Locked With The Wrong Lockwood

Chapter No. 1

Calista Blackstone:-

“I don’t care, you b***h! "You are getting rid of the bastard inside your womb right now.” my father ordered, as he yelled through his lungs furiously, taking steady steps closer to where I stood and gulped.

“Dad, please. You seriously can’t ask to do something so low.” I shouted, tears streaming down my eyes like a waterfall. “That unborn baby is innocent.”

“Calista, step away or I will lose my temper and end up doing something that I will regret.” Dad ordered, and reached for my wrist to pull me away from my sister, who I was trying to shield from my father’s wrath.

“Dad, please. No…please, I beg you.” I pleaded, trying to save my sister, who stood in the arms of my fiance that I was supposed to marry in a month from now. My heart bled as I looked at them together. The two most important people of my life. One is my sister, and the other is my fiance. The ones I thought loved me more than anything, when they both were just playing with my feelings.

My sister Caroline, and my fiance Nathan had been sleeping together behind my back for the last three years. I was a fool and too naive to see clearly. The signs were always there, but I trusted them so blindly that I refused to acknowledge everything until today when my father received a delivery in manila envelope that held the naked positions of Nathan and Caroline together on the bed, having s*x, along with a recent sonogram, revealing about Caroline’s pregnancy.

My sister was carrying my fiance’s baby in her belly. The same sister who is suppose to get married in the morning to my fiance’s Uncle Artemis Lockwood.

“How can you stand over here defending your sister after what she did to you, Calista?” Dad demanded, throwing the pictures and sonogram on my face, that held the evidence of Nathan’s infidelity.

“What am I supposed to do now? Have you got any idea what will happen if Caroline doesn’t get married to Artemis in the morning? I will go bankrupt and we all will be left homeless. We will be left with nothing because I took a loan from him, to save the company.”

“And, you call yourself a father.” Caroline snapped at our father from Nathan’s arms, who was trying to calm her down. Hurting me more than I already was. He played with my feelings and life for the last three years, making me feel like I was his woman, when in reality all this time he was banging my sister.

“You sold me to an old man, Nathan’s Uncle, like I am a sacrificial goat over here. I haven’t even seen or met the man ever. He must be wrinkled and ugly.”

“You have got no idea what that man would have provided you with. A life of luxury that you want, and banged your sister fiance for.” My dad snapped back. “Don’t test my patience, Caroline. You are getting married to Artemis in the mor…..”

My dad wasn’t able to finish the sentence when the door to the hall room of Blackstone mansion opened and stepped inside a very tall, dark, dangerously and deliciously handsome man to exist on the planet, with deep blue eyes, dressed in a long overcoat and black three piece tailored suit, surrounded by his bodyguards, as he made his way inside, making everyone of us still.

My father’s face went pale, including Nathan’s who stood in the same direction as all of us and murmured.

“Un…Uncle Artemis?” he gasped in shock, with his mouth opened wide.

“What? He is your Uncle?!” Caroline asked shocked to see the most handsome and intimidating man I have ever laid my eyes on, in my entire life. “He’s not old as you described, Nathan. He’s….he’s…”

“Hot,” I don’t know why I blurted out that word from my mouth then went frozen to my place with my eyes still fixed on Artemis, as he walked in, like he owned the place.

He looked down at the scattered images and sonogram on the floor with an evil smirk on his face, let’s out a dark chuckle then gazed around at everyone present in the room until his eyes landed on me, and stayed locked with mine for what felt like an eternity.

Breathing became impossible. I tried to speak, but nothing came out. Artemis Lockwood definitely wasn’t the person I expected. He wasn’t old, but magnificent.

Nathan used to say his uncle was cold and cruel, always hungry for power like a real monster and never introduced me to him ever. This... this man was like a sin packed into a three-piece suit. He was tall and strong, like a boss with a jaw that can cut through a piece of steel. His dark hair was carefully in place and those icy blue eyes weren’t just looking at me, they were gobbling me up.

He grinned slightly as I stared at him.

“Feel free to continue on regardless,” he said, smile as smooth as a poisoned river. “Please. Keep the family drama going. Good soap operas are quite enjoyable for me.”

My father struggled to find the words as he stammered. “Mr. Lockwood, this isn’t what you think—

“Really?” Artemis moved quickly, stopping to look around and every step he took was noticeable. “It appears to me from here that the situation is one of betrayal, scandal and complete incompetence.”

He got within a foot of my father, who started to step back, as though the air suddenly turned cold. Artemis briefly looked at Nathan with a frown of disgust.

“You,” he said, drawing attention to Nathan with his finger. “You’re nothing but a hormonal waste of air.”

His cheeks turned a bright red. “Uncle—”

“You can’t call me your uncle at this moment,” Artemis grumbled. “As of now, I have the power to end your life by simply making a phone call. You made our family reputation suffer. You put a billion-dollar merger at risk because you failed to keep your f*****g pants zipped.”

Artemis then looked at Caroline, who stood still with Nathan, her hands styled protectively around her tummy.

“And as for you,” Artemis added with contempt. “You were supposed to stand by my side and get married tomorrow, become my wife and carry my heir in your womb. Secure the relationship between the two families. Instead, you invited my nephew into your bed just for a taste of excitement, as if you were a tired debutante.”

Caroline trembled. “You’re disgusting...”

“No, sweetheart. You’re the one who is the disgusting one over here. A w***e!” he said in a whisper, but his words seemed even scarier now. “You are a mistake that your father was trying to put on me, but guess what I do not marry mistakes.”

Tears begin to fall out of Caroline’s eyes while Nathan came to the front to support Caroline, something he never did for me, during the last three years of our relationship.

“Uncle, You shouldn’t speak to her in that way—”

“Don’t say another word, because I’ll make sure you regret them all.”

As soon as Artemis looked at me again, everything else became invisible.

He walked closer and softly remarked, “Interesting.” he murmurs, shamelessly checking me out from head to toe, “I assume you must be Calista Blackstone. The youngest daughter, right?”

I closed my eyes and swallowed. “Yes.”

“You’re a goddess, but known to be the quieter one around the family, aren’t you? The faithful and kind one. The one who takes people off-guard.”

I kept staring at him. “Not anymore.”

It made him smile for a little while he responded, “Good. Beginning tomorrow, you are going to be mine. My woman.

“What?” I gasped. “I don’t understand.”

“Kitten, you are going to replace your sister as my bride, and walk down the aisle tomorrow.” he announced casually, as if he wasn’t dropping a huge bomb on me,making me stumble back, and would have fallen if it wasn’t for Artemis preventing that from happening by wrapping his arms around my waist, and pulling me to him sending electrical jolt all over my body.

Dad, looked puzzled. “But, the arrangement was specifically for Caroline—”

Artemis raised her hand to stop any further talk. “It was. Nevertheless, that arrangement is now invalid. Caroline passed the boundaries set in the agreement. However, the contract…” He paused for a second and produced a folded paper from the inside of his coat,and announced “...it refers to a Blackstone daughter, but does not mention which daughter. That makes it so—” he smirked wickedly as he continued, “—you must marry me now.”

“No, I won’t agree to something like this.” I snapped, pushing him away. “I refuse to marry you.”

“It’s not up to you,” Artemis said in a detached way. “Unless you want your father’s company to end up in bankruptcy and want your family to be brought to court for not fulfilling a contract. Unless you don't mind watching your father get sent to jail and having your sick mother pass away in the hospital because your father can’t cover the money for her medical treatment. If you don’t want to marry me, then I can make the arrangements to wipe the Blackstone right now.”

“You’re not allowed to force her!” My father let out a long, worried growl.

“I don’t have to push,” Artemis pointed out calmly. “I negotiate. And, I get the prize.”

He moved toward me once more, now standing so close that I could detect the powerful cologne he wore. He leaned over and quietly asked, “Don’t you want to save your family, kitten? If so, then you must give up your life. Be the kind daughter your parents would be proud of. Take a chance and marry the devil.”

“No…no, please. Not my sweet daughter. Not Calista.” my father begged and went down on his knees in front of Artemis. “We can discuss something else, another solution, anything, but please, spare my daughter. She’s innocent and pure. Not the part of this.”

“Exactly, that’s the reason why I want her.” Artemis grins arrogantly, “Because she is pure.”

My eyes started to blur with the tears falling down my cheeks. Caroline was holding Nathan while her stomach burned with disloyalty and my father, the man who raised me, dropped to his knees, pleading to save me from the devil. I can’t let my father lose everything he built so hard, and I can’t let my mother die. She is a heart patient and need surgery ASAP.”

I just nodded, wiping my face. “Fine. You have my word; I’ll marry you.”