The Wife He Never Meant to Love (Lila and Damon) novel Chapter 86

Chapter 86

Chapter 86

Lila stood frozen for several seconds.

Then her knees weakened slightly.

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Her breathing turned shaky as the tension finally rushed out of her body.

She waited.

One minute.

Two.

When she was certain Jasper was no longer nearby, she quickly locked the door.

From inside her jacket lining, she pulled out the small phone Richard Blackthorne had secretly given her.

Her fingers trembled as she turned it on.

There was only one saved number.

She pressed call.

The line connected after two rings.

A calm male voice answered.

“Do you have a safe place you can hide?”

Lila glanced around the quiet room.

“I… I don’t know,” she admitted.

The man spoke again.

“Look for a secure place inside the mansion. Keep the phone on at all times.”

He paused.

“It will give us your exact location.”

Lila swallowed.

“How long?”

“Three days,” the man replied. “We will come to you.”

Then the call ended.

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Chapter 86

The room fell silent again.

But this time. Lila held the phone tightly.

Three days.

She only needed to survive three days.

Miles away, inside a dark room at the Blackthorne Estate, a screen suddenly lit up.

A small red dot appeared on the digital map.

Damon stood in front of it, his face half-hidden in the darkness.

For days, they had been waiting.

Watching.

Hoping she would turn on the phone.

“This is the first time she activated it,” one of the men said quietly.

Damon didn’t take his eyes off the glowing red dot.

Lila’s location.

Finally.

“Prepare everyone,” Damon ordered coldly.

His men immediately moved.

Before anyone could leave the room, Damon’s phone buzzed.

A new message.

From Jasper.

The message was short.

Meet me personally. Corner café. Wago City.

Damon stared at the screen for a moment.

Then he smiled faintly.

That afternoon, inside a quiet café in Wago City, Damon sat at a corner table.

His posture looked relaxed.

But his eyes were constantly scanning the room.

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Chapter 86

Every entrance.

Every customer.

Every reflection in the windows.

Minutes passed.

Then the door opened.

Jasper walked in.

Calm.

Confident.

Like a man who had already won.

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He approached Damon’s table and sat down across from him.

Without greeting, Jasper placed a brown envelope on the table and slid it toward him.

Damon opened it slowly.

Inside were documents.

The first set was clear.

Divorce papers.

Ending Damon’s marriage to Lila.

But beneath it was another document.

Damon’s eyes narrowed slightly.

An agreement.

If Damon wanted the divorce…

He would transfer 40 percent of Blackthorne Industries shares.

Damon slowly looked up.

Jasper was grinning.

“Just choose,” Jasper said casually.

“Which document are you willing to sign?”

Inside the small café in Wago City, the air between the two men turned cold.

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Chapter So

Damon Blackthorne slowly closed the brown envelope and placed it on the table.

His eyes lifted to meet Jasper.

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“Why would I trust a man who spends his days using people to get what he wants?” Damon asked calmly.

Jasper leaned back slightly in his chair, unfazed.

“Well,” he said lightly, “your lovely wife is with me.’

He tilted his head, watching Damon carefully.

“And to remind you… I didn’t force her to come.”

The words hung in the air like poison.

Damon’s gaze hardened.

“Give me my wife first,” Damon commanded.

Jasper’s lips curved slightly.

“And if I refuse?” he asked.

Damon slowly stood from his chair.

“Then this meeting ends here.”

For a moment, neither man moved.

Then Jasper spoke again, his voice quieter but far more deliberate.

“Mr. Blackthorne,” he said.

Damon paused.

“Your wife…” Jasper continued slowly, looking up at him, “has a scent that’s more addictive than any drug.”

The room seemed to freeze.

Damon’s face darkened instantly.

Jasper noticed.

And he smiled wider.

“Now I understand,” Jasper added, his tone mocking. “Why Mr. Blackthorne can’t let go of his contract wife.”

That was the moment Damon moved.

His fist shot forward without warning.

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Chapter 86

CRACK.

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The punch landed squarely against Jasper’s jaw, sending his chair scraping violently against the floor.

Gasps erupted around the café.

But before Damon could swing another punch-

Two men suddenly grabbed him from behind.

In seconds, his arms were forced down and his body slammed against the nearby table.

Pinned.

Damon struggled, but the men holding him were trained and strong.

Jasper slowly straightened himself, touching the corner of his bleeding lip.

He looked almost amused.

Then he stood and calmly adjusted his jacket.

Walking closer, he leaned slightly toward Damon.

“You see?” Jasper said quietly.

“This is exactly why she can’t stay with you.”

He wiped the blood from his lip with his thumb.

“Too dangerous.”

Jasper then nodded to the men holding Damon.

They released him.

But by then, Jasper was already stepping back toward the café door.

Before leaving, he looked over his shoulder one last time.

“Think carefully, Mr. Blackthorne.”

His grin returned.

“Because while you’re deciding… your wife is still sleeping in

my

bed.”

Then Jasper walked out of the café.

Leaving Damon standing there, his hands slowly curling into fists.

While Jasper was away, the mansion felt unusually quiet.

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Lila Blackthorne moved carefully through the hallways, her steps silent on the polished floor. The shadows of the mansion stretched long across the walls, but she barely noticed them-her mind was focused on one thing.

She slipped into the study room, a space Jasper rarely lingered in. The room smelled faintly of old books and polished wood. On the table, files were stacked neatly, almost inviting her to look.

Lila approached, scanning the papers before cautiously opening the drawers. There, tucked behind a stack of ledgers, she found a small brass key. Her pulse quickened as she slipped it into her pocket.

Clutching it, she walked straight to the door Jasper had always forbidden her to enter. Her hand trembled slightly as she unlocked it.

The door opened to a room bathed in dim light, papers scattered across a large table. The disarray contrasted sharply with the neat study she had just left. Lila’s eyes quickly scanned the documents, her heart skipping as she pieced them together.

One of the papers was clear: an agreement stating that Blackthorne Industries would transfer 40 percent of its shares to Jasper.

Next to it was the divorce document-this one strangely favorable to her-granting Lila 50 percent of the company’s shares.

It didn’t make sense. Why would Jasper ask for this? Why make it seem like a negotiation?

Her gaze drifted to another folder. Inside were detailed profiles:

Integer Technology, a rising tech company.

Damon’s personal profile.

Copies of contracts… the same one she had signed when marrying Damon, every clause memorized by heart.

Lila swallowed hard. Her mind raced.

Jasper wasn’t just asking her to cooperate blindly. He had prepared everything-knowing every clause, every loophole, every detail of her marriage and Damon’s empire.

Her heart pounded.

This wasn’t just about the divorce.

This was about strategy.

And somehow… somehow, she had just stepped into the center of it.

Her fingers lingered on the divorce papers, then the share agreement. She had questions-many, many questions-but the one thought that repeated in her mind was chilling:

Jasper wasn’t just playing for her or Damon. He was playing the game on a level she hadn’t even realized existed. Lila scan the room and saw the stack of ledgers in the corner she move closer to check them.

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The ledgers were stacked with meticulous care, their worn leather spines aligned as though someone had taken pride in the order of secrets they contained. Lila hesitated only a moment before opening the first one.

The pages whispered as she turned them.

Columns of numbers stretched across the paper-precise, calculated, relentless. Cash flow reports. Bank statements. Transaction records so large they bordered on absurd. Millions moving through accounts as easily as loose change through a pocket.

Her brow tightened.

“This isn’t normal business,” she murmured under her breath.

She flipped to another page, then another. Each ledger revealed more-layer upon layer of financial movement designed to hide its true origin. Shell companies. Offshore transfers. Repeated deposits routed through unfamiliar corporate names.

Money laundering.

The pattern was unmistakable.

Lila’s fingers slowed when a particular name appeared in the margins.

Maddy.

The name appeared again on another page-then again. Each entry tied to massive financial transfers, far larger than the others.

Her pulse quickened.

“Maddy…?” she whispered, confusion and unease curling in her chest.

Behind her, the room loomed in silence.

Only then did Lila notice the wall.

Pinned across it was a massive map, its surface crowded with colored strings and marked locations. Beside it hung detailed blueprints-corporate layouts printed with cold precision.

Blackthorne Industries.

Foster Technology.

And Integer Technology.

Two of the names were well-known-powerful, respected corporations that had built reputations over

decades.

But the third made her stomach drop.

Integer Technology.

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That company was barely a year old.

An underdog startup.

Her younger brother’s company.

“Why…?” Lila whispered, stepping closer to the wall.

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Her eyes scanned the connections drawn between the three companies. Lines stretched from financial accounts in the ledgers to the buildings on the blueprint-linking offices, warehouses, and offshore facilities in a web that felt far too deliberate to be coincidence.

A chill crept down her spine.

She returned to the ledgers, turning pages faster now. These weren’t just financial reports-they were records of something far darker.

Source logs.

Origins of income.

Her stomach twisted as she read.

Illegal trade.

Human auctions.

Unauthorized medical operations.

Then the words that made her breath catch in her throat.

Illegal organ harvesting.

Child trafficking.

The room suddenly felt colder.

Lila’s hand trembled against the page as the truth settled over her like ice.

Jasper wasn’t a businessman.

He was running an empire built on horror.

And somehow…

Her brother’s company was tangled in it.

And now she had seen everything.

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