All Chapters of Between Two Brothers : Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

ISLA'S POVThe ticking of the office clock had become the metronome of my despair.Six years. For two thousand, one hundred and ninety days, I had survived in the sleek, glass-and-steel corridors of the Blackthorne Group, fueled entirely by a promise that was slowly turning to ash.In the beginning, the waiting was a fierce, living thing. I had poured my heart into letters, sealing my devotion into paper and ink. Because Victor Blackthorne monitored my digital footprint, I couldn't risk emails or direct calls. I had turned to Julian. Dare’s cousin had been my only bridge, a steady, sympathetic presence who offered to slip my letters into the secure family mail couriered to Spain.“I’ll make sure he gets them, Isla,” Julian would always promise, his dark eyes filled with a gentle, pitying warmth as he tucked the envelopes into his breast pocket. “He’s just busy. The college there is totally different from ours. And you know how his father is.”But Dare never replied. Not once.The six

ISLA'S POV The ring on my finger felt like ice. I stared down at it, my heart hammering so loudly I was sure everyone could hear it over the low hum of the restaurant. My mouth had opened, the word “yes” balancing on my tongue like a white flag. I was tired of fighting. I was jobless, terrified for my mother’s future, and drowning in the crushing realization that Victor Blackthorne had just thrown me away. Julian offered safety. He offered an escape from the constant, aching ghost of what could have been. But just as I was about to surrender, the wooden doors of our private alcove didn’t just open—the entire illusion of my safe future shattered. Darian Blackthorne walked into the room like he owned the very air we breathed. He was taller than I remembered, his shoulders broader, the boyish vulnerability completely replaced by sharp, ruthless edges. His dark suit was tailored to perfection, emphasizing the cold power radiating from his frame. But it wasn't just his transfor

ISLA'S POV I stood up slowly, the earlier humiliation fueling my own fire. “Working, Julian. Something I desperately needed to do.”He crossed the distance in three long strides, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward a quieter corner near the massive windows overlooking London’s skyline. “I told you I’d take care of you. That I’d protect you from whatever danger Dare represents. You didn’t need to come crawling to him!”“Protect me?” I laughed bitterly, wrenching my arm free. “If you really wanted to help me, Julian, you would have done all that you could to stop Victor from laying me off - instead of dangling security like a prize while I stressed over our bills. All I got were vague warnings and empty promises. You wanted me dependent. Weak and easy to control.”His jaw clenched, a flash of something dark crossing his features—anger, yes, but also panic. “You don’t understand the full picture. Dare isn’t who you think he is. He’ll destroy you.”“And what about you?” I shot back, my

ISLA'S POVThe morning after my sleepless night felt like walking into a battlefield already rigged against me. My eyes burned from exhaustion as I stepped off the private elevator, but I kept my chin high. The tablet in my hands held Dare’s impossible schedule, now slightly less chaotic thanks to my all-nighter. Still, the list of errands attached was designed to humiliate.Dare didn’t even glance up when I entered his office to confirm the day’s agenda. “Dry cleaning first. Then the whiskey. Documents for the Tokyo team by ten. Don’t disappoint me, Harlow.”I swallowed my retort and got to work, immediately.The dry cleaning was ruined before I even reached the office. The Mayfair shop handed me the wrong suit—Serena’s doing, I suspected, when I caught her smirking from the car she’d “borrowed” me for errands. The whiskey bottle slipped from my trembling hands in the lobby, shattering across marble. Wrong documents? I delivered the merger files to the wrong floor, triggering a chain