All Chapters of The Man Who Married My Name: Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

"You were supposed to be dead." The venomous whisper cut through the darkness, vibrating with a hatred so pure it felt like a physical blade scraping against my skin. I gasped, my lungs burning as if I were inhaling shattered glass. I tried to thrash away from the sound, but heavy leather straps bit viciously into my wrists and ankles, pinning me flat against a rock-hard mattress. "Quiet," a different voice commanded. This one was rougher, vibrating with a lethal authority. "If you stress her heart rate again, I will snap your neck before security even breaches that door." My eyes flew open to blinding, sterile white lights. A heart monitor next to my head began shrieking, echoing the violent, terrified galloping of my own pulse. A man in a blood-spattered doctor's coat backed away quickly from my bed, his hands raised in surrender, his face pale with raw fear. But I couldn't look at him. My eyes locked onto the monster standing right beside me. He was a massive wall of muscle

The heavy brass deadbolt clicked with the sound of a firing pin. I yanked the silk strap of my nightgown up, frantically covering the jagged incision and the black numbers tattooed across my collarbone just as the bedroom door swung open. Lucien stepped into the room, filling the space with his suffocating presence. He had changed out of the ruined, blood-spattered suit. Now, dressed in dark tailored slacks and a black dress shirt rolled up to his forearms, the sheer power of his physique was even more intimidating. He carried a silver tray holding a crystal glass of water and two unmarked white pills. "You locked me in," I accused, my voice trembling but vicious. I backed away until my spine hit the cold marble of the vanity behind me. "I secured the room," Lucien corrected effortlessly. His dark eyes swept over me with predatory precision. He didn't miss a single detail—my racing pulse visible in my throat, my white-knuckled grip on the vanity edge, and the naked platinum ring

The floor heaved again, throwing me hard against the reinforced steel wall. Dust and pulverized plaster filled the air, choking my lungs and turning the emergency lighting into a hazy, blood-red blur. The world had dissolved into a chaotic symphony of screaming alarms, deafening gunfire, and the muted agony of a home being torn apart around us."Stay down!" Lucien barked, his voice cutting through the high-pitched ringing in my ears like a serrated blade.He didn't hesitate. He stepped out of the immediate shelter of the threshold, his body shifting into a solid wall of lethal intent. He raised his sidearm and fired three rapid shots—the sound was thunderous inside the enclosed corridor, a sharp *thwack-thwack-thwack* that rattled my teeth—before grabbing the thick fabric of my sweater and violently dragging me toward the hidden panic room panel tucked behind the mahogany bookshelf."Moreau sent his cleanup crew," Lucien growled, his dark eyes scanning the smoke-choked hallway with te