LOGINShare
CHAPTER 17 Act Normal
publish date:
2026-03-12 15:34:57
Latest chapter
Ruined by My Best Friend’s Father CHAPTER 46 — First Fight
It started with something small.It always did.We were in the suite on a Wednesday evening and he had already decided — without asking, without a conversation, without even the courtesy of mentioning it first — that we were not going to the gallery opening on Friday. He said it the way he said everything: plainly, finally, with the quiet certainty of a man who had already run the calculation and arrived at an answer before anyone else had been invited to the table."I've told Chloe I have a conflict," he said.I looked at him. "When did you decide that?""This morning.""And you're telling me now.""Yes."I set my glass down. "You didn't think to ask me.""It's a practical decision. The three of us in that environment right now—""Damian." I looked at him steadily. "You decided. And now you're informing me."He held my gaze. "Is that not what happened?""That's exactly what happened. That's the problem."He was quiet. "I don't see the problem.""I know you don't." I stood. "That's al
Ruined by My Best Friend’s Father Chapter 45 — Starting to Show
It was a small thing. That was what made it worse. Not a conversation that ran too long or a look that stayed a second past what was safe. Just a moment, ordinary, unremarkable to anyone watching, where Chloe turned away to answer her phone and I took one step toward him without thinking. One step. The kind the body makes before the brain catches up with it. The kind that happens when a habit has formed without your permission. I stopped myself immediately. Pulled back. Redirected the movement into reaching for my glass on the counter behind me like that had been the intention all along. Damian didn't move. Didn't react. He was already looking somewhere else by the time I had corrected, already speaking to Chloe about whatever she was saying into the phone, already present and composed and giving nothing away the way he always gave nothing away. I stood at the counter and held my glass and waited for my pulse to settle. Chloe came back into the kitchen two minutes later, still
Ruined by My Best Friend’s Father Chapter 44 They're Lucky
He asked on a Thursday.Not casually. Not buried inside a work conversation or dressed up as something else. He waited until the office had mostly cleared out, until it was just the two of us finishing up the last of a deck that had taken the better part of the afternoon, and then he closed his laptop and looked at me directly."Can I take you to dinner?" he said. "Not a work thing. Just dinner."I looked up from my screen.He held my gaze steadily. No performance in it. No hedging. Andre had always been like that — when he decided something, he said it cleanly and waited for the answer without filling the silence with qualifications. It was one of the things I had always respected about him."Andre," I said."I know," he said. "I know you're going to say something that sounds reasonable and I'm probably going to accept it. But I wanted to ask properly first." He paused. "Because I think you deserve to be asked properly."I looked at him for a long moment.He was good-looking in the e
Ruined by My Best Friend’s Father Chapter 43 — His Past
I found it by accident.I was in the study looking for a charger — the kind of errand that had become unremarkable over months of coming and going through this house, when I opened the wrong drawer.It was near the back. A photograph, not framed, just loose between two folders like it had been placed there quickly and not moved since. I almost closed the drawer without looking properly.I didn't.The man in the photo was Damian, unmistakably, but a version of him I had never seen. Younger — not dramatically, just enough to show in the set of his shoulders, the slight looseness around his jaw. He was laughing. Properly, genuinely, the kind of laugh that didn't know it was being observed. The kind I had never once seen on his face in all the months I had known him as something more than Chloe's father.Beside him was a woman.She was turned slightly toward him, her hand on his arm, her expression warm in the particular way of someone completely at ease with the person beside them. She w
Ruined by My Best Friend’s Father Chapter 42 — Chloe Sees Something
It happened at the gallery.The Meridian show was the kind of event Chloe had been excited about for two weeks — she had texted me about it four separate times, sent a photo of the outfit she was planning, and arrived twenty minutes early to walk the first room before the crowd filled in. By the time Damian and I arrived separately, she had already identified three pieces she wanted to discuss at length and one artist she was prepared to argue about."You came," she said when she saw me, immediately linking her arm through mine."You asked me four times.""Because I wasn't sure you'd actually come." She pulled me toward a large canvas on the far wall. "Look at this one. Tell me what you see."I told her what I saw. She disagreed with most of it, which was exactly what she had been hoping for."No, no — see the way the light falls on the left side? That's not accidental. He's doing something with the asymmetry." She tilted her head. "You're looking at the surface.""Most people look at
Ruined by My Best Friend’s Father Chapter 41 — Something Like Normal
He texted on a Wednesday afternoon. Not about the evening or the suite or anything that required a coded answer.Just: *Saturday morning. Early. I know somewhere quiet.*I read it twice.Then: *Okay.*He picked me up two streets from my building at seven-thirty, before the city had properly woken up. I got in the car and he glanced at me once and pulled back into the road without ceremony, which I appreciated. No preamble. No checking whether I had changed my mind.We drove for about twenty minutes, out of the central streets and into a quieter neighbourhood I didn't know well — wide roads, old trees, the kind of area that felt like it belonged to a slower pace of life.He parked outside a small place on a side street. The kind of café that didn't have a sign you could read from the car, just a window full of warm light and two tables outside that nobody was using yet."You've been here before," I said."Occasionally. They don't know me." He opened the door. "That was the point."Insi
Ruined by My Best Friend’s Father CHAPTER 6 You Started This
The gala was the kind of event that made you feel overdressed no matter how carefully you planned. The room glittered with expensive jewelry and quiet confidence, people smiling as if smiling was part of the contract. Cameras flashed near the entrance. A few reporters stood behind a velvet rope, wa
Ruined by My Best Friend’s Father CHAPTER 5 Nothing Happened
Dinner felt normal.That was the worst part.Chloe was talking about a new campaign she wanted to pitch at work, laughing halfway through her own sentences the way she always did when she was excited. I responded when she looked at me. Smiled when expected. Nodded at the right moments.Damian sat a
Ruined by My Best Friend’s Father CHAPTER 4 Locked Doors
He did not let go.The hallway was too quiet. The thin line of light beneath Chloe's door stretched across the floor, steady and unmoving. Somewhere deeper in the house, the air system hummed softly, the only reminder that the world was still functioning normally.Nothing about this felt normal.Hi
Ruined by My Best Friend’s Father Chapter 3 One Step Too Close
Chloe asked me to stay another week.She did it casually, like it was nothing."You practically live here anyway," she said, sprawled across her bed while scrolling through pictures from her birthday. "And I hate being alone when Dad disappears into work mode."I should have said no.I had my own a
You may also like
Sweet Dreams
Josie frank1.1M viewsMadam Winters’s Fight For Her Children
Summer Wine1.2M viewsOne night stand with a Billionaire
Pixiepiu784.5K viewsSIN
MercyCrown1.1M viewsDOUBLE HEIR ; A LOVE IN DISGUISE
Providence Onyinyechi127 viewsA Second Chance For The Billionaire
Laura Ricci44 viewsChasing The Billionaire's Ex Wife
Piper page51 viewsThe Billionaire Regretted Losing His Invisible Wife
Artemis Z.Y.213 views
