All Chapters of THE GUARDIAN'S BRIDE: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

CHAPTER 31: Words like a dangerous caress“We're here, Zach.” Julia.I lifted my gaze from my lap to see that the car had stopped. My breath hitched. For one breathless second my stomach dropped as if the ground had disappeared beneath me. All my life I barely remembered who my parents were, what they were like. I was very young when they died. I lived life thinking that all the privileges I had were a blessing; the perks of having a wealthy guardian. But it turns out I was an heiress.I had started and run an art and antique store with Lenny. But I needed no one to tell me that this was different. Bigger than anything I could imagine.I gripped my purse tighter, telling myself to breathe for the umpteenth time. “You belong there.”Zachary’s voice beside me broke across the quiet like an order. I cast a brief glance at Julia who acted like she was busy on whatever she was doing on her ipad. She couldn't fool me. I knew she was listening.“What if I can't do this?”“There’s no suc

CHAPTER 33: Wishes in a park The city blurred as the car sped down the road. But I could barely notice the city as it melted through the tinted windows of the black sedan. I was so lost in my thoughts that I barely noticed the city and its scenery. My thoughts were still tangled around the incident that took place in the restroom earlier. Not the anxiety and tension I felt during the board meeting which I managed to mask so well if you'd ask me, but it was that encounter with Vance.His dark aura and expression. The danger that I felt that made my skin prick. The way he’d cornered me, the warning and threat that were interlaced in his words, in his voice—it clung to me like the stubborn lingering scent of something rotten that just refuses to go away.I sat stiffly beside Zachary. He had not said a word since I returned to find him done with his serious conversation with the director and we left Kade Corp. I was staring out the window and he had been scrolling through his phone.The

CHAPTER 35: Not enough to see you hurtI barely remembered the drive back. After Zachary had coldly declared the conversation closed, it was as though he had also closed off his awareness and reaction that someone else was in the car. As soon as we arrived his company building, “Take her home,” he ordered the driver, still without looking at my face. He even stepped out of the car without as much as a tiny backward glance. At that point it felt like the tiny crack that had appeared in his impenetrable walls had been repaired. And I had a feeling that it was never going to be easy to crack again. Never.As the car tore down the road to the mansion, my mind kept replaying the look on Zachary’s face, the sharpness of his words, the finality of it and the silence that followed. It was a silence that felt heavy. The one that gives you that feeling of pain, especially when you fail to reach an objective.That night after I blacked out. I briefly opened my eyes. And I saw him stand beside

CHAPTER 37: Who's boss?“Really? That really happened?” I asked the blushing maid who was stirring the pot of stew over the stove.She nodded slowly, a small bashful smile playing on her lips as her gaze dropped lower to avoid my eyes.How shy she is now! But she wasn’t so shy when she was getting freaky with the driver in the garden.After I left Madelyn with Mary, I was heading back to my room when my nose picked up the aroma of the delicious stew, and my ears caught the sound of laughter and gossip—all coming from the same direction. I loved both. So that was how I ended up here in the kitchen with two of the maids. Rosa the one cooking—the freaky one, and Lola the loud one who was cheering on her friend.I was leaning against the kitchen counter now, laughing with Rosa and Lola as we tasted the steaming pot of stew they’d been fussing over all morning, even before I joined them some minutes ago. “Are you sure it's good, madam?” Rosa asked, biting her lips nervously.I stopped

CHAPTER 39: Wives first Lenny had the patience of a darn saint. I, on the other hand, was almost two pins away from ripping the offending dress off and declaring myself “fashionably late” in pajamas. It was the night of the event that Zachary had informed me about, and Lenny was determined that I was going to be the cynosure of all eyes.“Hold still, Mads,” she muttered, tugging the zipper up the back of my gown. “You act like I’m putting you in a very ugly straightjacket.”For me it might very well have been that. I didn't really care for fashion. But I could still put together a mean ensemble when I felt like it. The dress Lenny had chosen was a burgundy satin dress that fit like a glove with a deep slit that ran up my thigh. The plunging neckline drew attention to my collarbone where a diamond set that had arrived from Zachary earlier this evening sat delicately.“You grumble like I'm putting you in those ugly jumpsuits,” she continued to mutter as she stood after finally pulli