All Chapters of Becoming Mrs. Blackwood: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

~ LENA ~That morning, I sat on a cold bench outside the hospital where my life had quietly begun to fall apart. Hands clasped tightly in my lap, I stared ahead, eyes focused on nothing in particular.Around me, the hospital moved the way it always did. Doctors and other hospital staff hurried past, voices rose and fell, stretchers rolled by. But I wasn’t really there. I couldn’t hear any of it. All I could hear were the doctor’s words to my mother replaying over and over again in my head like words being read out at an execution.“Mrs. Martinez—if we don’t operate within the next forty-eight hours, her heart may fail. We could lose her.”Forty-eight hours. That was all Sofia had.I swallowed hard as the weight of it pressed down on my chest, squeezing until it hurt to breathe. My little sister—only eleven years old—had been born with a congenital heart condition that had slowly gotten worse over the years. Now it had reached the point where she needed an urgent surgery to survive. A

~ LENA ~I couldn’t sleep at all that night. No matter how many times I closed my eyes, my mind just wouldn’t turn off.Each time I began to drift off, Sofia’s face flashed before me like a guilty conscience, jolting me awake again.Forty-eight hours. Forty-eight hours before my sister could lose her life.Actually—it wasn’t up to that anymore. Julian was right. Time was running out—fast. I had to make a decision quickly.I lay on my back, staring at the wall clock in my room, counting the seconds as they ticked by, counting all the reasons I should walk away from Julian’s offer.Every logical part of me screamed that it was insane—stepping into another woman’s life, marrying a man I didn’t know, lying on a scale so massive it could destroy me.Besides being insane, it was dangerous. Illegal.Prison.The word made my stomach knot. If this went wrong, if I was exposed, I could lose everything—my freedom, my future.But then I thought of Sofie, remembering her pale face against the whit

~ LENA ~I had to be dreaming. Could it really be—?Nathan’s lips didn’t allow the thought form fully in my head. They didn’t give me the room to think. His mouth devoured mine like a man who’d been starving. Like the past days he’d been away had been torture, and this—me—was his only relief.His hands slowly guided me backwards as the door closed behind us with a soft click, while his mouth continued to ravage my senses.Naturally, I should have panicked. Instead, my body betrayed me, shamelessly melting against him.I had been kissed before—by my ex and a few other men whom I thought knew exactly what they were doing. But none of it had prepared me for this. None of it came close to the way Nathan Blackwood unraveled me with just one kiss.As his hand slid into my hair, deepening the kiss, the rest of the world faded away. For a moment, I forgot everything. The contract, the lies… The name I was bearing that wasn’t mine…My knees went weak. I clutched the lapels of his jacket for su

~ NATHAN ~I stood in the kitchen doorway for longer than I meant to. Kim hadn’t noticed me. She was completely absorbed in what she was doing. So focused that she hadn’t heard my footsteps at all.I’d only come to check on her because curiosity wouldn’t let me sit still. I told myself it was only going to be for a minute.But the moment I saw her, I was rooted to the spot.The sight of Kim wearing an apron was…unexpected, pleasant. Shocking.She stood by the counter, seasoning meat with an ease that caught me off guard. She chopped the herbs with practiced precision, looking so relaxed, so at peace, like she belonged there.She was actually cooking.The realization hit me in a way that left me utterly stunned. Because the truth was, Kimberly Hayes hated kitchens. She avoided them the way some people avoided bad memories.She’d once told me that cooking felt like a waste of time and energy when there were chefs and restaurants available for that. I’d simply laughed it off, accepting i

~ LENA ~“Good morning, Mr. Blackwood. Good morning, Miss. Hayes.”The maid that got the door greeted us warmly. She smiled at me in a way that immediately made me feel safe and welcome. Like I belonged there.“Good morning, Rosa,” Julian replied as he stepped inside.“Hi, Rosa,” I said, following him in and returning her smile.Up close, she looked to be in her fifties, Latina, with kind eyes and streaks of grey woven through her dark hair, pulled neatly into a low bun that matched her uniform.There was something about her presence that felt safe. Motherly.The door closed behind us, and looking up, I froze. The picture-perfect setting of a grand foyer with warm lighting, curved twin staircases on either side and a massive chandelier in the middle stole the breath right out of my lungs.I wasn’t sure what I’d expected Nathan Blackwood’s home to look like, but this by far surpassed any image I’d built in my mind.I stood there a second too long, taking it all in, until I realized I w