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.

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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.”

shouted, her

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

and stuck out her tongue

“Adelaide!”

we heard the harsh sound of a man screaming

back to your lessons, young

as she glanced at her dress and shoes all covered

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

in her eyes so reminiscent

her. “I messed it up anyway so tell him I

Chapter 23

did it all.”

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

do. Beneath the mud,

me, waving to me as she made her way back through the hedge wall and

was replaced with a metal fence twenty feet high after that and the next time we saw each other, she

I did. I could never forget

remembered her and even though she didn’t remember me, she was the only light I had in the house full of shadows. Every time my father’s lessons left me battered and bruised, I remember her kissing my cheek. and singing that

I could even hear it in her voice. It always made met

an angel to me because every time I got hurt

sunrise was bright, streaming into the room.

of the morning breeze blew through the open bay window, the white curtains softly fluttering in

headboard as I watched the sunrise, my hands brushing through

buzz on the nightstand. I grabbed it

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

with you,” the representative on the

Chapter 23

sign the contract

I look forward to working with you on

Jian,” he

it any more mind. A huge smile formed on my face as a

contract was mine. We wouldn’t

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

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

feelings now, but she could never know how long I had loved her, how strongly I

her in my arms. She

stirred, groaning as she shifted, her hands reaching out for me. She

for the moment

sweet angel would

Only one

at the calendar hanging on the wall and groaned. Neither of us had planned

I knew could help me

through the phone,

Chapter 23