All Chapters of Married To The Devil's Heir : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The door jerked open the instant Ivy turned the key. She froze on the threshold, grocery bag still hooked over one arm. Two men stood in her brother’s living room like they had been waiting for her. One held Leo by the collar, shoved hard against the wall, sneakers barely scraping the floor. “Let him go.” Her voice came out steadier than she expected. The man holding Leo turned his head slowly. Unhurried. “You must be the sister.” “I said let him go.” “Ivy, don’t.” Leo’s voice cracked. “Just leave. I’ll handle it.” “You’ll handle it.” The second man gave a short, flat laugh. “You had two months to handle it.” Ivy set the grocery bag down without looking away from them. Her hands trembled, but her spine stayed straight. She had learned that posture the hard way, landlords at the door, collectors calling four times in one afternoon. Still. Calm on the outside. Let them think stillness meant she was not already measuring distances, counting steps to the kitchen, calculating whether

“Arms out.” Ivy stared at the man in the black suit standing between her and the mansion’s front entrance. His hands were already gloved. His face gave her nothing. Behind him the house rose floor after floor of dark stone and darker windows. The kind of building that did not need a name on the gate. Everyone already knew what it was. “Excuse me?” “Arms out,” he repeated. “Standard procedure. Everyone gets searched before they go in. Including you.” “I’m supposed to be marrying into this family in a few days and you’re frisking me like I’m a threat.” “Everyone’s a threat until they’re not.” He did not smile. “Arms out, or the car takes you home and someone else collects your brother’s debt tonight.” She raised her arms. His hands moved fast and impersonal, jacket, bag, lining of her coat. It took everything in her not to flinch, not to let her face show how much she hated being handled like inventory. When he finished he stepped back and nodded once toward the door. “

“You’re in the wrong wing.” Ivy stopped mid-step, coffee cup still in hand, and turned. A woman stood in the hallway watching her with an expression that managed to be warm and assessing at the same time. Dark hair. Effortless elegance. The kind of beauty that did not need to try, which somehow made it more intimidating instead of less. “I’m sorry?” “The kitchen you’re looking for is on the other side of the house. This hallway just loops back to the studies.” The woman smiled, easy and disarming. “I’m Sable. Kade’s cousin. You must be Ivy.” “I am.” Ivy shifted the empty cup in her hands, embarrassed despite herself. She had woken early, disoriented in the unfamiliar room, the ceiling too high and the silence too complete for her body to recognize it as safe enough for real sleep. She had set out to find coffee with nothing but instinct guiding her, which had apparently failed within the first ten minutes. “Nobody gave me a map.” “Nobody ever does. This house was built to confuse

"Don't look at the guests. Look at me."Kade's voice was low, meant only for her, as Ivy walked the last few steps down an aisle lined with men in expensive suits who all watched her with the same flat, assessing stare, like she was a transaction being finalized in front of witnesses rather than a bride. The dress felt heavier than it had during any of the fittings, every eye in the room adding weight to it, and she kept her own eyes forward, on Kade's face, the only anchor point in a room full of danger dressed up as celebration."I wasn't planning to," she said quietly, matching his tone. "Some of them look like they'd rather shoot me than watch me marry you.""Some of them would." He didn't smile, didn't offer comfort, just stated it as fact the way he stated everything, flat and unbothered, as though he'd said the exact same sentence at every wedding this family had ever thrown. "Ignore them. This part will be over in twenty minutes."The officiant began speaking the moment she re

"You can stop smiling now. The guests are gone."Kade's voice broke the silence the moment the bedroom door clicked shut behind them, and Ivy felt the practiced expression drop from her face like a mask she'd been holding in place too long. Her shoulders ached from hours of standing straight, of performing joy for a room full of strangers who would have killed her without hesitation an hour earlier if the price had been right, and her feet throbbed from heels she'd worn since morning."That's the first genuinely helpful thing you've said to me all night," she said, sinking onto the edge of a chair near the window, kicking off shoes that had been pinching for the last three hours, the relief almost embarrassing in how good it felt after a day that had asked so much of her, more than any single day had asked of her since her parents died.Kade shrugged out of his jacket, tossing it over the back of a chair, and for a moment he looked less like the heir to a criminal empire and more like