LOGINShare
Chapter 12
publish date:
2026-07-01 20:41:35Chapter 12
Damian
The second the call disconnected, I moved.
Fast. Faster than I had in years.
“Track the phone,” I said to Mason.
He was already on it, pulling out his laptop. “I’m on it.”
Harper stood frozen next to me. The fear on her face hit harder than I expected. Her mother was everything to her. And now Richard Blackwood had her somehow.
This whole thing felt wrong.
“Damian.”
I turned to her immediately.
“I’m going to find her.”
The words came out without hesitation. Without any doubt. I meant every single one.
Harper studied my face, looking for uncertainty. She didn’t find any.
“You can’t know that.”
“I do.”
“How?”
I stepped closer to her. “Because nobody touches my wife.”
The words slipped out naturally. Like they belonged there. Like they were the truth.
Harper’s breath caught. So did mine.
Neither of us spoke for a second. The room suddenly felt too small and too quiet.
Then Mason broke it.
“I found the location.”
The moment shattered. I looked away, shifting into work mode.
“Where?”
“An old Blackwood property outside Manhattan.”
My jaw tightened. Of course it was. Everything always connected back to my family.
Noah closed his file. “I’ll come with you.”
“No.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t trust you.”
He laughed. “Fair enough.”
Mason stood. “We need to go now.”
Harper grabbed her purse. “I’m coming too.”
No. The word almost came out of my mouth.
But I looked at her instead. She was determined. Stubborn. Terrified. There was no way she would stay behind. Not when her mother was involved.
“Fine.”
Harper blinked. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I thought you’d argue.”
“I’ve learned it’s pointless.”
A small smile appeared on her face. Despite everything. Despite the fear. Seeing it made something inside me ease.
Dangerous. Very dangerous. Because lately her happiness mattered too much.
The drive took forever.
Harper sat beside me in the back seat while Mason drove. We didn’t talk much. The tension was too heavy. Outside the windows, New York flew past. Inside the car, I kept thinking about Harper. About us. About the marriage.
Because somewhere along the way things had changed. At first, the wedding was a business arrangement. A solution. A strategy. Nothing else.
Now? I wasn’t sure where the act ended. Or if it had already.
Harper suddenly looked at me. “You keep staring.”
I didn’t deny it. “You keep noticing.”
“It’s hard not to.”
I almost smiled. The exchange felt normal. Comfortable. Like something a real married couple would say. Not two people in a fake relationship.
Harper looked back out the window. Then quietly asked, “Do you ever think about what happens after?”
The question surprised me. “After what?”
“The marriage.”
The words hit harder than they should have. Because lately I avoided thinking about that. I didn’t want to imagine Harper leaving. Didn’t want to imagine the house without her. Without her laugh. Without her arguing with me. Without her there.
I looked away. “Not really.”
She studied me. “You’re lying.”
“Maybe.”
The honesty surprised both of us.
Harper swallowed and nodded slowly. “Okay.”
The conversation ended. But the tension didn’t go away. Because neither of us wanted to say what we were really thinking.
A while later, we reached the property.
The house was old and abandoned. It sat behind big gates with tall trees all around it. The perfect place to hide secrets. The perfect place to hide people.
Harper got out of the car right away. I followed, staying close. Closer than I needed to. She noticed but didn’t say anything. That worried me more than if she had.
We walked toward the front door. It was unlocked.
My instincts immediately went on alert. I hated when that happened. Nothing good ever came from unlocked doors.
Inside, the house was quiet. Too quiet.
“Mom?” Harper called out.
No answer. Her voice just echoed down the hallway. Then nothing.
Mason headed for the stairs. I checked the first floor. Every room was empty. Every hallway was deserted. The whole place felt off.
Then I heard footsteps. Quick. Panicked. I turned around.
Harper came running from another hallway. Her face was pale. “Damian.”
“What happened?”
“I found something.”
My stomach twisted. “What?”
She handed me a photograph without speaking.
I looked down and froze.
The picture showed Evelyn. Richard. And a much younger version of my sister Victoria. All smiling. Like friends. Like family. Like they knew each other well.
Harper looked devastated. “My mother never mentioned her.”
I understood why. This picture changed everything. Again.
Before I could say anything, I heard another voice. Slow. Cold. Familiar.
“Looking for answers?”
Every muscle in my body went tight. I knew that voice. So did Harper.
We turned slowly.
Richard Blackwood stood at the top of the staircase. Calm. Composed. Dangerous. Like a king watching a war.
Harper stepped forward immediately. “Where’s my mother?”
Richard smiled. The sight made my skin crawl.
“Safe.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You should.”
My father came down the stairs one step at a time. Not rushing. Not worried. Like he controlled everything. Maybe he thought he did.
I moved next to Harper. Protectively. Instinctively. Richard noticed. His eyes went to our joined hands. Then something crossed his face. Disappointment. Almost regret.
“You’re getting attached.”
He was talking to me, not Harper.
I stared at him coldly. “Get to the point.”
His smile disappeared. Everything shifted.
“What if I told you this marriage was a mistake?”
Harper stiffened. I didn’t move.
“What if I told you both that the truth will destroy everything you’ve built?”
Nobody spoke.
Richard reached into his jacket and pulled out a thick envelope. It was old and worn. Yellow from age.
My pulse picked up instantly. Because I recognized it.
The missing letter. The one connected to Evelyn. The one everyone had been looking for.
Richard held it up. Harper’s eyes widened.
“Give me that.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Richard looked directly at her. Then at me. And finally said the one thing neither of us was prepared to hear.
“Because if you read this letter, you’ll discover why you and Damian should never have married in the first place.”
The envelope slipped from his fingers.
And landed at Harper’s feet.
Latest chapter
MARRIED TO MY ENEMY'S FATHER Chapter 45
Chapter 45HarperThe morning started slow, the way most mornings did now that Grace had finally settled into something resembling a predictable sleep schedule. I woke before my alarm, sunlight filtering thin and gray through the curtains, the house still quiet except for the faint hum of the refrigerator downstairs and the occasional creak of old wood settling.I lay there for a while, not moving, simply listening. Damian’s breathing beside me, slow and even. The distant chirp of birds just beginning to wake outside the window. A stillness I’d learned to appreciate more than I ever had before Grace, before Lily, before any of this.Eventually Damian stirred, one arm tightening slightly around my waist before his eyes opened.“You’re awake,” he murmured, voice still thick with sleep.“Have been for a while.”“Thinking?”“Just listening. It’s quiet.”“Suspiciously quiet,” he said, propping himself up slightly. “Which usually means one of two things. Either they’re both still asleep, or
MARRIED TO MY ENEMY'S FATHER Chapter 44
Chapter 44HarperGrace’s first birthday arrived on a warm Saturday in early summer, the same season that had once carried us through an island vacation neither of us had expected to change everything.“One year,” I said, watching Damian assemble a highchair decorated with far too many balloons for a child who wouldn’t remember any of it. “It feels impossible.”“It feels exactly right,” he said. “Every single day of it.”Lily had appointed herself party coordinator months in advance, insisting on a theme that combined, somehow, both unicorns and outer space, a combination that had become something of a family joke over the past year.“She’s one,” Lily explained patiently to anyone who questioned the theme’s logic. “She can like whatever she wants.”“She’s one,” I pointed out. “She doesn’t actually have opinions about party themes yet.”“She will. And when she does, she’ll thank me.”Nobody argued further. Some battles, we’d learned, weren’t worth fighting against an eight-year-old’s u
MARRIED TO MY ENEMY'S FATHER Chapter 43
Chapter 43HarperGrace slept in fifteen-minute increments those first few weeks, a pattern that left both Damian and me perpetually exhausted, stumbling through hallways at odd hours, trading shifts with the quiet efficiency of two people determined to survive new parenthood together rather than separately.“Your turn,” I mumbled at three in the morning, nudging Damian awake as Grace’s cries drifted through the baby monitor.“Already up,” he said, though his voice carried the particular roughness of someone who’d barely slept in days.I watched him disappear down the hallway, listening to his low, steady voice through the monitor as he settled Grace back to sleep, murmuring something too quiet to make out clearly. Six months ago, I might not have believed this version of Damian existed — the cold, controlled billionaire reduced entirely to soft murmurs and gentle rocking at three in the morning, entirely devoted to a tiny, demanding person who couldn’t yet understand any of it.He re
MARRIED TO MY ENEMY'S FATHER Chapter 42
Chapter 42HarperThe contractions started at two in the morning, quiet and manageable at first, easy enough to mistake for the same false alarms we’d grown accustomed to over the past few weeks.I lay still for a long while, counting the space between them, watching Damian sleep peacefully beside me, reluctant to wake him over something that might amount to nothing again.By three, the pattern had grown too consistent to ignore.“Damian.”He stirred slightly, not fully waking.“Damian.” I shook his shoulder gently, another contraction tightening across my stomach as I spoke. “I think this might be it.”He was awake instantly, years of careful business instinct apparently translating well to sudden crisis. “How far apart?”“Six minutes. Maybe seven.”“That’s early. We have time.”“I know.” I breathed through another tightening wave, slower and steadier than the panic I might have expected myself to feel. “I just wanted you to know.”Damian sat up fully, reaching for my hand, something
MARRIED TO MY ENEMY'S FATHER Chapter 41
Chapter 41HarperThird trimester arrived with swollen ankles, an inability to see my own feet, and a level of exhaustion I hadn’t fully anticipated despite months of preparation.“You should be resting,” Damian said, finding me attempting to reorganize the nursery closet for the third time that week.“I’m nesting.”“You’re supposed to nest sitting down.”“That’s not how nesting works.”He gently pried the folded onesies from my hands, guiding me toward the small armchair we’d added specifically for this purpose. “Sit. Direct. I’ll organize.”“You don’t know how to organize a nursery closet.”“I run a multi-billion dollar company, Harper. I think I can manage folded baby clothes.”I laughed, settling into the chair despite my protests, watching him attempt to categorize tiny socks with the same serious focus he brought to boardroom negotiations. Something about the sight, absurd and tender all at once, made my chest ache with affection.“You’re doing it wrong,” I said eventually, watc
MARRIED TO MY ENEMY'S FATHER Chapter 40
Chapter 40HarperSecond trimester brought energy back in full force, along with an appetite Damian found endlessly amusing.“You ate an entire jar of pickles yesterday,” he said, watching me reach for another snack from the pantry. “An entire jar, Harper.”“The baby wanted pickles.”“The baby’s the size of an avocado. I looked it up.”“An avocado with excellent taste in snacks, apparently.”He laughed, pulling me close despite my mouth still full of crackers. “I love you. Pickle obsession and all.”“Good. Because this obsession isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”We’d settled into a comfortable rhythm since the pregnancy announcement, ordinary domestic routine punctuated by doctor’s appointments and Lily’s increasingly elaborate nursery demands. She’d apparently abandoned the unicorn theme in favor of something she called “space unicorns,” which involved considerably more glitter than either Damian or I felt equipped to handle.“She’s very committed to this vision,” I told my mother
MARRIED TO MY ENEMY'S FATHER CHAPTER 6
HarperI stared at Damian after he ended the call.“You really told him that?”Damian slipped his phone into his pocket.“Told him what?”“That I’m your wife.”His eyes locked on mine.“You are my wife.”“Fake wife.”“Not to the rest of the world.”I hated how much that answer affected me.Before I
MARRIED TO MY ENEMY'S FATHER CHAPTER 5
HarperThe fake marriage ceremony was small and private, just enough for the media circus. I wore a simple white dress. Damian looked devastating in his suit. Lily, Damian’s daughter held my hand during the short vows, her small fingers trusting.I felt like the worst person alive.Afterward, at th
MARRIED TO MY ENEMY'S FATHER CHAPTER 4
DamianThe press conference was scheduled for tomorrow. Tonight, we had to look like a couple in love.Harper stood on the balcony in a silk robe, staring at the city lights. She hadn’t spoken much since my mother’s visit. I couldn’t blame her. The Blackwood hatred ran deep, even I was tired of it.
MARRIED TO MY ENEMY'S FATHER CHAPTER 3
HarperThe penthouse was bigger than my entire childhood home. Marble floors, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city, and silence so heavy it pressed on my chest. I’d moved in two days after signing the agreement. Fake fiancée for now. Wife soon.I stood in the massive closet they’d cleared
You may also like
The Breaking Point of Love
Cloudsearcher4.2M viewsPlease Me, Daddy
EliJa598.4K viewsYour Uncle’s My Husband Now—Back Off, Ex!
June2.0M viewsWanted: Billionaire's Wife And Their Genius Twin Babies
Pamela979.3K viewsThe Apex of Forever
Elena Rossi109 viewsThe colour of healing: when the scars learn to shine
A.S Author47 viewsBOUND TO THE BILLIONAIRE CAPTAIN
LARRY BENSON33 viewsLust for My Father-in-Law: The Plus-Size Secretary
Author Marr173 views
