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All Chapters of HIS SECRET BARGAIN : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

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Chapter 11

Double LifeNathan’s voice on the phone the night before still sat in my head like a bruise.We need to talk. For real this time.I had ended the call quickly. Xavier had watched me the entire time, his hand steady on my stomach, claiming me even while my husband’s voice filled the room. Afterward we didn’t talk much. He had fucked me again, slower, deeper, like he was trying to overwrite every soft memory I still had of Nathan. Then he had let me leave with a final order:“Act normal. But remember who you belong to when you walk back through that door.”Now I was standing in the kitchen of the apartment I still shared with Nathan, wearing one of his old shirts, trying to remember how to look like his wife.He came home earlier than usual.The front door opened. Keys hit the bowl. Footsteps. Then he appeared in the doorway, still in his work clothes, eyes tired but sharp.“You’re here,” he said.“Where else would I be?”The lie came out smooth. That scared me.Nathan walked over and k

Last Updated : 2026-09-20

Chapter 12

Xavier’s RulesNathan stood in the hallway holding my earring like it was evidence in a trial.The small gold hoop caught the light. I hadn’t worn those earrings in months. He knew it. I knew it. The silence between us stretched until it hurt.“I can explain,” I said.“Then explain.”My mind raced. Every possible lie felt thin. In the end I went with the weakest one.“I must have dropped it weeks ago. It probably got stuck in the couch.”Nathan looked at the earring, then at me. The hurt in his eyes was real. That made everything worse.“You’re lying.”“I’m not—”“Don’t.” His voice cracked. “Just don’t.”He walked past me into the living room and set the earring on the table like it burned him. Then he stood there with his hands on his hips, staring at the floor.“I don’t know who you are anymore,” he said quietly.I didn’t answer. There was nothing safe to say.After a long moment he went back to the bedroom and closed the door. He didn’t slam it. That almost made it harder.I stood

Last Updated : 2026-09-20

Chapter 13

Lila ReturnsLila’s message sat on my phone all night.Lila: Hey stranger. Just landed. Coffee tomorrow? Miss your face.I didn’t answer right away. I lay in Xavier’s bed staring at the ceiling of his penthouse, the one he kept in the city for himself. This place had never been their marital home. That house, the big one with the white shutters and the garden Lila used to post about, was across town. This penthouse was his. Clean. Quiet. Separate. The only place that had ever felt like it belonged to the version of him that met me at night.I turned the phone face down.Xavier’s voice came from the doorway. “You’re overthinking it.”“She’s back.”“I know.”I sat up, pulling the sheet higher. “She’s going to the house, isn’t she? Your house.”He walked in and leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “Our house on Ridgewood. Yes. She’ll go there.”“And this place?”“Stays mine. Stays ours.” His eyes met mine. “She doesn’t come here. She never has.”That small piece of information settled

Last Updated : 2026-09-21

Chapter 14

The First CrackXavier was putting on his watch when I walked into the bedroom.He was already dressed in a dark shirt and trousers. The same clothes he wore when he was about to leave for the house he still shared with Lila. The Ridgewood house. The one with her clothes in the closet and her perfume in the bathroom. The one he still had to return to if he didn’t want her asking questions neither of us were ready to answer.“You’re going back there,” I said.It wasn’t a question.He glanced at me through the mirror. “I have to show my face. If I stay away two nights in a row she’ll start asking questions I don’t feel like answering yet.”Something hot and ugly twisted in my chest. The argument we hadn’t had yet was already sitting between us, waiting.“So you get to go home to her, and I just… wait here like a secret?”Xavier turned around slowly. His expression was calm, but his eyes had sharpened. “It’s not home. It’s a house I still have to manage.”“Don’t.” My voice came out sharp

Last Updated : 2026-09-22

Chapter 15

PressureNathan was waiting for me when I stepped into the apartment.He wasn’t sitting. He was standing in the middle of the living room with his phone in his hand and a look on his face I had never seen before. Not pure anger. Something colder. More focused. Like he had already accepted a truth and was only waiting for me to catch up.“Where have you been?” he asked.I closed the door behind me. My heart was already beating too fast. The air in the apartment felt heavy, the way it does before a storm.“Out.”“That’s not an answer.”“It’s the only one I have right now.”Nathan let out a short, humorless breath. He turned the phone screen toward me. My stomach dropped so hard I felt it in my knees.It was a photo.Not crystal clear, but clear enough. Me and Xavier outside the restaurant. His hand on my lower back. The way I was looking up at him. The timestamp matched the night we had almost been caught. Someone had framed the shot carefully.“A friend sent this to me,” Nathan said qu

Last Updated : 2026-09-24

Chapter 16

No More PretendingXavier stepped aside without a word.I walked into the penthouse and the door closed behind me with a soft click that felt final. For a long moment we just stood there looking at each other. The weight of what I had said, I’m done pretending, still hung in the air between us.“I told him,” I said.Xavier’s eyes searched my face. “How much?”“That I’ve been sleeping with someone. That I know about him and Lila. I didn’t say your name… but I didn’t deny it either.”He nodded once, slow. Then he reached out and pulled me into his chest. I went willingly. The solid warmth of him made the last of the shaking in my hands finally stop.“You’re staying,” he said against my hair. It wasn’t an order this time. More like a confirmation he needed to hear out loud.“Yes.”“For good?”I closed my eyes. The word felt heavy. “I don’t know what ‘for good’ looks like yet. But I’m not going back there tonight. Or tomorrow. I can’t keep splitting myself in half.”Xavier’s arms tightene

Last Updated : 2026-09-24

Chapter 17

Face to FaceXavier didn’t move for a full second after Nathan’s voice came through the intercom.Then he pressed the button.“Come up.”My head snapped toward him. “What?”“He already knows you’re here. Letting him stand downstairs won’t change anything.” Xavier’s voice was calm, but his eyes had gone cold. “Better to finish it.”My heart slammed against my ribs. I was still wearing one of his shirts and nothing else. I hurried to the bedroom, pulled on yesterday’s jeans, and ran a hand through my hair. It didn’t help. I still looked like a woman who had spent the night in another man’s bed.When I came back out, Xavier was waiting by the door. He glanced at me once.“You don’t have to protect him,” he said quietly. “Not anymore.”I nodded, but my stomach was tight with dread. Part of me still wanted to open the door and somehow soften what was about to happen. The rest of me knew there was nothing left to soften.The knock came hard and fast.Xavier opened the door.Nathan stood in

Last Updated : 2026-09-25

Chapter 18

AftermathThe door closed behind Nathan and the silence that followed felt louder than everything that had been said.I stood in the middle of Xavier’s living room and tried to breathe. My hands were cold. My chest felt scraped raw. Nathan’s last words kept replaying in my head, hitting the exact place I had been trying to protect for weeks.When he gets tired of you, don’t come back. There won’t be anything left to come back to.Xavier didn’t speak right away. He locked the door, then walked over to me slowly, like he was approaching something that might shatter if he moved too fast.“Aria.”I shook my head. “Don’t. Not yet.”He stopped a few feet away and waited. The respect in that small choice made my throat tighten. Most men would have started talking immediately, defending themselves, explaining, trying to fix what couldn’t be fixed in a single conversation. Xavier just stood there and let me fall apart at my own pace.My knees finally gave out. I sank onto the edge of the couch

Last Updated : 2026-09-25

Chapter 19

Lila’s GameXavier’s phone kept buzzing in his hand.Three messages. Then a fourth. Lila’s name lit up the dark room like a warning.I sat up fast, the shirt sliding off my shoulder. “What does she want?”He didn’t answer right away. His body had gone still against mine. The calm he always carried looked thinner now.He turned the screen so I could read.Lila: Where are you? You’ve been gone two nights.Lila: I know something’s wrong. Answer me.Lila: If you’re with a her I swear to God I’ll make this ugly for both of you.My stomach dropped hard.Xavier locked the phone and set it face down. “She’s not guessing anymore.”“She’s threatening us.”“She’s scared.” His voice stayed low but there was ice under it. “And scared people do stupid things.”I swung my legs out of bed. My hands were already shaking. Nathan’s words from earlier still sat in my chest like broken glass. Now Lila was circling too. The walls were closing in faster than either of us planned.Xavier sat up. The sheets f

Last Updated : 2026-09-26

Chapter 20

The Night BeforeThe silence in the penthouse felt like it could snap.I stood in the kitchen with a glass of water I wasn’t drinking. Xavier leaned against the counter across from me, arms crossed, watching every small movement I made. Tomorrow night we would walk into the Ridgewood house together and end everything. The plan was set. The date was fixed. Yet the air between us was thicker than it had been in days.“You’re quiet,” he said.“I’m thinking.”“About what?”I set the glass down harder than I meant to. Water sloshed over the rim. “About whether you’re telling me everything.”Xavier’s eyes narrowed. “Come again.”“You heard me.” My voice came out sharper than I planned. “You’ve been on that phone more than usual. You leave the room when certain calls come in. You changed the subject twice today when I asked about the Ridgewood house. So I’m asking straight. Are you hiding something from me?”He didn’t move. The only sound was the low hum of the refrigerator.“I’m handling t

Last Updated : 2026-09-26

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