All Chapters of Married To The Devil's Heir : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

The staff had stopped pretending to work an hour ago. Ivy could feel it the moment she stepped into the east hallway, that strange, suspended quiet of an entire house holding its breath together. Word had already spread, the way it always did in this house, faster than any official announcement, faster than Vincent could have controlled it even if he'd wanted to. Sable was gone. Confined somewhere Ivy hadn't been told about, and wasn't foolish enough to ask, not yet, not with Vincent's fury still audible through the closed study door down the hall. She was halfway to her room when the front doors opened without anyone announcing it first. A woman walked in like she owned the marble beneath her feet, a single suitcase trailing behind her, dark hair falling loose over one shoulder, dressed with the kind of understated elegance that made the mansion's usual grandeur look slightly overdone by comparison. She didn't pause at the threshold the way guests were supposed to. She simply walk

Kade was still awake when Ivy found him, sitting alone in the small library off the east wing with a glass of something amber and untouched at his elbow, staring at nothing in particular. The house had gone quiet hours ago, staff dismissed for the night, Elena settled somewhere in the guest wing, Vincent's study dark for once instead of lit until dawn the way it had been every night since Sable's exposure. She almost turned back. Almost let the door stay closed and left him to whatever he was working through alone, the way she'd done every night since the wedding, careful never to intrude on whatever private grief or calculation kept him from sleeping. Instead she stepped inside, closing the door quietly behind her. "You're not sleeping." "Neither are you." He didn't look up. "Come to check on me, or come to finish what Sable started this afternoon?" "Maybe both." Ivy crossed the room and sat in the chair across from him, near enough to see the exhaustion he usually kept hidden be

Greta barely made it through the doorway before Vincent pointed to the empty chair beside him.“Close the door.”She did.Kade watched her hands begin to shake.“Now,” Vincent said, “tell me who instructed you to change my daughter-in-law’s order.”Greta’s eyes flicked once toward Elena, then dropped to the tablecloth. “Miss Elena spoke to me this morning in the kitchen. She said the red arrangements would suit the evening better. I assumed the request had already been confirmed through the household system.”“Assumed.”“Yes, sir. The email came from Mrs. Cross’s account. I didn’t question it.”Ivy sat perfectly still. Kade noted the control. Useful.Elena set her glass down with quiet precision. “I told Greta what I thought would look better. I never touched Ivy’s account. If someone used it, it wasn’t me.”The room waited.Kade leaned forward slightly. “Greta. Did you see Elena access any device this morning?”“No, sir.”“Did anyone else mention the change before the email arrive

“Don’t move.”Ivy’s eyes flicked up to his. Kade stepped between her and the Varela nephew without another word. The younger man’s smile had vanished. What replaced it was colder, tighter, the look of someone recalculating the cost of the evening. His gaze tracked the exact placement of Kade’s body in front of Ivy, measuring the new boundary that had just been drawn.Rafael Varela tried first. “Young men can be overly curious, Kade. No harm intended. The evening has been....”“The evening is over.”No raised voice. No threat. Only the decision. Conversations died mid-sentence. Staff began clearing the table within seconds, silverware and crystal disappearing with practiced speed. Rafael’s smile thinned, but he nodded once. The room accepted the order without further discussion.Kade took Ivy’s arm and guided her toward the exit. She pulled free the moment they cleared the main doors, the night air cool against the residual heat of the dining room.“I can walk.”“I know.”She kept pa

Ivy was already upstairs packing when Kade entered the room.“You have ten minutes left,” he said.She looked up from the open bag on the bed. “You’re still not going to tell me what was written on that photograph.”“No.”“Then at least tell me why we’re leaving so suddenly.”Kade closed the door behind him. “Because I no longer consider this estate secure enough for you.”Ivy dropped a folded sweater into the bag. “You’re making me leave everything behind with almost no explanation.”“You only need what you can carry tonight.”“You keep deciding things without explaining them,” she said.“You agreed to the marriage,” Kade replied. “You did not agree to become someone who blindly follows orders. That distinction still exists. But right now, speed matters more than comfort.”She held his gaze for a moment, then returned to packing. The tension between them was sharp, but it was not hostility. Kade remained near the door, watching without rushing her.Ivy zipped the first bag. “Is your