All Chapters of Ruined by My Best Friend’s Father: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

28 Chapters

CHAPTER 11 Too Loud to Hide

I told myself I was only going for an hour.That was the lie I used whenever I needed to feel responsible while still saying yes. An hour meant I could show my face, toast someone's success, take a few pictures, then leave before the night turned into something I would regret.Nadia didn't let me pretend."You have been acting like a nun for two weeks," she said, tugging my sleeve as we stepped out of the car. "One night will not kill you.""I'm not acting like a nun," I said."You are," she insisted. "You say no to everything. You keep checking your phone. You look like you're waiting for a lecture."I shot her a look. "Stop reading my face."Nadia laughed. She was one of those university friends who collected people easily. She made plans the way other people breathed. If she decided you were coming with her, it was easier to accept your fate than fight.The new club was already glowing from the outside. Lights moved behind tinted glass. The bass hit the pavement like a heartbeat. A

CHAPTER 12 Lines You Don't Cross

Chloe's house always felt different in the afternoon.The light came through the tall windows in long strips, stretching across the wooden floor and the pale sofa like quiet shadows. It was calmer than the nights here. Less tension in the air, less noise from the city outside.I dropped my bag on the chair near the entrance."Chloe?" I called."Living room!" her voice answered.I walked in to find her sprawled across the couch with her laptop open, half working and half scrolling through something on her phone."You look suspiciously relaxed," she said, glancing up."I survived Nadia's club adventure," I replied.Chloe's eyes lit up instantly. "Oh my God, the new one? Aurelian?""Yes.""And you didn't tell me?""You were studying for your exam," I said. "I didn't want to distract you.""That's not an excuse," she said, already leaning forward. "Tell me everything. Was it good? Was it full? Were the drinks expensive?""All of the above."She grinned. "I knew it."I sat down beside her,

CHAPTER 13 Becoming a Problem

Chloe's kitchen table had slowly disappeared under textbooks.Economics notes, highlighted pages, loose papers covered with formulas she insisted were easy if you "looked at them the right way."I leaned over one of the pages, tapping a line with my pen."You flipped the ratio again," I said.Chloe groaned and dropped her head onto the table. "I didn't flip it. The textbook flipped it.""That's not how math works.""It should be," she muttered.I smiled and pushed the paper back toward her."Try it again."She sat up with a dramatic sigh but started rewriting the numbers.Sunlight filtered through the tall kitchen windows, soft and warm, making the room feel calmer than it probably deserved. Outside, the late afternoon was quiet. A few cars passed occasionally, but most of the neighborhood had settled into the slow rhythm of the weekend.Chloe chewed the end of her pen."If I fail this exam," she said, "I'm blaming you.""You asked me to help.""Yes, but I didn't expect actual work."

CHAPTER 14 Too Close Again

By the time Chloe's brain finally gave up, the table looked worse than it had an hour earlier.Books were spread open in different directions, loose papers stacked over each other, and three pens had somehow rolled all the way to Damian's side of the living room without either of us noticing.Chloe dropped her head onto one of her notebooks with a groan."I'm done," she said. "If I look at one more formula tonight, I'll actually lose the will to live.""You said that forty minutes ago," I replied, closing the textbook in front of me."That was before elasticity ruined my life."From the sofa near the window, Damian looked up from his laptop."You were doing fine," he said.Chloe lifted her head just enough to stare at him. "You are legally required to say that because you live here.""That isn't how legality works," I said."It should be," she muttered.I smiled and began gathering the scattered pages in front of me. The evening had gone on longer than I expected, but not badly. Chloe

CHAPTER 15 Crossing the Line

"You keep saying that," I said.His jaw tightened slightly. "Because you should."I looked at him for a moment, searching his face for something softer than restraint, something easier than this constant push and pull between warning and want."But do you want me to?" I asked.The question settled between us like something dangerous.He didn't answer immediately."You know I should," he said finally."That wasn't what I asked."The words were out before I could stop them.His hand tightened once at my waist. Not enough to hurt. Just enough to register. The first visible crack in his control."Eva."The way he said my name this time felt like a plea.I should have stepped back then. I knew that. I knew exactly what kind of line we were standing on, how badly it could go, how impossible it would be to pretend after this that whatever existed between us was still made only of looks and unfinished conversations.But he hadn't let go.And I didn't want him to.So instead of stepping back,

CHAPTER 16 Nothing Happened

For a few seconds after I opened my eyes, I didn't move.The room was unfamiliar in that quiet way places sometimes are when you wake up somewhere that isn't yours. The ceiling was higher than the one in my apartment. The curtains were darker. The air smelled faintly of soap and something warmer underneath it.Then the memory came back all at once.The stairs.The fall.The way Damian had looked at me before anything happened.And everything that happened after.I exhaled slowly and stared at the ceiling again, as if pretending I hadn't remembered would somehow make the situation easier to deal with.It didn't.The bed beside me was empty.That fact made my stomach tighten slightly.For a moment I wondered if he had already gone downstairs, if Chloe was already awake, if the morning had started without giving either of us time to decide what this meant.I sat up carefully.The room was quiet.Too quiet.His bedroom looked exactly the same as it had the night before. Clean. Ordered. Al

CHAPTER 17 Act Normal

By the time I got to the office, I had already told myself three different versions of the same lie.You're fine.It was one night.You can act normal.The problem was that none of those things felt entirely true.I sat at my desk, opened my laptop, and stared at the spreadsheet in front of me for almost a full minute before I realized I had not absorbed a single number. The office was already awake around me. Phones ringing. Low conversations near the glass meeting room. The soft clatter of keyboards and printers. Everything looked exactly the same as it had every other morning.I was the one who felt different.I picked up my coffee and took a slow sip, forcing myself to focus on something practical. My inbox. The report due by noon. The list of follow-ups Ms. Hargrove had sent before eight.Work.That was what mattered here.Not the fact that I had woken up in Damian Cole's bed that morning.Not the way he had looked at me before saying it didn't leave the room.Not the way my body

CHAPTER 18 Not a Good Idea

The message came at 8:17.No greeting. No explanation.Just an address and one sentence.Come if you want to talk.I stared at the screen for a long moment without moving.It was a hotel in the financial district. Not one of the loud, flashy ones Nadia liked to point out from the car when we passed them. This one was quieter. Older. The kind of place where discretion mattered more than attention.I already knew what I should do.Ignore it.Set the phone down.Take a shower, change into old clothes, and force myself into bed early like a sensible person trying not to ruin her life.Instead, I read the message again.Then a third time.I set my phone face down on the table and walked to the kitchen. The apartment was quiet except for the low hum of the refrigerator and the distant sound of traffic outside. I poured myself a glass of water, drank half of it, then set it down

Chapter 19 The Unspoken Rules

I didn't expect him to text again, not really that soon.The message came two days later while I was sitting at the small desk in my apartment, pretending to focus on the portfolio edits Andre had asked me to finish before Monday.My phone vibrated once against the wood.No name appeared on the screen, just the number. But i already knew who it was.My stomach tightened before I even opened it.Are you free tonight?That was all.No greeting, no explanation, not even an emojis.Just the question.I stared at the message longer than I should have.The simplicity of it felt deliberate, controlled and almost careful.I leaned back slightly in the chair, letting out a slow breath through my nose.It wasn't the first time someone had asked me a question like that.But somehow this one felt different.Because of who it came from.Because of what had already happened between us.And because a part of me already knew what my answer was going to be.Still, I didn't reply immediately.I set the

Chapter 20 — Normal Again

Chloe didn't notice anything.That was the first thing I realized the moment I walked into the living room.She was sitting cross-legged on the couch with her laptop open, a half-finished assignment glowing on the screen. When she saw me she immediately brightened, pushing the computer aside like it had only been an excuse to kill time until someone more interesting appeared."Finally," she said. "I was starting to think you abandoned me for your fancy internship life."I dropped my bag beside the chair and laughed lightly. "It's not fancy. It's mostly spreadsheets and coffee.""That still sounds better than this," she said, gesturing vaguely at her laptop before leaning back against the cushions.Her tone was the same as always—easy, familiar, completely unaware of anything complicated happening beneath the surface.Which should have made the room feel comfortable.Instead it made me painfully aware of the

1 2 3

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP