All Chapters of The Devil's Wedding Ring : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

"No..." I whispered to myself, the word vibrating against my palm. There was no way. I knelt on the floor amidst the wreckage of the study, my fingers brushing against the cold, cracked glass of the device. I double-tapped the screen. The display flickered to life, revealing a photo of Jaxson and me from a summer long ago, our faces pressed together, radiating a happiness that felt like a lifetime of lies. "This is... it’s Jaxson’s phone," I breathed. Sarah rushed toward me, her shadow falling over the documents strewn across the floor, but I didn't look at her. I couldn't. I typed in the password, his birthday and the phone opened despite the jagged mess of the screen. My heart shuddered against my ribs as I navigated to his recent calls. One name appeared over and over, a relentless rhythm of contact: Stepbrother. I tapped the contact info. The number staring back at me was the same one I called every night

"Who else would it be if not you?" I waited. I waited for the denial, for the roar of righteous indignation, for the defense that would make me the crazy one again. I wanted a lie so beautiful I could crawl back inside it. But he didn't give me that. "And?" The word was a cold scalpel. He released a smirk and turned to the doctor, his voice smooth and authoritative. "Doctor, please. As I told you, she is really not stable. She goes berserk sometimes when the grief hits. It's a tragedy, really." "It's you that is berserk, Cillian! It's you that is not okay!" I felt my sanity fraying at the edges, a physical crumbling of my soul. "What did I do? What did my family do that was so bad you had to kill them?" "Doctor, please. Attend to her immediately," Cillian said. His voice was a whip, and the doctor bowed slightly, moving toward me with a syringe I hadn't noticed before.&nb

He laughed at my promise, a dry, rattling sound that filled the room. "Is this the part where I get scared of your threats? But why am I not scared?" He smirked, leaning back as if he were watching a particularly amusing play. "You need more than just a threat to come for me, Valerie. You need strength, you need allies, you need people... But you have none except me."The truth of his words pinned me to the mattress, he had methodically stripped my life of everyone who mattered. He had isolated me until he was the only sun in my sky, the only one I could lean on. I was practically too independent of him alone. I clenched harder, I should've listened to Sarah. When she complained of my attachment to Cillian, when she worried about who he was, how quick did I have to marry when I was grieving...I should've taken this up with a more serious note. "Sarah is gone," he said so those words could sink in, I'm living at his mercy now. He rode me high and dry and like a fool, I chose to be wha

I frowned even when my heart was eroded with happiness, "And how can I help you?" I asked, trying to get upset about him not reaching out in days now."Thank God it's you, I got one digit wrong in your number and I've been trying to figure it out ever since that day," he said and I nodded my head, finding it amused and relaxed that he didn't forget me, he just forgot a digit in my number. Sarah turned to look at me, mouth an who to me and I smiled to show that it was really Jaxson. "You forgot a number?" I asked and he seemed to laugh."It's kind of ridiculous but I did, you won't believe how many people I had to call until I got to this point."I couldn't suppress the giggle that bubbled up. The image of the legendary Jaxson Montgomery, the man who could track a ninety-mile-per-hour fastball with precision, sitting in a dugout or a penthouse somewhere, frantically dialing random combinations of numbers just to find me, was absurd. It was charming. It was everything, I could barely

"My father said something, didn’t he?"Jaxson’s voice pulled me out of a two-day trance. For forty-eight hours, my mind had been a broken record, replaying that suffocating meeting in the Montgomery study. I hadn’t even told Sarah. She was drowning in the logistics of my skyrocketing career, surviving on caffeine and three hours of sleep, I couldn't bring myself to dump my six-month relationship crisis onto her plate. Not when I was supposed to be the "Diamond Girl" who had it all.But Montgomery’s voice was like a cold draft I couldn't shut out. I don’t need an actress for a daughter-in-law.He had sat there, crossing his legs with a casual elegance that felt like an executioner’s grace. I need someone who is more serious about her life. I know St. Claire is trying, letting his daughter have what she wants, but when you're going to be my daughter-in-law, Jaxson needs someone to make him stay focused."Why?" I remember asking, my voice small, feeling the walls of the study closing in.