where her father had gone, I told her he had a work meeting. It was close enough to the truth that it didn’t feel like a full lie.He came back just after two.I heard the car first, then the front door. Chloe called out a hello from the living room. He answered her in a steady voice and went straight to the study. A few minutes later, my phone lit up with a message from him."Come when you can."I told Chloe I needed to grab something from the guest house, then walked the long way around and entered through the side. Dominic was standing behind the desk with his jacket still on. His face looked wrong.“I went to see her,” he said.I closed the door. “Victoria?”“Yes. I thought if I confronted her in person, s
Last Updated: 2026-11-07
Chapter: Her Own PhoneI didn’t wait until morning.As soon as Chloe’s light went off upstairs, I crossed the path to the main house and went straight to the study. Dominic was still awake, standing over the desk with documents he clearly wasn’t reading. He looked up when I opened the door.“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked.I closed the door behind me and held out my phone. “Victoria sent me something.”His expression changed before he even took it. He unlocked the screen, saw the photos, and went completely still. For a few seconds the only sound in the room was the low hum of the desk lamp.“When did this come in?” he asked.“After Chloe left my room. She came to talk to me about the job. Told me I should take it. Not long after she went upstairs, that message arrived.”Dominic scrolled through the pictures once, then locked the phone and set it face down on the desk like it had burned him.“She’s not waiting anymore,” he said. “Sending them to me was pressure. Sending them to you is a warning.”“It worked.” I
Last Updated: 2026-11-06
Chapter: Forty-Eight HoursChloe wanted dinner at the table.Not takeout in her room. Not something quiet. She wanted the three of us sitting down like the house hadn’t almost collapsed while she was gone. Dominic cooked without comment. I set the plates. Chloe talked more than she had in weeks , about the retreat, the quiet, how strange it felt to sleep without wedding noise in her head.I smiled when I was supposed to. Passed the bread. Answered when she asked if anything interesting had happened while she was away.“Nothing much,” I said. “It’s been quiet.”Dominic’s eyes met mine across the table for half a second. Then he looked away.Chloe didn’t notice.After dinner, she stretched and said she was going to shower and unpack. Her footsteps moved up the stairs. A door closed. Water started somewhere above us.Dominic stood at the sink with his back to me.“Forty-seven hours,” he said under his breath.I didn’t answer. I took a glass from the counter and went toward the hallway. He followed. We didn’t speak
Last Updated: 2026-11-05
Chapter: Five O'clockDominic put the call on speaker and set the phone on the desk between us.Victoria’s voice came through clean and cold.“You waited until the last possible window,” she said. “I almost admired that.”“Say what you want,” Dominic replied.“I already did. A signed statement that there is nothing between you and that girl. And she leaves the estate. Quietly. Before Chloe’s birthday.”“No statement.”There was a short silence.“Then the pictures go to Chloe today,” Victoria said. “And to the lawyers in the morning.”Dominic’s hands braced on the desk. “You’re using my daughter as a weapon.”“I’m protecting my position. You made yourself vulnerable. I’m simply collecting on it.”I stayed still near the wall, arms crossed tight, listening to them negotiate my life like I wasn’t in the room.“I’ll remove her from the property,” Dominic said.My head snapped toward him.Victoria was quiet for a second. “How soon?”“She’s already considering a job in another city. That timeline can be moved u
Last Updated: 2026-11-05
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