บททั้งหมดของ The Billionaire’s Debt Bride: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

She woke at 3 a.m. with her father's face in her mind.The bed was too large and too soft. The curtains breathed in the dark. The silence in the Okafor house was so complete that she could hear the faint tick of the clock in the hall.Check the transfers.Ada slipped out of bed and pulled a cardigan over her nightdress. If Damian Okafor wanted a wife who asked the right questions, she would begin at once.The corridor was lit by thin moonlight through the high windows. She moved barefoot along the carpet, passing the portraits of stern strangers, until she reached the end of the west wing and the staircase that led down.Down was the study. Down was the office. Down, she hoped, was a computer she could crack.She turned left at the bottom of the stairs and found herself in an unfamiliar hall.Wrong turn.The air here was colder. The carpet gave way to polished wood. And at the end of the corridor, where the walls narrowed, stood a single door of dark oak, banded with iron, a brass loc

She read the contract four times at her kitchen table.It was an elegant piece of work. Twelve pages. Twenty-three clauses. No loopholes that she could find, and she had spent six years finding loopholes for a living.Clause 1. The marriage is for a term of twelve months.Clause 4. Neither party shall develop emotional attachment to the other.Clause 7. Physical contact shall be limited to public appearances.Clause 11. The parties shall maintain separate bedrooms.Clause 14. The Wife shall not enter the east wing of the residence without the express permission of the Husband.She read that last one twice."What is in the east wing?" she muttered."What are you doing?"Ada jumped. Zainab stood in the doorway in her hospital-issue slippers, wrapped in a borrowed blanket. The doctors had let her come home for the night, with a long list of instructions."You're supposed to be resting.""I couldn't sleep." Zainab shuffled in and sat across from her. Her eyes dropped to the papers. "That'

The red earth looked too bright for a day like this.Ada Bello stood at the edge of her father's grave, her fingers locked so tightly together that her nails had left half-moons in her palms. Around her, the mourners murmured. Women in black lace dabbed at dry eyes. Men in dark agbada checked their phones when they thought no one was looking.Nobody was really crying. Nobody except Zainab.Her little sister's shoulders shook against her arm. Seventeen years old, thin as paper, still wearing the hospital band on her wrist because she had begged the doctors for four hours out to say goodbye to their father."Daddy didn't do it," Zainab whispered. "Ada, tell me he didn't do it.""He didn't," Ada said, and her voice came out steadier than she felt. "I promise you."It was a promise she had no right to make. She was a forensic accountant. She spent her days finding what numbers tried to hide, and for three months she had stared at the books of Bello Freight & Logistics without finding a si

The Eko Grand Hotel had been dressed like a palace for the night.Ada stepped out of the car into a storm of flashbulbs. Photographers shouted over the barricade. Mrs. Okafor! Over here! Mr. Okafor, look at your wife! Damian's hand settled at her waist, warm through the green silk, and he bent his head as though whispering something tender."Smile," he murmured. "They are counting your teeth.""I am smiling.""You look like you are planning a murder.""Only a small one."His mouth twitched. To the cameras, it looked like a private joke between a husband and wife in love. Ada hated how well it worked.Inside, the ballroom glittered with chandeliers and old money. Politicians, oil barons, women in gowns heavy with beads. The Chief held court at the centre like a king receiving tribute, and the moment he saw them, he raised his glass."My son! My daughter-in-law! Come, come."Ada kept her smile in place and walked into the lion's den.The Chief waited until the room had quieted around hi

The email arrived on a Tuesday, and by noon half the building was whispering.CONFIDENTIAL: Okafor Holdings tender bid, Lekki Port Expansion. Sent from Ada's work account to a rival firm. Two hundred pages of pricing, margins and strategy, delivered to Marlowe Group at 2:14 a.m.Ada read it three times at her desk with her heart going cold.She had not written it. She had not sent it. She had been asleep at 2:14 a.m., in a locked bedroom, in a house she did not trust.Mr. Eze stood at her door with his hands folded."The Chief has called an emergency board meeting," he said. "He asks that you attend.""I'm sure he does.""It would be wise, ma, to prepare an explanation."He's enjoying this, she thought. He is not even pretending not to.* * *The boardroom was long and cold. Twelve men and two women sat around a table that could have hosted a state banquet. At the head, the Chief wore the look of a patriarch forced to discipline a child."Mrs. Okafor," he said. "I regret this. But the