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

my head to the sky as I laughed for the first time in what felt like forever. My chest felt light and warm,

she said and stuck

“Adelaide!”

we heard the harsh sound of

Get back to your lessons, young lady!”

my father’s. Her face fell as she glanced at her dress and shoes

be mad at me,” she said

I knew what it was like when my father was mad at me, I didn’t want her to have to go through that. I could see the fear hidden in her eyes. I glanced at the

her eyes so reminiscent

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

Chapter 23

did it all.”

glancing down at her dress, and smiled brightly. “You are nice!” she cried,

do. Beneath the mud,

back through the hedge wall and to her own.

fence twenty feet high after that and the next time we saw each other, she didn’t

I could never forget

house full of shadows. Every time my father’s lessons left me battered and bruised,

even hear it in her voice. It always made met

because every time I got hurt and sang it to myself, the pain always stopped.

was bright, streaming into

the open bay window, the white curtains softly fluttering

up in bed, my back against the headboard as I watched the sunrise, my hands brushing through her hair

began to buzz on the nightstand. I grabbed it quickly

phone, careful not to wake the sleeping woman in my bed. Adelaide

you,”

Chapter 23

Zhou can come to sign

to working with you on this deal,” I

he

I tossed it onto the nightstand, not paying it any more mind. A huge

multi-million dollar contract was mine.

that covered her, a soft and innocent look on her face. I was reminded of how young she

as I grabbed a lock of her long hair, pressing a soft kiss to the ends of it and drinking in the

I had loved her, how strongly I

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

hands reaching out for me. She grabbed

finger-her engagement ring. I couldn’t wait for the moment

until my sweet angel would be mine

week? Only one

the wall and groaned. Neither of us had planned anything for the wedding.

calling the number I knew could help me out. She owed me

Lacey’s mumbled voice came through the phone, clearly

Chapter 23