Bound to my Enemy novel Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Chapter ONE.

The sound of my brothers hands slamming the table echoed through the room, loud enough that I felt it in my chest before I fully registered what had happened.

"That’s insane," Lucas shouted. "You can’t be fucking serious."

My grandfather didn’t flinch. He sat at the head of the table with his hands folded neatly in front of him, expression carved from stone, like he’d already expected this reaction and prepared himself ahead of it.

I stayed quiet.

I always did, at least at first. Not because I didn’t have anything to say, but because moments like this required listening before speaking. If I opened my mouth too soon, emotion would spill out, and I hated giving people that much of me, especially my grandfather who was a very cunning old man.

"No one in this family would agree to that," Noah said, pacing near the window. He ran a hand through his hair the way he always did when he was stressed, like he could physically shake the thoughts out of his head. "Everyone knows what kind of freak that man he is."

Caleb leaned back in his chair, arms crossed tight over his chest. He hadn’t said anything yet, but I knew that look. The jaw set too hard. The eyes too sharp. He was boiling quietly, waiting for the right moment to explode.

And Ivy wasn’t even here.

My cousin, the center of this whole mess, was somewhere else entirely, probably blissfully unaware that her future had just been decided in a room she wasn’t invited into.

My grandfather finally spoke. "Lower your voice when you talk to me and mind your language, you don’t want me to remind you who you’re talking to"

Lucas laughed, short and bitter. "You’re marrying her off to a man like Zane Whitmore, and you want me to lower my voice?"

There it was, the reason for this whole commotion.

Even hearing his name out loud made something cold settle in my stomach.

Zane Whitmore.

Billionaire. CEO. Tabloid favorite. Ruthless and untouchable. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Maniac, if you listened to the right people.

I watched my grandfather’s gaze flick briefly in my direction, as if measuring my reaction. I gave him nothing. I couldn’t afford to. The room already felt like it was cracking under the weight of everyone else’s emotions.

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