All Chapters of The Billionaire's Forgotten Bride: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Ariana did not sleep that night. She remained seated outside Lucas’ hospital room while tightly holding Damien Monteverde’s business card in her trembling hands. Every second felt heavy.Painful.Suffocating.Marriage.The word kept repeating inside her mind like a curse. She had dreamed about love before. A simple life. A small home. A husband who genuinely loved her. But reality destroyed those dreams long ago. Now, she was being asked to marry a man who looked at her like a business transaction. A stranger, a cold-hearted billionaire. And worst of all— a man she already hated.Ariana wiped her tears weakly before glancing at Lucas through the glass window again. The sound of the heart monitor echoed softly inside the quiet hallway. Her chest tightened painfully. If she refused Damien… Lucas could die. That thought alone was enough to destroy her. Around three in the morning, Lucas slowly woke up.“Ate…”Ariana quickly entered the room.“Hey.” She forced a smile. “How are you feelin

The following weeks passed quietly inside the Monteverde mansion. Too quietly. Ariana slowly adjusted to her new life, but every single day still felt unnatural.Every morning, stylists chose her clothes. Etiquette teachers corrected the way she walked, talked, and even held utensils. At night, she attended dinners and business gatherings beside Damien while pretending to be the perfect wife. It was really exhausting. She constantly felt like she was acting inside a world where she did not belong. But despite everything… One thing slowly began changing.Damien.He was still cold ,still distant and still emotionally unavailable. But little by little, Ariana started seeing cracks beneath his icy exterior. Like the way he silently waited for her whenever she walked too slowly in heels. Or how he always made sure she ate before long events. Sometimes, he even defended her from his family’s insults without making it obvious. Small things, tiny things. But enough to confuse Ariana’s heart.

The air between Damien and Ariana felt suffocating. They stood facing each other in the hallway outside the charity luncheon while the photographs remained clenched tightly in Damien’s hand.Ariana’s chest rose unevenly. “Damien, please listen to me first.”His eyes looked terrifyingly emotionless.“Then explain.”“I already told you, those photos were planned.”Damien laughed bitterly. “Planned?”“Yes!”“Convenient answer.”Pain crashed heavily inside Ariana’s chest. She had never seen him look at her like this before. Not even during the beginning of their contract marriage. This time, the anger inside his eyes looked personal. Ariana took a shaky breath.“That man was my former coworker. He approached me because someone paid him to deliver those pictures to you.”“And you expect me to believe that?”“It’s true!”Damien stepped closer slowly.“Do you know what your problem is, Ariana?” Her throat tightened. “You look innocent even while lying.”The words stabbed her brutally. Tears

Rain hammered against the windows of the Monteverde mansion. Thunder roared across the dark sky. The storm seemed endless. Ariana stood silently inside the bedroom she would soon leave forever. One suitcase rested beside the door. Everything she owned fit inside it. A painful reminder that she had never truly belonged here. She slowly looked around the room one last time. The bed... the balcony. The couch where Damien used to sleep during the early days of their contract marriage. Memories flashed through her mind. The small conversations and the rare smiles. The moments when she foolishly believed things might get better. Tears burned her eyes again. But this time, she refused to cry. There was nothing left to cry for. Slowly, her hand moved to her stomach."I'm sorry, baby," she whispered softly.Not to Damien, not to herself... but to her baby. Because this child deserved better than a father who believed they were nothing more than manipulation. The pain in her chest returned imm

​The rain in Manila always felt like a punishment. It beat relentlessly against the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of Damien’s office on the topmost floor of the Monteverde Corporation building.​Outside, the city was a blur of gray and neon. Inside, the silence was deafening.​Damien Alaric Monteverde sat at his desk, his pristine black suit jacket thrown carelessly over a couch hours ago. His tie was undone, the collar of his white shirt thrown open. For a man who used to look completely untouchable, he looked entirely undone. His eyes, usually sharp and emotionless, were bloodshot. Dark circles shadowed his hollow cheeks.​“Sir?”​His assistant, Mark, stepped into the room with measured, cautious steps. He was holding a thick manila folder, but his face carried the same exhausted, defeated expression he had worn for the past two weeks.​Damien didn’t look up from his laptop. His fingers were flying across the keyboard, scrolling through endless maritime search reports, private inve