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All Chapters of HIS FORGOTTEN CONTRACT BRIDE: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

19 Chapters

CHAPTER ONE

The ProposalLily's Pov"Your father's debt is now yours, Miss Morgan. You have seventy-two hours, or I start with your sister's fingers."Vincent Shaw's threat from this morning still rang in my ears as I stood outside Hunt Hotels Corporation. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. Three million dollars. I didn't have three hundred.The envelope in my pocket felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. Inside was a contract marriage proposal from Alexander Hunt himself. I didn't know why a billionaire would want someone like me, but I was out of options.Sophie needed me. That was all that mattered.I pushed through the glass doors into a lobby that screamed wealth. I looked down at my worn flats and wanted to disappear."Miss Morgan?" A woman in a tight skirt appeared. "Mr. Hunt is waiting. Twentieth floor."His office door was open. Alexander Hunt stood at the window, tall and broad-shouldered in a black suit. He didn't turn around when I entered."You came." His voice was ice."Yes, Mr. Hunt.

Chapter Two

Moving InAlexander's Pov"She's perfect, Alexander. So timid and forgettable. Your grandmother will never suspect this is fake."Cassandra traced her finger down my chest as she spoke. We were in my office, door locked, an hour after Lily Morgan had left."She signed. That's all that matters." I moved away from Cassandra's touch to pour myself a drink."Did you see her face when I introduced myself in the elevator? She looked like she might cry." Cassandra laughed. "This is going to be easier than we thought."I downed the whiskey. "Just keep the embezzlement quiet until the contract ends. Two years, then we're free to do whatever we want."Cassandra's smile faltered. "Two years is a long time to pretend, darling.""You'll manage. The alternative is prison for stealing from my company." I set down the glass. "Or did you forget I have the evidence?"Her eyes flashed with anger before she masked it with sweetness. "Of course not. I'm just saying, living with some pathetic nobody under

Chapter Three

The WeddingLily's PovThe courthouse was gray and cold, just like everything else in my new life.I wore a simple cream dress from the closet Alexander's stylist had filled. No veil. No flowers. No guests except the two witnesses Alexander's lawyer brought.Alexander stood beside me in a black suit, checking his phone while the judge read the vows."Do you, Alexander James Hunt, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?""I do." He didn't look at me."Do you, Lily Marie Morgan, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?""I do." My voice barely worked."You may kiss the bride."Alexander's jaw tightened. He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine for exactly two seconds. Cold. Perfunctory. Like signing a document."Congratulations. You're now husband and wife."Mrs. Lily Hunt.It was done."My grandmother expects us in an hour. We need to go." Alexander was already walking away.I followed him to his black car. A driver opened the door for me. Alexander sat on the opposi

Chapter Four

The First MonthLily's PovThree weeks passed like a blur of loneliness.Alexander left before I woke up and came home after I went to bed. When we did cross paths, he looked through me like I was invisible.Elena became my only companion. She taught me Alexander's preferences, his schedule, his habits. Not that he noticed anything I did.I cooked dinner every night anyway. His favorite dishes that Elena mentioned. I set the table for two and waited.He never came. The food went cold. I ate alone. Threw the rest away.Every single night."You should stop," Elena said one evening, watching me plate another untouched meal. "He's not going to eat it.""I know."My phone rang. Sophie's weekly call."Lily! Guess what? My physical therapy is going so well! The new doctor says I might be able to walk with braces in a few months!""That's amazing, sweetheart." I forced brightness into my voice."It's all because of you and your new job. How's everything?""Just working hard. But I'm happy." L

CHAPTER 5

Sunday DinnerLily's PovThe Hunt family mansion made Alexander's penthouse look modest.Elena had driven me separately. Alexander didn't offer. He'd left hours earlier without a word.I stood at the massive front doors in the navy dress he'd chosen, feeling like an imposter.A butler opened the door. "Mrs. Hunt. They're waiting in the dining room."My heels clicked on marble floors. Voices echoed from ahead."...finally bringing her around. Took him long enough.""Probably ashamed. Did you see the wedding photos? Plain as dishwater."I froze outside the doorway."Now Cassandra, that's a woman worthy of the Hunt name. This girl is just….""Father." Alexander's voice cut through. "That's enough."I stepped into the room.Six pairs of eyes turned to me. Alexander sat at the far end of a table that could seat twenty. Margaret was beside him in a wheelchair, oxygen tubes in her nose. She smiled warmly.To Alexander's right sat an older man who could only be his father, same cold eyes, sam

Chapter Six: The Mistake

Lily's PovThe dinner with James Hunt left a bruise that didn't fade. Weeks passed, but I still heard his voice calling me plain and desperate every time I closed my eyes.Alexander grew colder after that night. He came home later. He drank more. Some evenings I heard him pacing his office long after midnight, muttering into his phone about numbers that didn't add up.I didn't ask questions. Questions weren't allowed.One night, I heard the front door. Heavy footsteps. A glass breaking in the kitchen. I got up to check, worried he'd hurt himself."Alexander?"He stood in the dark hallway, tie loose, jacket gone, a bottle of scotch hanging from his fingers. He didn't answer immediately . He just looked at me the way he never had before, like I was something he wanted instead of something he tolerated."You waited up," he said, voice sough."I heard the door."He crossed the space between us faster than I expected. His hand found my face, gentle in a way that stole my breath."Cassandra

Chapter Seven: Two Lines

Lily's PovThree weeks after that night, I stood in my bathroom staring at a plastic stick that would change everything.Two pink lines.I sat on the cold tiled floor and pressed my hand against my stomach, shock and terror and something achingly close to joy all crashing through me at once.A baby. Alexander's baby.I couldn't tell him. The contract said no emotional entanglement, and a baby was the deepest entanglement there was. He'd think I trapped him. He'd think I was like Vincent, another person trying to squeeze money out of the Hunt name.I hid the test at the bottom of my suitcase and went through the motions of another silent dinner, another cold hallway, another night alone in a house full of people who barely looked at me.Elena noticed first. She always noticed everything."You've been sick in the mornings," she said gently, setting a cup of ginger tea in front of me instead of my usual coffee. "And you flinch when I open the perfume cabinet.""I'm just tired, Elena."S

Chapter Eight: The Funeral

Lily's PovMargaret's funeral was beautiful and cold, exactly like every other event in the Hunt family calendar.Hundreds of mourners filled the church, business partners and society friends who'd probably never sat with her the way I had. I stood beside Alexander in black, playing the grieving widow's daughter-in-law, while my own grief for her felt like the only honest thing in the room.Cassandra arrived in a black dress that looked more like a red carpet gown than mourning wear. She went straight to Alexander's side, resting a hand on his arm, whispering something that made his shoulders loosen slightly.I stood two feet away and might as well have been invisible."You must be devastated," Cassandra said to him, loud enough for the surrounding guests to hear. "I'm here. Whatever you need."Alexander let her hand stay on his arm through the entire service. Not once did he reach for mine.James Hunt approached me briefly near the flowers, his voice a low, cruel murmur only I could

Chapter Nine: Gone

Lily's PovThe coastal town Rachel found for me smelled like salt and starting over.She'd rented a small apartment above a bakery under her cousin's name, far enough from New York that no Hunt lawyer would think to look. I got a job waiting tables at a diner by the pier, then a second job cleaning offices at night when the first paycheck barely covered rent.My stomach had started to round by the time I found a doctor willing to see me without insurance questions I couldn't answer."You're healthy," Dr. Ling told me at my first appointment. "But you're underweight and exhausted. You need to slow down.""I can't slow down."She studied me with concerned eyes but didn't push. I was grateful for that. I didn't have room in me to explain the whole truth.Rachel called every few days, always checking, always worried. "You need to rest more, Lily. That baby needs you healthy.""I'm fine, Rachel. We're managing.""You keep saying that word. Managing. Not living. Managing."She wasn't wrong,

Chapter 10: The Journal

Alexander's PovI found it by accident, three weeks into David's investigation, while searching the penthouse library for old financial documents my grandmother had once mentioned.A leather notebook, tucked behind a row of books that hadn't been touched in years. Lily's handwriting covered every page.I shouldn't have opened it. I opened it anyway.Sketches filled the first pages. My face, drawn in careful pencil lines, again and again, from angles I didn't know anyone had studied that closely. Beneath one drawing, small handwriting read: "He smiled today. Real, not for show. I wonder if he knows how rare that is."Pressed flowers fell from between the pages, roses from the garden she used to tend alone on the balcony while I ignored her existence.I kept reading, unable to stop myself."He doesn't see me, and some days I think that's kinder than if he did. If he saw me, he'd see how much I already love him, and that would only give him one more thing to be cruel about."Another page

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