All Chapters of Contract marriage: I am the daughter of my husband's enemy: Chapter 181 - Chapter 188

Elara’s POV, “So that’s it?” Nobody moves, and I stare at Lucien. “You weren’t even going to tell me?”Lucien barely blinks.“I'm trying to keep you alive.”“You think you’re going to get out of this on a technicality?”“I'm not trying to get out of anything.” His voice sharpens. “You’re a human trying to play god, and it’s like I always have to pick you back up every single time you throw yourself into danger. I’ve always had to protect you!”Something inside me snaps.Before I even realized I’d reached for it, the coffee cup is already flying through the air. It shoots across the room and misses Lucien’s head by barely an inch before exploding against the wall behind him. Coffee splatteres across the wallpaper. Nobody breaths, and quietly, they all shuffle out.Lucien slowly turns to look at the shattered porcelain before looking back at me.God, I’d never seen his face look like that.Angry.“I don’t need protection!”“I don’t care!” he shouts back. “I don’t fucking care what you

Elara’s POV, Tenderly, like he wanted to memorize every heartbeat between us.Suddenly, we were lying in the deep, cool embrace of the meadow, the scent of crushed clover and wild thyme clinging to our skin.He moved over me with a slow, deliberate reverence, as if I were something fragile and sacred. His hands, warm and calloused, slid beneath the hem of my dress, lifting the fabric with an agonizing slowness that made my breath hitch. Every inch of skin he uncovered felt electric under his touch. As he gently eased my clothes away, his eyes never left mine—dark, swirling blue pools of adoration that seemed to strip my soul bare long before my body was exposed.“Darling,” he whispered, the word a velvet caress against my ear.He lowered himself, and we met in a kiss that tasted of longing and desperation, like we were trying to breathe for one another. There was no rush or urgency to conquer; there was only the need to be as close as humanly possible.As he entered me, a soft gasp

Elara’s POV, Hours pass before I finally stop screaming.At some point, my voice gives out, my fists split open, and every vase, lamp, picture frame, and piece of furniture that can be broken ends up scattered across the floor. The room looks as though a hurricane tore through it, and I am too exhausted to care. Even the curtains are beginning to burn where I threw a candle without thinking. The smell of smoke hangs in the air, yet it somehow feels cleaner than the silence.He really left.Lucien actually left me here.I slide down the wall until I’m sitting on the floor, drawing my knees against my chest. The illusion remains perfect. There is still no door or window. Only the soft breeze drifting through a room that shouldn’t have any air at all.He promised he would never use his illusion on me again.A bitter laugh escapes me.Another promise broken.My eyes wander across the room until they settle beneath the bed again for the fifth time.The folder.Dorine’s folder.The one I s

Third-person POV, Matteo’s trap wasn’t sprung with a gunshot.It began with silence.The explosion came several seconds later.The warehouse trembled beneath their feet as the blast ripped through one side of the compound, sending concrete and twisted steel into the air. Lucien barely had enough time to shove Dante aside before the floor beneath them collapsed completely. Dust swallowed the room, the ceiling caved inward, and the world disappeared beneath smoke, debris, and a roar so violent that even his enhanced hearing surrendered to a high-pitched ringing.Everything went black.~~Lucien woke with a sharp breath.For a brief moment, he couldn’t distinguish whether the throbbing in his skull came from the explosion or the nightmare he was certain he had been having. His vision refused to focus, and the ringing in his ears slowly faded into the sound of dripping water somewhere in the darkness.He tried to move, and metal clanked.His wrists were restrained above his head by thick