LOGINShare
Chapter 8
publish date:
2026-06-22 17:20:28Chapter 8
Harper The room went completely silent. I stared at the document in Damian’s hand while Mason stood beside the table. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. The marriage certificate felt heavier than it should. Finally, Damian looked up. “What exactly am I looking at?” Mason exhaled. “I spent the entire day digging through old records.” “And?” “And somebody altered legal documents after your wife’s death.” My stomach tightened. Damian’s expression turned cold. “Who?” “We don’t know yet.” Mason pointed at the signature. “But whoever did it had access to private Blackwood files.” I looked between them. “What does that mean?” Mason sat down. “It means somebody inside the family has been hiding things for years.” Damian’s jaw clenched. “My father.” “Possibly.” The word hung in the air. Possibly. Not definitely. But it was enough. I watched Damian carefully. The strong billionaire everyone feared suddenly looked exhausted. Like a man carrying too much weight. Mason stood. “I’ll keep investigating.” Damian nodded. “Let me know the second you find something.” “I will.” A few moments later Mason left. The elevator doors closed behind him. The penthouse became quiet again. Too quiet. I glanced at Damian. He was still staring at the papers. “Are you okay?” His laugh was bitter. “No.” I walked closer. “Talk to me.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “For years I thought I knew my family.” His voice was rough. “Now every day I find another lie.” I understood that feeling. The last few weeks had changed everything I believed too. My mother. The Blackwoods. The past. Nothing was simple anymore. I sat beside him. “Maybe we don’t know the whole story yet.” “Maybe.” He looked at me. “But I’m tired of maybes.” For a moment neither of us spoke. Then he smiled slightly. “Look at us.” I raised an eyebrow. “What about us?” “A few months ago you hated me.” “I still get annoyed by you.” His smile widened. “There she is.” I tried not to smile back. Failed. “You make it very difficult.” “I’ve been told that before.” The tension eased. Just a little. Enough for both of us to breathe. Then Damian looked toward the hallway. “Lily has school tomorrow.” “She’ll never forgive us if we wake her up.” “True.” I laughed softly. The sound surprised both of us. Lately it felt easier to laugh around him. Easier to relax. Dangerously easy. Damian leaned back. “You know what’s strange?” “What?” “This marriage.” I froze. His eyes met mine. “When I proposed it, I expected six miserable months.” “And now?” A slow smile appeared. “Now I don’t hate coming home.” My heart skipped. I looked away first. The city lights reflected through the windows. Beautiful. Dangerous. Just like this situation. “You make that sound romantic.” “Maybe it is.” I swallowed. “Damian.” “What?” “We agreed not to complicate things.” His expression softened. “I know.” “Then stop saying things like that.” He laughed quietly. “I wasn’t aware there were rules.” “There are.” “Who made them?” “I did.” “Interesting.” I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t mock me.” “I’m not.” “You are.” “A little.” I threw a cushion at him. He caught it easily. Then he looked genuinely amused. The sight did strange things to my chest. Because this wasn’t the cold CEO everyone feared. This was simply Damian. The man who stayed awake worrying about Lily. The man who made coffee at midnight. The man who listened when I talked. That realization scared me. A lot. Because every day it became harder to remember why I came here. And easier to imagine staying. The thought made me stand abruptly. “I should sleep.” Damian looked disappointed. The emotion flashed so quickly I almost missed it. “Already?” “It’s late.” “Fair.” Neither of us moved. Again. It was becoming a problem. Finally he stood too. Now we were close. Very close. The air felt different. Warmer. My pulse quickened. His gaze dropped briefly to my lips. Then it returned to my eyes. Neither of us said a word. Neither of us looked away. The attraction between us had always existed. But now it wasn’t just an attraction. That was the problem. It was becoming something deeper. Something neither of us planned. Something neither of us could control. “Harper.” My name sounded different when he said it. Softer. More personal. “Yeah?” His hand lifted slightly. Like he wanted to touch me. Then stopped. The hesitation shocked me. Damian Blackwood never hesitated. Not in business. Not in life. But with me? He did. “You should sleep,” he said quietly. I nodded. “Probably.” Still neither of us moved. Then suddenly we both laughed. The tension finally broke. “Goodnight, Damian.” “Goodnight, wife.” My cheeks warmed immediately. He noticed. Of course he noticed. The man noticed everything. I turned toward the hallway. But before I could leave, a small voice interrupted us. “Why are you saying goodnight over there?” Both of us turned. Lily stood at the end of the hallway. Half asleep. Holding her stuffed bear. I blinked. “Lily?” She yawned. “If you’re married, you’re supposed to hug.” I nearly choked. Damian looked suspiciously entertained. “Lily.” “What?” She pointed at us. “Married people hug.” “No they don’t.” “They do.” Damian crossed his arms. “I think she has a point.” I stared at him. “You are enjoying this way too much.” “Absolutely.” Lily smiled proudly. Then she walked over. Without warning, she grabbed my hand. Then Damian’s. And pushed them together. “There.” My heart stopped. Damian’s fingers closed around mine automatically. The simple touch sent a wave of heat through me. Lily looked satisfied. “Better.” Neither of us pulled away. For several long seconds. Then Lily smiled sleepily. “I like when you act married.” The words hit harder than they should. Because for one dangerous moment… I liked it too. Then Damian’s phone rang. The sound shattered everything. His expression immediately changed, cold, alert and dangerous. He released my hand and answered. “What?” Silence. Then all color disappeared from his face. My stomach dropped. “Damian?” He wasn’t listening. Whoever was on the phone had his full attention. A second later he ended the call. “What happened?” I asked. His eyes found mine. Dark. Shocked. Unbelieving. Then he spoke the last words I ever expected to hear. “The hospital just called.” Fear rushed through me. “What hospital?” Damian swallowed hard. “The one that handled your mother’s case.” My heart stopped. “And they found something.” The room went silent. “What did they find?” Damian looked directly at me. Then he slowly held up a file that had just been emailed to him. Across the front were four terrifying words. EVELYN VALE — CONFIDENTIAL DNA REPORT.
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 7
Here’s Chapter 7, focusing mainly on Harper and Damian’s marriage, with a balance of dialogue and description, simple billionaire-romance style, and ending on a cliffhanger.Chapter 7DamianThe penthouse felt unusually quiet after the news broadcast.Harper stood near the window, staring at the ci
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.
You may also like
Master Odell’s Secret Ex-wife
Eggsoup1.2M viewsWet Desires: {A Steamy Collection}
The Book Magician539.3K viewsForced marriage: Dear wife, you can't escape me
Natie 587.0K viewsMy Dad's Bestfriend
Liz Barnet785.1K views365 Days with Him
Livinus Chima70 viewsThe Game We're Not Aware
Achimbyeol39 viewsThe Apex of Forever
Elena Rossi111 viewsThe Billionaire’s Dirty Possession : Their Genius Bride
Nooriva71 views
