Chapter 2: The Sin of Her Father

Arabella had never seen a man look at her with so much hatred without saying a single insulting word.

Damien Blackwood stood beside his desk, the marriage contract resting between his fingers. His jaw was tight, and the warmth he had shown moments ago had vanished completely.

“Answer me,” he demanded. “Did you know who I was before you came here?”

Arabella swallowed.

“No.”

“Did your father ever mention my family?”

“My father knew hundreds of people. I don't remember every name he mentioned.”

“That's convenient.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

Arabella straightened her shoulders. She might have just signed a contract that would make her his wife, but she wouldn't allow him to treat her like a criminal.

“If you have something to accuse me of, say it directly. I'm not going to sit here and guess what goes on inside that arrogant head of yours.”

Damien's eyes narrowed.

“Your father destroyed my family.”

The words struck her like a slap.

Arabella stared at him, unable to process what she'd just heard.

“My father is dead.”

“And does that make him innocent?”

“No.” Her voice trembled despite her efforts to control it. “But it doesn't make him guilty, either.”

Damien dropped the contract onto the desk.

“Ten years ago, my father invested nearly forty million dollars in a company owned by your family. Within months, the company collapsed. The money disappeared, the investors lost everything, and my father was publicly blamed for the entire disaster.”

Arabella's stomach tightened.

She remembered fragments of those years. Her father working late in his study. Her mother crying behind closed doors. Business associates suddenly refusing to visit their home.

But no one had ever explained the details to her.

“I was eighteen,” she whispered. “I knew nothing about my father's business.”

“Convenient again.”

“Stop saying that!”

Her voice echoed through the office.

For a moment, Damien said nothing.

Arabella took a shaky breath.

“You invited me here. You offered me money. You proposed this ridiculous marriage. If you already believed my family ruined yours, why would you choose me?”

His silence was more frightening than his anger.

Then he approached her.

“Because I wanted to see whether you were anything like your father.”

Her heart sank.

“So this marriage is some kind of revenge?”

“Call it whatever you like.”

“Then why pay my debts? Why protect my family's estate?”

Damien's expression remained cold.

“Perhaps I want you comfortable enough to forget that you're living in my house.”

Arabella stared at him in disbelief.

“You're unbelievable.”

“And you're still here.”

She wanted to throw the contract at his face.

Instead, she grabbed her handbag.

“Forget the agreement. I'll find another way to save my family.”

“You won't.”

She stopped at the door.

Damien didn't raise his voice.

“The bank has already rejected your requests. Your family's remaining assets are insufficient to secure another loan. Unless you find eight million dollars before Friday, the estate will be seized.”

She closed her eyes briefly.

He was right.

That was the worst part.

“You don't have to humiliate me,” she whispered.

“I'm not humiliating you. I'm reminding you of reality.”

She turned to face him.

“Then let me make one thing clear, Mr. Blackwood. Whatever my father did, I didn't do it. If you're marrying me to punish him through me, you're going to be disappointed.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I refuse to spend six months begging for your approval.”

For the first time, Damien looked genuinely interested.

“Good,” he replied. “I have no patience for women who beg.”

“Then we're going to get along terribly.”

She walked out before he could respond.

---

The limousine ride home was silent.

Arabella stared through the window, watching the city lights blur against the glass. Her hands were trembling, and she couldn't decide whether it was from anger or fear.

Her father had destroyed Damien's family.

The accusation kept replaying in her mind.

It made no sense. Her father had been many things—ambitious, stubborn, sometimes too trusting—but she had never known him to deliberately ruin another family.

Still, she couldn't deny that something had happened ten years ago.

Something everyone had hidden from her.

When she reached her apartment, she immediately called the family lawyer.

“Mr. Bennett, I need to ask you something about my father's old business dealings.”

There was a pause on the other end.

“What specifically?”

“Blackwood International. My father had some kind of investment arrangement with Damien Blackwood's family, didn't he?”

The silence stretched too long.

Arabella sat down slowly.

“You know something.”

“Arabella, I don't think this is a conversation we should have over the phone.”

“Then tell me when we can meet.”

“Tomorrow morning. My office. Come alone.”

He ended the call before she could ask anything else.

Arabella stared at her phone.

Everyone seemed to know a piece of her family's history except her.

She was beginning to wonder whether her father's death had left her with more than debts.

---

At eight the following morning, Arabella arrived at Bennett Legal Associates.

Mr. Bennett had represented her family for almost twenty years. He was a reserved man in his late fifties, with silver hair and a habit of adjusting his glasses whenever he was uncomfortable.

Today, he adjusted them three times before she even sat down.

“You spoke to Damien Blackwood?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“And?”

“I agreed to marry him.”

His glasses nearly slipped off his nose.

“You did what?”

“Temporarily. Six months.”

“Arabella, you cannot be serious.”

“I'm very serious. He'll settle the debts and protect the estate.”

Mr. Bennett stood and walked toward the window.

“You have no idea what you're getting yourself into.”

“Then explain it to me.”

He turned around.

“Your father and Damien's father were business partners. The investment was legitimate at first, but the company suffered catastrophic losses. Damien's father believed your father had concealed financial problems before accepting the investment.”

“Did he?”

“I don't know.”

“You were our lawyer!”

“And I was not involved in every transaction your father made.”

Arabella leaned forward.

“What happened after the company collapsed?”

Mr. Bennett hesitated.

“Damien's father was accused of financial misconduct. His reputation was destroyed. He suffered a heart attack less than a year later.”

Her chest tightened.

“Did my father cause his death?”

“No one can establish that.”

“But Damien believes he did.”

“Yes.”

Arabella looked down at her hands.

For the first time, she understood why Damien had looked at her with such bitterness.

She was not simply a woman who needed money.

To him, she was the daughter of the man he blamed for his family's suffering.

“There's something else,” Mr. Bennett said quietly.

She looked up.

“Before your father died, he gave me a sealed envelope. He instructed me to deliver it to you only if the Blackwood family ever approached you regarding the old investment.”

Arabella stopped breathing for a moment.

“Where is it?”

Mr. Bennett opened a locked drawer and removed a yellowed envelope.

Her father's handwriting was unmistakable.

For Arabella. Only if the Blackwoods come looking.

Her fingers trembled as she took it.

“Why didn't you tell me about this before?”

“Because they never came looking. Until now.”

She tore open the envelope.

Inside was a single sheet of paper and a small photograph.

The photograph showed her father standing beside a much younger Damien Blackwood and an older man Arabella recognized from business magazines.

Damien's father.

On the back, her father had written six words.

The truth will destroy us all.

Arabella's blood ran cold.

She unfolded the letter.

But before she could read the first sentence, her phone vibrated.

An unknown number.

You need to stop asking questions about your father.

Another message appeared.

Your temporary husband won't be able to protect you from what happened ten years ago.

Arabella's breath caught.

A third message arrived.

This time, it included a photograph of her entering Damien's tower the previous night.

Someone had been watching her.

Someone knew about the marriage.

And someone was terrified of what she might discover.

“Mr. Bennett,” she whispered, lifting her eyes toward the lawyer.

He had gone pale.

“Who sent this?”

He stared at the photograph for several seconds before answering.

“I was afraid this day would come.”

Arabella gripped the phone.

“What aren't you telling me?”

Mr. Bennett reached for the letter, but she pulled it away.

“Arabella, listen to me carefully. Whatever happens, do not let Damien get his hands on that document.”

“Why?”

His voice dropped to a whisper.

“Because if Damien discovers what your father confessed in that letter, your marriage will become the least of your problems.”

Arabella looked down at the page.

The first line was visible beneath her trembling fingers.

My dearest Arabella, if you're reading this, then the Blackwoods have finally found you.

And below it, in darker ink, was a sentence that made her heart stop.

There is a reason Damien Blackwood must never discover who his father really was.