Secret Billionaire’s Contract Bride: Marrying My Enemy’s Lover

Chapter 19

Home is where the heart is. That’s what everybody used to tell me.

“What a lovely home,” they’d say with jealousy at our million-dollar mansion with fancy cars and butlers and maids.

I never understood it.

Standing in front of my father’s mansion as it loomed over me as a nightmare did to a child, I realized this place never felt like home to me.

My father decked out the mansion in artwork and vases and a thousand things that I was not allowed to touch. I remembered every rule as Piers welcomed me into the house.

When I lived here, I felt more like the mosaic my father hung on the wall than a daughter. It was no wonder this place had never felt like mine. I never belonged there.

As I entered the large room for gatherings, I spotted every member of our extended family laid out before me. Cousins and distant aunts or uncles that I had barely spoken a word to in my entire life. Why on earth were all these people here?

Corinna and Ashton were here, much to my dismay. They were talking away with my father and stepmother, Tabitha with their plastic smiles. They were all faking their enjoyment in each other, that was plain to see.

I grabbed a champagne glass from one of the tables set up and sipped it, noticing how Ashton looked over at me.

His smile fell as he stared at me intensely, but I didn’t really care. He was nothing to me anymore. And I wanted nothing to do with him.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t in a bad mood just from seeing him. I didn’t feel a rush of anger or resentment toward them.

I just felt nothing.

I shrugged, continuing to search through the wide area until I found who I was looking for.

My grandmother sat on one of the sofas, looking as prim and proper as ever. She looked regal, fitting as the head of our family. I ducked behind

Chapter 19

one of the servants as I snuck up behind her with a grin.

Just when I was right behind her, the guests spotted me before she ever did- I breathed in, ready to scare the bejeebers out of her, reaching with my hands to grasp onto her shoulders.

“Hello, Adelaide,” she said, knowingly without even turning around.

of me, and

me?” I laid my head on the back of the couch as she glanced back

“I know everything, dear. Now, come over here and

“Yes, Grandma.”

She’d cleared a spot for me right next to her, and I took

his father was clearly trying to catch his attention, but it was like Ashton

a choice in the matter. I’d rather not argue in

Adelaide. You remember her, right?” My grandmother wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me

age but looked just as timeless. “Last

to spend a lot of time here due to

you,” I

about

“Thank you.”

anything about her own life, the

Chapter 19

of Corinna interrupted. I tried my best not to roll my eyes at the sound of her

see me as she and Ashton approached. “I’m a bit disappointed you didn’t come

frowning at their appearance. “This is my

frowned, “Did Maelyn have

air immediately went cold. I smirked, shooting at glance at

Corinna is my half-sister,” I told her, innocently. “She’s the daughter of my father’s

the two of us. “But you are of similar ages? Maelyn did not pass away until…”

to dawn in her eyes before they went cold.

the disapproval in her eyes not hidden well.

families are complicated,” Corinna giggled nervously, her arm wrapped around Ashton’s. “But Addie and I

asked me, looking

friends. In fact, Addie volunteered to be my maid of honor at my wedding, didn’t you, Addie?” Corinna smirked at me. “She’s very supportive of me and Ashton

glanced at Corinna’s smug face and then Gretchen’s. I took a sip of my champagne, not really feeling as angry as I thought I would.

different today. Or I

even. My mind kept going back to Damon and the texts he sent me

had to admit, his teasing was always harmless. And the way he looked at me hadn’t changed a

Damon never went far enough that I could

Chapter 19

that’s what he’d said.

and if I was being truly honest, I couldn’t

was smug and demanding and tricky, but he was also intelligent and always