All Chapters of Rival's Marriage Agreement : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Cameron’s POVThe second we shut the bathroom door behind us, both Brandon and I jumped like we'd been caught making out by a teacher , which, to be fair, wasn't too far from the truth.I yanked my phone from the makeshift stand on the sink and stopped the recording with shaking hands. “Okay,” I breathed, “Let’s see who was the fucker creeping on us.”We hovered over my phone screen like it held the answer to life’s biggest mystery. I rewound the footage, skipping past the fake flirting, the water droplet kiss (yeah, still not over that), and paused the video at the exact moment the doorknob jiggled open.“There,” I whispered, pausing the video at the exact frame.Brandon’s brows pinched, his face leaning in close to mine as we both stared at the small screen. The faintest shadow flickered at the crack beneath the bathroom door,then, boom. A flash of someone holding their phone. Not a full face, but enough of a profile to piece it together.That jawline. That mop of curly brown hair.

Cameron’s POVIf someone had told me I’d be sprinting through the city at 1 a.m. chasing my stepbrother’s car with my boyfriend, I’d have laughed. Or maybe cried. Probably both.The air was freezing, slicing through my lungs with every breath. Brandon’s hand gripped mine as we darted across the street, weaving between parked cars and empty storefronts. The taillights of Drake’s car glowed faintly up ahead, a crimson blur disappearing down the next block.“C’mon!” Brandon shouted, pulling me along. “He’s slowing at the intersection!”“I see him!” I wheezed, even though I totally didn’t. My legs felt like spaghetti. “God, remind me to actually do cardio next time instead of studying until 3 a.m.”“Noted!” he yelled back, breathless but still somehow smiling. Freaking weirdo.We turned the corner, just in time to see Drake’s car pull into a gated warehouse lot. The fence was tall, rusted, and topped with barbed wire. A faded sign read: CONSTRUCTION STORAGE — NO TRESPASSING.Brandon stopp

Brandon’s POVThe morning sunlight hit my face like a dare. I blinked at the brightness sneaking through the blinds and found Cameron still asleep beside me, his hand curled loosely against my chest, his breath soft and even. He looked peaceful, which was a rare sight lately. I didn’t dare move. The world could wait. For a few more minutes, it could all just… stop.But then his phone buzzed. Once. Twice.I groaned, reaching over to silence it before it woke him, but his grip tightened, his fingers clutching my shirt as if some part of him sensed I was about to leave. I smiled, brushing my thumb along his cheek. “Relax, grumpy,” I whispered. “I’m not going anywhere.”He stirred, blinking up at me with the groggiest scowl imaginable. “You’re too loud,” he mumbled, voice gravelly from sleep.“I haven’t even said anything yet,” I said.“Thinking counts,” he muttered, trying to bury his face into my hoodie. “Your brain’s loud.”I laughed quietly. “Then I’ll stop thinking.”“You can’t,” he

Cameron’s POVThe library was dead silent when we got there.Not the peaceful kind of silence — the tense, heartbeat-in-your-throat kind. Every flicker of the overhead light sounded like it could expose us. Brandon kept his hand on my back as we walked down the narrow aisles between shelves. His touch wasn’t heavy, just steady — enough to remind me I wasn’t alone.Erica and Hillia were waiting in one of the study rooms, laptops open, screens glowing like tiny moons. They both looked up when we stepped in.“You’re late,” Erica said, but her tone was more relief than irritation.“Traffic,” Brandon said with a shrug.Hillia arched a brow. “Traffic? It’s midnight.”“Emotional traffic,” he corrected.I rolled my eyes, dropping my bag onto the table. “Can we just get this done before someone figures out where we are?”Erica nodded and spun her laptop toward me. On the screen was a secure drive labeled Iron Hand Evidence – Master Copy. The plan was simple: upload everything simultaneously to

Cameron’s POVWhen I woke up, sunlight was already bleeding through the car windows, pale and cold. For a second, I didn’t even remember where we were. My head was on Brandon’s chest, his arms still wrapped around me like I was something he was afraid to lose. His heartbeat thumped steady under my ear — soft, real, grounding.Then it hit me. The rain. Peter. The warning.Everything came flooding back, and the calm shattered.I sat up quickly, blinking the sleep out of my eyes. “Brandon, wake up.”He stirred, groaning. “Five more minutes, sunflower. I swear I’ll be good.”I rolled my eyes but nudged his shoulder. “I’m serious. Check your phone.”He frowned and dug his phone out of his pocket. I watched his expression twist the second the screen lit up. No signal. No Wi-Fi. Nothing. Just a blank, empty connection bar and a frozen time display that hadn’t changed since 4:13 a.m.“Okay, that’s creepy,” he said, sitting up straighter. “Even for middle-of-nowhere gas stations.”I checked mi