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

Chapter 23

POV: *Damon*

I’d first met Adelaide when I was six. And since that day, I threw myself

into her trap.

I’d run out of another one of my father’s lessons, hiding in the gardens between our houses. She’d crawled into a hole between the massive shrubs, ending up on our side of the spacious gardens.

She had wide, pretty eyes and long silky hair pulled into a single braid. Even covered in mud with twigs sticking in her hair, I remember I thought she was cute. She bent down to my eye level as I sat curled up with my back to one of the shrubs.

“Why are you crying?” she asked, so innocently.

I glared at her, my eyes perfectly dry.

“Leave me alone,” I spat.

“How rude,” her red cheeks puffed up with air as she placed her hands on her hips. “I’m only trying to help. That’s not very nice.”

“So?” I looked away, sulking. I didn’t want her help.

“Are you hurt?” she asked, her face crumbling up as if she was in pain. I was startled at the time to see tiny diamond-like tears fill the corners of her eyes. Was she crying for me?

She reached up one of her hands to touch my bruised and battered cheek, and I flinched away on impulse.

“I’m sorry,” she said, mournfully.

I stared at her, confused and wary of the strange girl who had appeared out of nowhere. Her eyes lit up all of a sudden, and she grinned. Her grin alone was enough to make me feel at ease with her.

“I know! My mama used to do this to me when I got hurt,” she told me, proudly before leaning forward and placing a tender kiss on my cheek.

“Pain, pain, go away!” she recited, throwing her hands into the air like it was a magic spell.

I grabbed the cheek she had kissed, stunned to my core as I stared at her.

Chapter 23

My cheeks began to warm-growing hotter and hotter.

“What’s your name?” I demanded, scrubbing her kiss off my check in my embarrassment. “You shouldn’t be here.”

She beamed, seemingly not caring about my threat. Even then she had the most beautiful smile.

“My name’s Addeway,” she said, her tongue slipping at the end. She frowned, repeating the word, but she was missing her two front teeth and she kept whistling out the end of her name.

She looked adorable, all frustrated as she kept trying to say her name and failing.

“Okay. Addeway,” I raised an eyebrow at her, trying hard not to smile.

“No, Adellay!”

“Sure thing, Addellay.”

finally shouted, her cheeks red with the effort.

couldn’t help myself, and I burst into laughter, raising my head to the sky as I laughed for the first time in

she said and stuck out her tongue at

“Adelaide!”

as we heard the harsh sound of a man screaming for her over the hedge

Get back to your lessons, young lady!”

tone sounded very close to my father’s. Her face fell as she glanced at her dress and

at me,”

go through that. I could see the fear hidden in her

in her eyes so

tell him that I did it,” I told her. “I messed it up anyway so tell

Chapter 23

did it all.”

smiled brightly. “You are nice!” she cried, jumping forward to

to do. Beneath the mud, she smelled like strawberries- so

you! I’ll come to play again!” Adelaide grinned at me, waving to me as she made her way back through the hedge wall and to her own. house. I waved back at her, watching her go until

she didn’t. The hedge wall was replaced with a metal fence twenty feet high after that and

did. I could never forget her after that

house full of shadows. Every time my

hear it in her voice. It always made

because every time I got

streaming into the room.

open bay window, the white curtains softly fluttering

hands brushing through her hair in a soothing motion. It was so soft, and

buzz on the nightstand. I grabbed it quickly

in a low voice to the phone, careful not to wake the sleeping woman in my

would like to work with you,”

Chapter 23

sign the contract on

forward to working with you on this deal,”

Jian,” he

I tossed it onto the nightstand, not paying it any more mind. A huge smile formed on my face as a

The multi-million dollar contract was mine. We wouldn’t need money from our families;

innocent look on her face. I was reminded of how young

the ends of it and drinking in

she could never know how long I had loved her, how strongly I had ached for her all

I could finally hold her in my arms. She was finally mine.

hands reaching out for me. She grabbed onto the nearest pillow, cuddling into it

finger-her engagement ring. I couldn’t wait for the moment when I could put my mother’s ring on her

week until my sweet angel would be

Only one

the calendar hanging on the wall and groaned. Neither of

already calling the number I knew could help

Lacey’s mumbled voice came through the phone, clearly still

Chapter 23