Lahat ng Kabanata ng Stepdad's Secret Cowgirl : Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 20

The next morning started peacefully enough. Sunlight filtered weakly through the gray clouds, and the house smelled of fresh coffee and toast. Clara was in an especially good mood, humming as she arranged a vase of flowers on the dining table. The gala was only two days away, and everything seemed to be falling into place.Emelia and Marcus had just sat down for breakfast when the doorbell rang.Clara opened the door to find Mrs. Hargrove, their nosy neighbor from three houses down the street, standing on the porch with a concerned expression. The older woman was known for knowing everyone's business in the neighborhood."Clara, dear, I'm so glad you're home," Mrs. Hargrove said, stepping inside without waiting for an invitation. "I wanted to check if everything is alright after that awful commotion yesterday afternoon."Clara blinked in confusion. "Commotion? What commotion?"Mrs. Hargrove's eyes widened dramatically. "Oh, you didn't hear? There was a man shouting at your gate like a

Emelia could not sit still. The house felt like a cage after Victor Kane’s appearance at the gate. Every shadow seemed threatening. Every silence carried suspicion. Marcus had left early again for the office, claiming he needed to contain the damage. His parting kiss on her forehead had felt tender, but now it burned with doubt.She paced the living room for nearly an hour before making her decision. She had watched him enter the code three days ago when he thought she was upstairs. Four numbers. Simple. She had memorized them without knowing why at the time. Now that reason felt urgent.Her hands trembled as she approached the office door. The new cameras stared down at her, but she moved quickly. She punched in the code. The lock clicked open. She slipped inside and closed the door behind her, heart hammering against her ribs.The room smelled of leather and Marcus’s cologne. She ignored the main desktop and searched the drawers instead. In the bottom one, hidden beneath false files

Marcus could not breathe properly in his own house anymore.He stood at the kitchen counter at 6:47 a.m., coffee going cold in his hand, watching the stairs like a man waiting for a verdict. Every creak in the old floorboards made his stomach tighten. When Emelia finally appeared, hair messy and eyes swollen, she did not even glance in his direction. She moved past him like he was furniture.He had rehearsed ten different ways to reach her last night. None of them survived the reality of her silence."Emelia."Nothing. She opened the fridge, took out the orange juice, poured herself a glass. The sound of liquid hitting glass felt louder than it should.Marcus set his mug down too hard. "You cannot keep doing this. I am losing my fucking mind here."She drank slowly, still not looking at him. The rejection sat in his throat like broken glass.Clara came down a few minutes later, humming some song from her playlist, completely untouched by the war happening in her own kitchen. She kisse

Marcus stood in the dark hallway at 1:47 a.m. staring at the thin strip of light under Emelia’s door like it might burn him if he got too close. His phone had been blowing up for the last hour. Victor. More pictures. More demands. The latest one showed Emelia’s face in that exact moment she came, mouth open, eyes half closed. Marcus had deleted it immediately but the image stayed stuck behind his eyes like a brand.He pushed the door open without knocking.Emelia sat up in bed, knees to her chest, wearing nothing but that same oversized t-shirt. Her eyes were wide and exhausted. She did not tell him to leave. That was something."You are still awake," he said, closing the door softly behind him."Hard to sleep when the man who planned my entire seduction might get me exposed to the whole city tomorrow."Marcus leaned against the door, arms crossed so he would not reach for her. The room smelled like her lotion and the faint trace of tears. It made his chest feel too tight."Victor rai

Clara stood in the middle of the gala hall watching the staff adjust the final lighting, a strange knot sitting heavy in her stomach that she could not name. Everything looked perfect. The tables gleamed with fresh linens, the centerpieces exactly as she had imagined them. Yet something felt wrong in her own home lately, something she kept pushing away every time it tried to surface.She turned when she heard footsteps. Marcus and Emelia walked in together, close but not touching. They had been like that all morning. Present. Polite. But the air between them carried weight she could not quite touch."You two are early," she said, forcing brightness into her voice. "Come see the stage setup. The flowers arrived better than I expected."Marcus nodded. He looked tired. The kind of tired that went deeper than work stress. Emelia stayed half a step behind him, her eyes distant as she scanned the empty hall like she expected ghosts to appear in the corners.Clara looped her arm through Emel