All Chapters of I Married My Enemy to Destroy Him: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The invitation arrived at seven in the morning.No messenger.No phone call.No warning.It was simply waiting on the breakfast table when I walked into the dining room.A black envelope.My name was written across the front in silver ink.Seraphina Vale.I stopped walking.Lucien was already sitting at the other end of the table, a cup of untouched coffee beside him. He wasn't eating. He wasn't reading.He was staring at the envelope.That alone told me everything.“You knew it was coming,” I said.His eyes lifted to mine.“Yes.”I pulled out the chair opposite him.“Then why didn't you stop it?”“Because stopping it would have told Victor we were afraid.”I looked at the envelope again.“Are we?”Lucien's expression remained calm.“Of Victor?”“Yes.”“No.”His answer came too quickly.I studied him.“You're lying.”One corner of his mouth moved.“I'm beginning to think you're getting too good at that.”“I learned from the best.”For a moment, something warm passed through his eyes.

The gunshot echoed through the gallery.For one terrifying second, I couldn't hear anything else.Not the rain outside.Not Lucien's breathing.Not even my own heartbeat.Then his hand closed around my waist and pulled me sharply against him.“Stay behind me.”His voice was low, controlled, but I heard the tension beneath it.Another shot exploded through the darkness.Glass shattered somewhere to our left.I flinched.Lucien turned his body, shielding mine completely.“Victor!”No answer.The emergency lights flickered on.Red.Then white.The gallery appeared again in fragments—broken glass, overturned chairs, paintings hanging crookedly from the walls.Victor Hale was gone.I stared at the empty space where he had been standing.“He disappeared.”Lucien's hand remained firmly around my waist.“He wanted us to think he did.”“What?”His eyes moved across the room.“He doesn't leave without controlling the exit.”A cold feeling settled in my stomach.Then I noticed something on the f

Seraphina woke before dawn.For several seconds, she didn’t know where she was.The room was dark except for the faint silver light slipping through the curtains. Rain tapped softly against the windows, steady and almost soothing.Then she remembered.Lucien.The argument.The files.The kiss she had almost allowed herself to believe meant something.Her eyes closed again.She hated mornings like this.Mornings when reality returned too quickly.She turned onto her back and stared at the ceiling.For weeks, she had told herself that Lucien was dangerous because he knew too much.Then she had convinced herself he was dangerous because he cared too much.Now she was beginning to understand the truth.He was dangerous because she cared about him too.And that frightened her more than any enemy ever had.A soft knock came at the door.Seraphina sat up.“Come in.”The door opened.Lucien stood there.He was already dressed in a black suit, his hair slightly disheveled as if he had run his

For several seconds, Seraphina couldn’t breathe.The words remained suspended between them.I killed your father.No.Her mind rejected them before her heart could even understand them.She stared at Lucien as though another man had suddenly stepped into his body.“You killed him?”Lucien didn’t answer.That silence was enough.Seraphina took a step backward.“No.”Her voice was barely audible.Lucien’s expression tightened.“Seraphina—”“Don’t.”She raised a trembling hand.“Don’t say my name.”He stopped.She looked down at the letter again.Then back at him.“You told me he was alive.”“I said someone wanted us to believe he was dead.”“You knew.”“I suspected.”“You said you didn’t have proof.”“I didn’t.”She laughed bitterly.“Then why did you say you killed him?”Lucien looked away.“Because I believed I did.”The answer confused her more than anything else.“What does that mean?”He walked toward the table and placed both hands against its edge.His head lowered.“When your fa

The old Vale estate looked smaller than Seraphina remembered.Perhaps it was because she had spent ten years turning it into something larger inside her mind.In her memories, it had been enormous.The gardens had stretched endlessly. The marble staircase had seemed wide enough for a ballroom. The windows had reached the ceiling, and sunlight had filled every room.Now there was almost nothing left.Blackened walls stood beneath the night sky. Broken windows stared like empty eyes. Ivy crawled over the remains of the eastern wing, and weeds pushed through cracks in the stone.Seraphina stood outside the gates, staring at the ruins.Her fingers tightened around the photograph of the boy she had never been allowed to remember.Her brother.Lucien stood beside her.He had said almost nothing during the drive.Neither had she.There were too many thoughts fighting inside her.What if he was really there?What if he remembered her?What if he hated her?What if he wasn’t the little boy fro