All Chapters of Bound by Deception : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Nadia was washing dishes when she heard the crash.She dropped the plate in the sink and ran to the living room. Her mother was on the floor, one hand clutching her chest, her face pale and covered in sweat."Mom!" Nadia dropped to her knees beside her. "Mom, can you hear me?"Her mother's eyes fluttered open, but she couldn't speak. Her lips were moving, but no sound came out.Nadia grabbed her phone with shaking hands and called for an ambulance. The next few minutes felt like hours. She kept talking to her mother the whole time, telling her to hold on, telling her help was coming, even though she had no idea if her mother could hear her at all.The hospital waiting room was cold and too bright. Nadia sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, still wearing her house slippers, still in the same clothes she'd had on when she was washing dishes hours ago.The days that followed blurred together. Scans. Blood tests. More scans. A parade of specialists who spoke to each other in low voi

Nadia hadn't slept the night before her wedding.She lay in her narrow bed staring at the ceiling, running through everything she'd overheard outside Mr. Grant's office again and again, trying to make sense of it. *Vivienne. Five years. Everything exactly where it needs to be.* None of it fit together into anything she could act on, and by morning she'd told herself the same thing a dozen times — that she had bigger problems than a conversation she didn't understand. Her mother needed the money. That was the only thing that mattered.She dressed in the small courthouse office Mr. Grant had arranged, a simple ivory dress that fit like it had been chosen by someone who'd never met her, which she supposed it had. No white gown, no flowers, no guests waiting in rows. Just Mr. Grant, a witness she didn't recognize, and a clerk who looked bored enough that Nadia wondered how many contract marriages passed through this same office in a single month.Damian arrived exactly on time, dressed in

"You must be Nadia," the woman said again, her smile still not reaching her eyes. "I'm Colleen. Damian's aunt."Nadia forced her expression into something calm, something that didn't betray the fact that she'd just heard this woman's name twice in the last ten minutes, once on a phone call not meant for her ears, and once in gossip whispered by strangers at a bar. She took the offered hand and shook it, keeping her grip steady even as her pulse hammered."It's nice to meet you," Nadia said. "Damian hasn't mentioned much about his family.""Hasn't he?" Colleen's eyes swept over her, slow and assessing, the way Nadia imagined she might look over a business proposal she hadn't yet decided whether to accept. "That does sound like him. He's always been protective of his privacy. Comes from losing his father so young, I think. Made him careful about who he lets close.""That must have been hard for him.""It was hard for all of us." Colleen's tone stayed light, pleasant, and somehow that ma

"A debt," Nadia repeated. "What kind of debt could possibly connect a dead man to a five-year marriage contract?"The man in the visitor's chair studied her for a long moment before answering, the same unhurried patience Nadia was beginning to realize meant he already knew exactly how this conversation would go. "My name is Richard Voss," he said. "I don't expect that to mean anything to you. It should have, once. Your father was my younger brother."Nadia's breath caught. "My father didn't have a brother. My mother never mentioned—""Your mother had good reason not to." Richard's gaze flicked briefly to her mother, who sat frozen against her pillows, tears tracking silently down her face now, offering no argument, no denial, nothing at all. "Your father and I built a business together, before you were born. It failed. Badly. He borrowed money to keep it afloat — money that came from people far less patient than a bank. When he died, that debt didn't disappear. It became your mother's

Neither of them slept.Nadia sat curled in the armchair across from Damian's desk, a blanket Ms. Reyes had quietly brought in sometime after midnight draped over her shoulders, watching Damian pace the length of his study for what felt like the hundredth time."It has to be someone with access to the house," he said, more to himself than to her. "Someone who knew the safe existed in the first place. My mother knew about it, but she's been gone for years, living overseas, barely speaks to any of us anymore. That leaves...""Colleen," Nadia said quietly."Colleen," Damian agreed. "Or Grant. Or both, working together, which honestly seems more likely at this point." He stopped pacing, dragging a hand through his hair. "But how? This house has security. Cameras. A staff that reports to me, not to her.""Unless the staff report to someone else too," Nadia said. "Ms. Reyes mentioned she's worked for the family a long time. Longer than just you, maybe."Damian's jaw tightened. "I trust Ms. R