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#Chapter 9: The Honeymoon

Author: Bimpassion
last update Last Updated: 2025-12-19 14:52:52

Victor Blackwell's rage was a living thing.

Isabella had seen anger before—her father's quiet disappointment when she'd messed up, her mother's frustrated tears during the hardest times. But Victor's fury was different. Cold. Controlled. Lethal.

He stood in the Blackwell Industries boardroom surrounded by seven lawyers, his expression carved from ice as Damien and Isabella entered. Christopher trailed behind them, positioning himself near the door like he might need to call security. Or run.

"Sit down," Victor said. Not a request. A command.

"We'll stand," Damien replied evenly.

Victor's jaw tightened. "You've done it now. Both of you. That press conference was professional suicide."

"No, Father. It was professional honesty. There's a difference."

"Honesty?" Victor's laugh was sharp as broken glass. "You stood in front of the world's media and accused your own father of federal crimes. You married a con artist who infiltrated our family to destroy us. And you call that honesty?"

"Isab
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  • The Calculated Bride    #Chapter 18: The Fallout*

    Thursday morning arrived with the weight of inevitability.Isabella woke at 5 AM, unable to sleep, her mind racing through everything that would happen today. The board meeting at 10 AM. Damien's decision about temporarily stepping down. Her own announcement about taking the position at Blackwell Industries. Victor's preliminary hearing at 2 PM where the judge would decide if there was enough evidence to proceed to trial given Vincent's recantation.One day. Multiple life-changing events.She found Damien already awake in the kitchen, making coffee with the intense focus of someone trying not to think about what lay ahead."Couldn't sleep either?" she asked."Slept maybe two hours. Spent the rest of the night going over the restructuring proposals, making sure everything's documented and protected before I potentially step down." He handed her a mug. "How are you feeling about today?""Terrified. Determined. Possibly going to throw up." Isabella sipped the coffee. "You?""Same. Plus a

  • The Calculated Bride    #Chapter 17: The Confrontation

    Isabella stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows of Catherine Winters's penthouse office, looking out at the Manhattan skyline. The city stretched endlessly before her—millions of people, millions of stories, and somewhere down there, her life was unraveling in real-time."Coffee?" Catherine asked from behind her elegant mahogany desk."Please." Isabella turned from the window. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. I know you must be busy dealing with the fallout.""Busy is an understatement." Catherine poured two cups from a French press, her movements precise and practiced. "The board has been in near-constant emergency sessions since the DNA results leaked. I've had seventeen calls from shareholders. The media is camped outside Blackwell Industries. And Marcus is using this chaos to position himself as the stable alternative."She handed Isabella a cup—bone china, expensive, the kind of detail that separated old money from new. "So yes, I'm busy. But you requested this meeting alo

  • The Calculated Bride    #Chapter 16: The Investigation

    Isabella sat on the couch in the penthouse, her hands shaking, her mind racing through thirty years of her mother's life trying to find the lie.Damien arrived within twenty minutes, Christopher right behind him. Both looked terrified."What happened?" Damien demanded. "What did Victor say?"Isabella couldn't look at him. Couldn't face the possibility of what this meant."He showed me letters. From my mother to him. Spanning almost thirty years." Her voice was hollow. "Letters that suggest they had an affair. That continued after she married my father. That lasted five years.""Letters can be forged," Christopher said immediately."These were in my mother's handwriting. I know her writing. I've seen it my whole life." Isabella finally looked up. "And he claims—" She stopped, the words catching in her throat."Claims what?" Damien asked gently, sitting beside her."That I'm his daughter. Not Lorenzo's. That my mother got pregnant during the affair and chose to stay with my father, rais

  • The Calculated Bride    #Chapter 15: The Trap

    The celebration lasted exactly eighteen hours.Isabella woke Saturday morning to Damien's phone ringing insistently. He fumbled for it, still half-asleep, and she heard his voice shift from groggy to alert in seconds."What? When?" A pause. "We'll be there in thirty minutes."He hung up and was already out of bed, pulling on clothes."What's wrong?" Isabella asked, sitting up."That was David. Vincent's lawyers just filed an emergency motion. They're claiming the FBI coerced his testimony and that he wants to recant everything he said about both you and Victor." Damien tossed her a sweater. "Emergency hearing in an hour. David says we need to be there.""Why would Vincent recant? That doesn't make sense.""I don't know. But we need to find out."They made it to the courthouse with minutes to spare, finding David pacing outside the courtroom with Agent Torres."What's going on?" Damien demanded."Vincent Castellano claims he was pressured into testifying against Victor Blackwell and in

  • The Calculated Bride    #Chapter 14: The Reconciliation

    The plea agreement signing took twenty minutes.Isabella sat in the prosecutor's office, David beside her, and signed her name to documents that would define the next two years of her life. One count of obstruction of justice. Two years probation. Five hundred hours community service. Continued cooperation with federal investigations."Congratulations, Mrs. Blackwell," the prosecutor—a sharp woman named Sarah Chen—said as Isabella signed the final page. "You're getting a second chance. Don't waste it.""I won't.""See that you don't. One violation—one speeding ticket, one missed probation meeting, one anything—and you're serving the full suspended sentence." Sarah's expression softened slightly. "But for what it's worth, I think you made the right choice coming forward. Not many people have that kind of courage."After leaving the prosecutor's office, Isabella and Damien did exactly what they'd promised—they went to the Museum of Modern Art like normal people on a Wednesday afternoon.

  • The Calculated Bride    #Chapter 13: Breaking Point

    The FBI field office at 8 AM was not where Isabella had planned to spend her Tuesday morning.Agent Torres sat across from her, another agent—Rodriguez—beside him, both with expressions that suggested they'd already reviewed Vincent's transcripts. David sat next to Isabella, his briefcase full of documents and strategies that probably wouldn't matter once she started talking."Mrs. Blackwell," Torres began, "thank you for requesting this meeting. Before we begin, I want to remind you that your immunity agreement is contingent on full cooperation and complete honesty. Anything you say today could affect that agreement.""I understand.""Vincent Castellano has provided us with recordings and transcripts of conversations between the two of you spanning approximately two years. Conversations where you allegedly had knowledge of Victor Blackwell's crimes against families other than your own and chose not to report them." Torres slid a folder across the table. "Are these transcripts accurat

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