All Chapters of THE GUARDIAN'S BRIDE: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

CHAPTER 12: A subtle warningThe conversation with father lingered in my mind all through the ride to the office. Somehow it left my thoughts sharper, my patience thinner, and my priorities realigned.Despite how he tried to play it off, or how he tried to pretend that he was still strong—fit as a fiddle. The truth was, he was old—and sick.The most I could do was try to give the old man what he wanted.Madelyn.She occupied every space in my mind lately. Not in the way a man would obsess over a woman. But in a man that a man protects what belongs to him— what is his.First, it was a sense of responsibility of a guardian towards his ward, then this thing—this much primal and innate natural desire to protect her. I couldn't even explain it.And that was what I was about to do.I had just walked into my office, still half-lost in the memory of my conversation with father, when Julia intercepted me in the hallway.“They’re still waiting,” she said softly. “Vance and Patricia Bomer. I tol

CHAPTER 14: What Mila knowsZachary took something from me—correction— he was always taking something away from me. So I wanted to serve him a portion of his poison. Whether it was my bluntness, or something else, the receptionist's mouth hung open for a while before she asked me to take a seat till it was my turn.“You'd see the doctor as soon as it's your turn. Please have a seat, madam.”The girl a few minutes later, directed me towards the doctor’s office. I thanked her and began to make my way over there. A part of me was not so sure about the step I was about to take.Zachary was never going to show mercy if he ever found out what I was about to do.My hand shook with sheer nerves as I tried to push the door open.“Madam?”I froze. Has someone recognised me here despite my efforts to go unnoticed?The worst possible thing was Zachary finding out what I had gone to do from the media."Mrs. Blackwood?"I had been caught. I stiffened, heart hammering. No one was supposed to reco

CHAPTER 16: A point unmadeThe city was like a huge dark mass with tall rising steel and tiny lights blinking back at me from the large floor to ceiling glass windows. The office had long been empty with the nightfall. There was this still quietness I liked that made me stay back to clear my desk long after the staff had left. My pen hovered over a merger paper I had been trying to go through and approve—or not. Yet my mind kept going back to the conversation I had with the private investigator I hired. According to him, there was dirt to be uncovered on the Bomers. But it might require time and resources. The latter I had, but the former—not so much.The door suddenly creaked open without a knock. I didn't have to guess. Only one person would be familiar or foolish enough to try that.Julia.I didn't take my eyes off the document even as the sound of her heels against the floor indicated her close presence.There was a brief silence where I could feel her watching me, then,“You ha

CHAPTER 18: I'm the lady of this houseThe little panic was now fully bloomed and pulsing in my chest with Zachary's close proximity and the look in his eyes. I had never been this close to Zachary before. So close that his dark brown eyes now looked like a deep liquid chocolate whirlpool about to suck me in. It was one thing to agree to such a level of intimacy—think you can handle it, but it was another thing to be able to see it through.This was all the younger me had dreamed and hoped for.But I am different now. Scarred.The familiar dread curled in my guts. That memory. Hands. Breaths. Pain. Something dead—long buried but refusing to die.“You’re trembling,” Zachary's deep voice cut through my haze.I blinked, tilting my head back slightly to look into his eyes. “What?”“You’re shivering,” he said in a tight voice.I didn't say anything. I couldn't. Not when he was this close that I could feel and smell him. It fueled the panic in my chest, but it was also strangely intoxicati

CHAPTER 20: When the dam breaks The moment that Julia left, the air in the room suddenly shifted. It was like I could breathe fully while allowing myself to fully bask in the joy and pleasant surprise of having my best friend suddenly show up.Lenny sniggered. “Jeez, who was that? And what crawled up her ass?” she asked, still looking at the door where Julia exited.I chuckled. “Oh Lenny. Trust me—you don't want to know.”She squealed excitedly before pulling me into another hug like we had not seen each other in years rather than a little over a week. I was not complaining. Rather I held her tightly too, letting her squish me. She wrapped me tightly in her arms, pulling me so close I almost forgot how to stand on my own.Her familiar perfume — fresh citrus with a hint of honey — hit me like memory and comfort and nostalgia. It spoke of a thousand memories. A time when my life was not so chaotic and overbearing.I pressed my face into her shoulder, willing myself not to fall apart.A