Fake Marrying My Ex's Father-In-Law

CHAPTER 004

TORIA’S POV

Damien’s question caught me completely off guard. His dark eyes remained fixed on mine, and there was a slight challenge in them that made my heart beat faster. I quickly looked away and reached for the water, hoping the simple action would help me regain my composure.

“You are very confident for a man who just said he has no interest in touching me,” I said, taking a small sip.

His lips curved slightly. “You were the one who brought up the subject.”

“I was only teasing you.”

“Then perhaps you should be more careful about what you tease me about.”

I was about to reply when the sound of heels approaching our table caught my attention. The sharp clicking grew louder with every step until a tall woman stopped beside us. She looked elegant and expensive, from her perfectly styled hair to the designer clothes and jewelry she wore.

Damien’s expression changed almost immediately. Whatever amusement had been in his eyes disappeared, replaced by the same cold expression I had seen earlier.

Her eyes traveled over me from head to toe. Then she let out a dry, condescending laugh and shook her head. “Goodness, darling, is this really the best you can do nowadays? A little stray straight off the street who looks like she barely graduated high school?”

She stepped closer, placing a familiar, possessive hand on Damien’s shoulder as if she had every right to touch him. She looked at me again.

"Let me give you a piece of honest advice, little girl, before you get your foolish hopes up about this man. A sugar baby will always just be a sugar baby, no matter how many expensive dinners he buys you to feed his own lonely ego. Damien likes to pretend he is generous when he wants a fresh toy to keep his bed warm at night, but the second you ask for something real or step out of line, he will discard you like yesterday’s garbage and leave you with nothing. He and I were married for years, so I know exactly what kind of man he is. Trust me, you are completely out of your depth here.”

My eyebrow lifted slightly at the revelation.

Married?

So this was Damien’s ex-wife.

I glanced at Damien, but his face remained completely unreadable. Something about the way she spoke to me immediately rubbed me the wrong way. She wasn’t warning me because she cared. She was trying to embarrass me, and the smug look on her face made that very clear. I had already spent most of the evening listening to Eric tell me how a woman was supposed to behave, and I wasn’t about to sit there quietly while another stranger tried to make me feel small.

I straightened in my chair and gave her a calm smile. "You were married to him for years. Past tense. Yet you're standing here at his dinner table, insulting the woman sitting beside him. That doesn’t exactly make you look like you have moved on.”

Her smile disappeared.

I continued before she could respond. “And if you really know him as well as you claim, you should also know that he doesn’t look interested in talking to you. Maybe you should take the hint and leave him alone.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You have some nerve.”

“I hear that a lot.”

For a second, neither of us said anything. The woman looked genuinely shocked that I had answered her instead of lowering my head and scurrying away. I could see the anger building on her face, but I didn’t look away. If she wanted to insult me, she should at least be prepared to hear something back.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but Damien suddenly moved and pulled my chair closer to his. Before I could understand what he was doing, he slipped an arm around my waist. I stiffened at the unexpected contact. From the way he held me, anyone watching would have thought we had been together for years.

“That is enough, Marissa,” he said coldly.

Marissa.

So that was her name.

He didn’t even look at her with the slightest bit of warmth. His expression was cold, and his arm around me only seemed to make her more irritated.

“You have no right to insult my fiancée,” he continued.

My eyes widened.

Fiancée?

I turned my head slowly toward him, but he didn’t look at me. His attention remained completely focused on Marissa. "We are getting married this Saturday.”

For a moment, I thought I had heard him wrong.

This Saturday?

That was three days away.

I stared at him in complete disbelief, trying to understand how we had gone from discussing a simple contract marriage to announcing an actual wedding date in the middle of a restaurant. We hadn’t discussed a date. We hadn’t discussed a ceremony. We hadn’t even signed anything yet, and Damien was already telling his ex-wife that we were getting married in three days.

Marissa looked between us in disbelief. “You cannot be serious.”

“I have never been more serious.”

Damien finally looked down at me, and his expression suddenly softened. The change was so quick that I almost wondered if I had imagined it. "What is that face for, darling?” he asked, his voice suddenly warm and teasing. “Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten about the wedding preparations. We still have to choose the flowers tomorrow.”

I stared at him for another second before finally understanding what he was doing. He was putting on a show. His hand tightened slightly around my waist, and I immediately understood the message. He wanted me to play along, and judging by the way Marissa was watching us, there was no way I could suddenly expose the truth without making everything worse.

I swallowed and forced a smile onto my face. "Of course I haven’t forgotten, sweetheart,” I said, trying my best to sound natural. “I was just surprised that you told her about the wedding so casually.”

Damien’s eyes flickered with amusement, but he said nothing.

I turned my attention to Marissa and gave her a polite smile. “But I suppose she deserves to know. After all, she was once your wife.”

Marissa’s face tightened immediately. I could tell she wanted to say something, but Damien didn’t give her the chance. He simply kept his arm around me and looked at her with a clear message that the conversation was over.

After a few seconds, she let out an irritated breath, turned around, and walked away. I watched her leave until she disappeared through the restaurant doors. The moment she was gone, I turned toward Damien and lowered my voice. "What the hell was that?”

Damien calmly picked up his wineglass as if nothing unusual had happened. “My ex-wife.”

“I know that. I’m talking about the wedding.” I stared at him. “You just announced that we are getting married in three days without even discussing it with me.”

Damien took another sip of his wine before setting the glass down. “I needed her to believe the marriage was real. A long engagement would give people time to ask questions, investigate us, and create unnecessary problems. A sudden wedding gives everyone less time to look into our relationship.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it again because I couldn’t argue with that. Marissa had believed us, or at least she had believed enough to leave without asking too many questions.

I rolled my eyes and looked away.

Three days.

I was actually going to marry Damien Rothwell in three days.

The thought was still difficult to process, but another thought suddenly came to me, and my irritation slowly disappeared. Celine would definitely attend her father’s wedding. After all, she was his daughter, and there was no way she would miss something this important. And if Celine was there, Logan would probably be there too, watching me walk down the aisle as Damien Rothwell’s wife.

A small smile slowly appeared on my face.