LOGIN“She will become my wife.” The words shattered across every television screen in the country within seconds. News channels exploded. Reporters shouted over each other. Social media crashed under millions of reactions. Inside the mansion, Elena sat frozen on the couch staring at the television like she had imagined the entire thing. Wife. Damien Blackwood had just announced to the world that she would become his wife. Without asking her first. The press conference ended in chaos shortly afterward, but Elena barely heard any of it. Because her heart was beating too loudly. And somewhere deep inside her chest— Hope was beginning to grow.Dangerous, fragile hope.---Damien returned to the mansion nearly an hour later. The second he stepped through the front doors, Elena stood. Silence filled the massive hallway instantly. Neither spoke at first. Damien loosened his tie slowly, exhaustion shadowing his face, but his eyes remained fixed entirely on her.Finally, Elena found her voice. “You
Damien avoided Elena the next day. Not completely. Just enough for her to notice.Breakfast arrived through staff instead of him. Meetings suddenly kept him locked inside his office for hours. And every time their eyes met across a room— He looked away first. As if the conversation near the window had shaken him more than he wanted to admit. Elena should have felt relieved. Instead, disappointment settled heavily inside her chest. Because for one brief moment the night before, Damien had almost let her in completely. And now he was hiding again.---Sophia Vale watched all of it carefully. Every glance. Every silence. Every crack forming inside Damien’s carefully controlled walls. Jealousy poisoned her beautifully polished smile. She had spent years trying to reach Damien emotionally.Years. Yet somehow Elena Hart—the broke pregnant girl who stumbled into his life by accident—was succeeding without even trying.Sophia couldn’t accept it. Wouldn’t accept itSo she decided to destroy he
Someone inside Blackwood Enterprises wanted Elena dead. The thought poisoned everything.Damien trusted very few people already. Now he trusted no one. By morning, the mansion felt suffocating under the weight of heightened security. Guards checked every vehicle entering the estate. Phones were monitored. Staff movements tracked. And Elena? Damien barely let her breathe without supervision. “This is getting ridiculous,” she snapped as two guards followed her through the library. “They stay.” Damien didn’t even look up from the documents spread across his desk. Elena crossed her arms angrily. “I’m going to the kitchen, not a battlefield.” “You were nearly killed yesterday.” “I know that!” The memory still haunted her too.The sound of screeching tires. The terror in Damien’s eyes. God. She would never forget the way he looked holding her afterward. Like losing her would destroy him. That realization unsettled her more every day. Damien finally looked up slowly. Dark circles shadowed b
The hospital discharged Elena two days later. Strict bed rest. No stress. No emotional pressure. The doctor repeated the warnings three separate times while Damien listened with the intensity of a man preparing for war. Elena noticed he asked more questions about the baby than she did. What foods were safest. What symptoms were dangerous. What medications could harm the pregnancy. Nothing escaped his attention. It should have comforted her. Instead, it terrified her how deeply he was starting to care. Because people like Damien Blackwood did not survive emotional attachment easily. And neither did the people who loved them.---The ride back to the mansion was unusually quiet.Rain clouds gathered heavily across the city while Elena sat beside Damien in the backseat, exhaustion still weighing down her body. “You’re staring again,” she murmured softly. Damien didn’t even look embarrassed. "You look tired.”“I almost lost the baby,” she whispered. “Of course I’m tired.” Something painfu
The nightmares started after that night. Every time Elena closed her eyes, she saw masked men standing over her bed. Saw blood. Saw herself losing the baby. And every morning, she woke up exhausted. The stress was slowly destroying her.Even her body felt heavier lately. More fragile.Mrs. Evelyn noticed first. “You’re too pale,” the older woman murmured worriedly during breakfast one morning. “I’m okay,” Elena lied softly. But she wasn’t. Her appetite disappeared almost completely. She barely slept. And worst of all— Damien’s growing closeness confused her more every day. Because sometimes he looked at her like she mattered. Then other times, the cold billionaire returned instantly. One moment his touch felt gentle enough to heal broken things. The next moment he buried himself behind walls again. Elena no longer knew what to believe. And the emotional exhaustion was beginning to crush her.---Three days later, Elena stood inside the mansion garden trying desperately to breathe thro
“You belong to me now.” The words stayed inside Elena’s head long after Damien walked away. She stood frozen beneath the rain for several seconds afterward, her heart beating so violently it almost hurt. Belong. Not protect. Not care for. Belong. Damien Blackwood said dangerous things too calmly. And somehow, the terrifying part wasn’t that he said them— It was the way her body reacted when he did.---That night, Elena couldn’t sleep. Rain tapped softly against the massive bedroom windows while moonlight spilled faintly across the silk sheets.Everything about this mansion felt too quiet after midnight. Like secrets lived inside the walls. Elena sat curled near the window wrapped in a blanket, unable to stop replaying the look in Damien’s eyes earlier. Jealousy. Real jealousy. But why? He insisted their arrangement meant nothing. No emotions. No attachment. Yet every time another man touched her, Damien looked one second away from violence. It didn’t make sense. A soft knock suddenly







