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.

the breath I gathered rushed out of me, and my hands fell to my side.

on the

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

“Yes, Grandma.”

the couch. She’d cleared a spot for me right

trying to catch his attention, but it was like Ashton

I didn’t really have a choice in the matter.

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

grandmother’s age but looked just as timeless. “Last time I saw you, you were a

lot of time here due to your grandfather’s job but moved back to France when you were a

nice to meet you,” I smiled

heard about

“Thank you.”

Gretchen anything about her own life, the

Chapter 19

my best not to roll my eyes at the sound of her shrill voice.

as she and

said, frowning at their appearance. “This

frowned, “Did Maelyn have another

stiffened as the air immediately went cold.

is my half-sister,” I told her, innocently. “She’s the daughter of my father’s second wife, not my

looking between the two of us. “But you are of similar ages? Maelyn did not

dawn in her eyes before they went cold.

the disapproval in

arm wrapped around Ashton’s. “But Addie

Gretchen asked

at my wedding, didn’t

my champagne, not really feeling as angry as I thought I

different today. Or I was different.

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

always considered him my enemy. But I did had to admit, his teasing was always harmless. And the

how to stop, Damon never went far enough that

Chapter 19

my wife, that’s what he’d said.

and if I was being truly honest, I

smug and demanding and tricky, but he was also intelligent