Contract Marriage to My Father's Greatest Enemy For Revenge

CAMILLE

My name is Camille Ainsworth, and I'm the daughter who ruined her father.

People said blood is thicker than water but mine is full of betrayal.

***

The Easton Industries building rose from the Financial District like a blade of black glass, sharp and unforgiving against the gray winter sky.

I stood outside for a moment, my breath forming small clouds in the cold air, and I watched the people who walked past me-lawyers in expensive suits, bankers with their phones pressed to their ears, assistants carrying coffee and anxiety in equal measure.

None dared to look at me because I was a soldier marching into an enemy territory.

I pushed through the revolving doors and stepped into the lobby. It was all marble and chrome and cold, impersonal efficiency-a space designed to intimidate and remind visitors that they were small and insignificant.

The security guard at the front desk looked up as I approached. "Name?"

"Camille Ainsworth. I have an appointment with Mr. Easton."

His expression flickered for a moment, just enough for me to catch it. Ainsworth. The name meant something here. It meant enemy and danger. He picked up his phone and murmured something into it, then nodded toward the elevators.

"Forty-second floor. Someone will meet you."

I walked to the elevators, and I felt their eyes on me the entire way. The security guard. The receptionist. The two men in suits who had stopped their conversation to watch me pass.

I was an Ainsworth walking into Easton territory. A lamb entering the lion's den.

Jus that right now I'm nowhere close to being a lamb. I was something else entirely. A lioness.

The elevator doors opened on the forty-second floor, and a woman with sharp features and sharper heels was waiting for me.

"Ms. Ainsworth. Follow me." She said with no smile.

She turned and walked, and I followed past desks where people typed and talked and pretended not to stare, until we reached a door at the end of the hallway. She knocked twice, then opened it without waiting for a response.

"Ms. Ainsworth," she announced, and then she was gone.

I stepped inside.

Gavin Easton's office was nothing like my father's.

There was no dark wood, no leather chairs, no portraits of ancestors staring down from the walls.

Instead, there was glass and steel and clean lines, floor-to-ceiling windows that offered a view of the entire city, and a desk that looked like it had been designed by someone who believed in function over ego.

The man himself sat behind it, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a pen in his hand, his dark hair slightly messy like he had been running his fingers through it.

He looked up when I entered, and his cold gray eyes like storm clouds met mine.

"Ms. Ainsworth," he said. His voice was low, measured, utterly without warmth. "Sit."

I sat. The chair was comfortable, but I didn't let myself relax into it. I kept my back straight, my hands folded in my lap, my expression neutral.

I had rehearsed this moment a hundred times in my head. I knew what I needed to say. But now, sitting across from him, feeling the weight of his gaze like a physical thing, I felt something I hadn't expected

Nervousness.

For a moment, he didn't speak. He just watched me, waiting, and I realized he was going to make me start. He was going to make me lay out my cards first, to show him what I had before he showed me anything in return.

"My father," I began, and my voice was steady, "is a parasite."

Gavin's expression didn't change. But something in his eyes flickered. Interest perhaps, or curiosity.

"He feeds on people," I continued. "He takes everything they have...their money, their dignity, their lives, and when he's done, he discards them like they were nothing.

He's done it countless times. Business partners. Employees. Even my mother." I paused, and I felt the familiar ache in my chest, the old wound that never quite healed. "Now he's chosen me as his next victim."

Gavin leaned back in his chair. He didn't interrupt me and he didn't ask questions. He just listened, and I realized that was his weapon...silence.

He let people fill the space with words, with confessions, with everything they hadn't meant to reveal.

"He's arranged a marriage for me," I said. "To a man named Harold Vane. You may have heard of him."

"I have."

"Then you know what he is. What he does to women." I kept my voice flat. I wouldn't let it shake. "My father is selling me like livestock. And I refuse to be sold."

"Bold words."

"I didn't come here for words. I came here for action." I leaned forward slightly.

"I have information. Access. Resources. Everything you need to destroy Robert Ainsworth and everything he's built. I know his weaknesses. I know where the bodies are buried...literally and metaphorically. I can give you everything."

"And what do you want in return?"

"Everything." I didn't hesitate. "I want his empire. I want his name. I want to watch him lose everything he's ever loved, just like he's taken everything from me."

Gavin studied me for a long moment. His eyes were unreadable, his face wore a mask of calm calculation. He was weighing me, measuring me, deciding whether I was a weapon or a liability.

"You're asking me to go to war," he said finally. "To burn my bridges, to risk my reputation, to put my entire company on the line..."

"Your company will survive."

"Would it?" He leaned forward, and for the first time, I saw something dangerous in his eyes. "You think you're the first person to come to me with a plan to destroy your father? You think you're the first Ainsworth who's tried to use me?"

"I'm not trying to use you. I'm trying to partner with you."

"Same thing." He picked up his pen and twirled it between his fingers. "You walk in here, you tell me you're willing to betray your family, you offer me access to secrets that could destroy a man I've hated for years. What makes you think I should trust you?"

"Trust has nothing to do with this."

"Then what does?"

"Mutual destruction." I met his eyes and held them. "You hate my father. I hate my father. We have a common enemy and a common goal. That's more than most partnerships have."

He didn't respond. He just watched me, his fingers still moving, the pen spinning and spinning. I couldn't read him. I couldn't tell if I was winning or losing, if he was convinced or if he was already planning how to throw me out.

"I'm not going to accept your offer," he said.

My heart dropped. But I didn't show it. I kept my face calm, my voice steady.

"I see."

"Not today." He set the pen down. "You've given me something to think about. But I'm not the kind of man who makes decisions based on emotion. Go home, Ms. Ainsworth. Think about what you're really willing to do. Because if we go down this path, there's no turning back. And I won't be tricked by a father and daughter who think they can manipulate me."

I stood up. My legs felt weak, but I forced them to hold me. "My birthday banquet is in two nights," I said. "My father is expecting to announce my engagement to Harold Vane. If you're not going to help me, I'll find someone who will."

Gavin tilted his head. "Is that a threat?"

"It's a fact."

He smiled-a small, cold smile that didn't reach his eyes. "You're more like your father than you realize."

The words stung. I felt them land like a slap. But I didn't flinch.

"Maybe," I said. "But I'm choosing to be different."

I turned and walked out of his office. I didn't look back. I didn't let myself wonder if I had just made the biggest mistake of my life.