All Chapters of Sinful Arrangement: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Frederick was gone before she could say goodbye.The gurney wheeled out quietly, swallowed by steel doors and sterile walls. There were no dramatic last looks, no parting words whispered in the hall. Just the sound of rolling wheels and monitors fading into a silence Amelia had never quite known before. She stood still, arms hanging at her sides, trying not to look at the empty space he’d left behind.Luke had already left. She had told him what to do, what to secure, and where to run damage control. He had listened. Not because she outranked him, but because in that moment, she was the only one who wasn’t breaking.Now, there was only her.Two black SUVs waited outside the hospital. Security followed like shadows, neither speaking nor asking questions. They moved as one, like this had all been rehearsed. And maybe it had.The ride to her apartment was quiet. She watched the city slide past, grey and thin, like the sky hadn’t made up its mind about rain. Every red light felt longer th

The room had gone too quiet after Frederick said it. Three days. That was all the time he was giving them.Amelia didn’t speak at first. She just stared at him, half expecting him to take it back, to say the anesthesia hadn’t fully worn off and he’d been delirious. But he didn’t blink. He looked at her like a man who’d already made up his mind, and nothing she could say would change it.She wasn’t surprised he still wanted the wedding. That had been part of the agreement all along. But she hadn’t expected this version of it. Not three days after he almost died. Not while she still felt the echo of his blood under her fingernails. Not while her nerves were still fraying at the edges from everything she had seen and felt in the last twenty-four hours.Luke looked like he wanted to disappear, but he remained by the wall, phone in hand, trying not to breathe too loudly.“You’re pushing this too fast,” she said finally, her voice low, steady. “You just came out of surgery.”Frederick sat u

The hum of the engine was the only sound between them.Amelia sat rigid in the back of the black SUV, her fingers curled into the lace of her gown. The dress that made her look like a bride, but feel like a trophy. Her lips still burned from the kiss, the kind that wasn’t for show, no matter what he’d claimed. Her heart hadn’t settled since.Frederick sat beside her, silent, legs spread in that same signature pose, like he didn’t need to speak to command the room, or her.They weren’t heading back to the penthouse. She knew that much. After what happened, Frederick wouldn’t take that risk. No one had to say it aloud. They were being moved. Relocated. Hidden.A hotel, Luke had said. Discreet. Guarded. No press. No threats.Just the two of them.The thought should have brought comfort. It didn’t.Frederick finally spoke, his voice low and smooth. “You’re quiet.”“I didn’t realize I was expected to entertain you,” she said, not looking at him.“I just married you, Amelia. I expect a lot

Amelia stirred just as morning crept through the edges of the blackout curtains, soft light spilling across silk sheets. Her first breath came shallow. Her second was worse. She was wrapped in heat, in the firm weight of an arm curved around her waist and the solid warmth of a body pressed flush against hers.It took only a second for her to realize why her chest tightened, why her thighs clenched. Frederick. His body molded to her from behind, chest rising and falling against her spine, legs tangled with hers like they’d slept like this a hundred times. And then, she felt it. Hard. Thick. Undeniable. The very real shape of him pressed low and tight against the curve of her backside.Her breath caught. Her body went still. But not from fear. No, it was something else. Something that made her pulse skip and her throat run dry.She could feel him shift behind her, barely a graze of movement. Then his voice came, low and husky from sleep, and it curled down her spine like silk dipped in

Amelia didn’t turn back. Not when she heard the shuffle of footsteps behind her. Not when the man’s voice followed her down the hall with cruel amusement, dropping words like acid. “She’s his brand new wife,” he said, like the title was something cheap, like she was something to be unwrapped and discarded. She didn’t need to see their faces to know how smug they looked standing in that hallway, how satisfied they were watching her walk away. The door to the guest room closed softly behind her. She didn’t slam it. She didn’t scream. She stood there for a long moment with her back against it, one hand still on the knob, the other clenched tight at her side. The word wife echoed in her head. Not from Frederick. Not with pride. But from a stranger’s mouth, shaped like an insult, laced with venom. She peeled herself out of the brown dress like it was suddenly too tight for her skin. It slipped to the floor and pooled around her feet, soft and silent, like everything else about tonight. Sh