All Chapters of I Married the Man Raising My Real Daughter : Chapter 11 - Chapter 16

Chapter 12Isabella's POVI did not sleep that night, though I lay in bed long enough for the ceiling above me to blur into shapeless grey shadow, my mind replaying Marcus's laughter over and over until it wore a groove into the back of my skull.You will be crawling back within the month. You always do.By the time the sun rose, thin and pale through my bedroom curtains, something in me had hardened past the point of return. I rose up and showered until the water ran cold, and sat down at the small writing desk in the corner of my room, i lodged in the hostel, i can't find myself going back to that house, after everything that happened.I opened my laptop and pulled up the divorce documents again, The first one Marcus refused to sign it, I'm drifting another one, he has no choice, I'm not that naive again. My fingers moved steadily across the keyboard, correcting clauses, tightening language around the custody surrender I no longer needed to word so gently, since Chloe was never trul

Chapter 14Isabella's POVThe Hart Corporation building rose taller than I remembered, glass and steel catching the morning sun in blinding sheets, the same tower my grandfather had raised decades ago from nothing but stubbornness and ambition, the same tower I had walked away from without so much as a backward glance seven years earlier.My father stood beside me at the entrance, silent, his jaw tight, his eyes carefully avoiding mine even now. Things between us remained fragile, unspoken apologies still sitting heavy and unaddressed on both our tongues, but he had come, at least, dressed in his finest suit, to walk me through those doors himself. That, I decided, was enough of a beginning for one morning."Are you certain about this?" he asked quietly, his hand resting briefly on my shoulder as we approached the revolving doors, the closest thing to affection either of us had managed since my return."I have never been more certain of anything, Daddy." My voice came out steadier tha

Chapter 16Isabella's POVI could not sleep that night, my mind still circling restlessly around my father's strange confession at dinner, the mysterious widower who had refused a marriage alliance twice without so much as an explanation offered in return.Curiosity, I had learned long ago, was rarely a comfortable companion. It sat now in my chest like a smouldering coal, refusing to let me rest, until finally, sometime past midnight, I gave up entirely on sleep and slipped quietly out of my room instead.The house lay silent around me, the corridors lit only by the pale glow of security lamps filtering through tall windows, casting long, shifting shadows across the polished floor. My bare feet made no sound against the cool marble as I made my way toward my mother's private study, the small room at the end of the east wing where she kept records of every alliance, every donation, every family connection our name had ever touched.I told myself I was simply looking for information on