He Married Me to Destroy Me

The first time I saw Alexander Blackwood, I was standing in a room full of people who had come to watch my family lose everything. Nobody said it aloud, of course. They did not have to. I could see it in their faces. The quiet conversations. The careful glances. The smiles that disappeared whenever my father walked past. For twenty years, the Hart family name had meant something in this city. My father, Thomas Hart, had built Hart Industries from a small construction company into one of the largest property development businesses in the country. People respected him. People feared disappointing him. People invited him to their weddings, their business dinners and their private clubs. Tonight, nobody wanted to stand too close to him. The ballroom of the Grand Royal Hotel glittered with crystal lights and expensive jewelry, but all I could feel was the weight of humiliation pressing against my chest. I tightened my fingers around my glass. "Stop staring at them." My younger brother, Daniel, leaned closer. "I am not staring." "You have been staring at the same group of men for five minutes." I looked at him. "They are talking about Dad." Daniel glanced toward the group. "Everyone is talking about Dad." His voice was bitter. I lowered my eyes. That was the truth. For the past three weeks, every newspaper had carried another story about Hart Industries. Failed projects. Unpaid loans. Missing investments. A government investigation. Our company had gone from being admired to being treated like a criminal organization almost overnight. My father insisted everything would be resolved. He had said that every morning. He had said it at breakfast. He had said it when I found him sitting alone in his study at two in the morning. He had said it when the bank froze our accounts. He had even said it yesterday when our main office was surrounded by reporters. Everything will be fine, Sophia. But tonight, for the first time, I did not believe him. A soft movement near the entrance caught my attention. The conversations around us slowly faded. People turned. Even my father looked up. A man had entered the ballroom. He was tall, dressed in a perfectly fitted black suit, with dark hair brushed away from his forehead. He did not smile. He did not greet anyone. He simply walked into the room as though everyone inside belonged to him. Maybe they did. I had heard his name enough times to recognize him. Alexander Blackwood. Thirty two years old. Billionaire. Chairman of Blackwood Holdings. The youngest man to ever take control of the company. He had inherited an empire after his father's death and had somehow doubled its value within six years. But money was not the reason people were staring. Alexander Blackwood had a reputation. Cold. Private. Ruthless. He had destroyed companies without raising his voice. He had bought businesses simply because their owners had once crossed him. At least that was what people said. I had never met him. Until tonight. His eyes moved across the room. Then they stopped on me. I felt something change in the air. His expression did not move. He simply looked at me. Not like a man looking at a beautiful woman. Not like a stranger looking at someone he had never met. It was something else. Something darker. Something that made the back of my neck prickle. I looked away first. "Do you know him?" Daniel asked. "No." "Are you sure?" "Yes." Daniel watched Alexander for a moment. "Then why is he looking at you like that?" "I have no idea." Before I could say anything else, my father appeared beside us. "Sophia." I turned. "Yes, Dad?" "Come with me." There was something in his voice that made my stomach tighten. I followed him through the crowd. He did not speak until we reached a quiet hallway outside the ballroom. "What happened?" I asked. He looked older than he had that morning. His shoulders were tense. His face was pale. "I need you to do something for me." "What?" He hesitated. That frightened me more than anything else. My father had never been a man who hesitated. "Alexander Blackwood is here." "I know." "Do you know why?" I shook my head. "He wants to speak with you." I stared at him. "Me?" "Yes." "Why?" My father looked away. "I do not know." That was a lie. I knew immediately. "Dad." He closed his eyes. "Please, Sophia." "What are you hiding?" "Nothing." "You are lying." He opened his eyes. For a moment, he looked at me with an expression I had never seen before. Fear. Real fear. Then someone spoke behind us. "Mr. Hart." My father stiffened. I turned. Alexander stood at the end of the hallway. He had followed us. His hands were in his pockets, his face unreadable. My father stepped forward. "Alexander." "Thomas." They stared at each other. There was history between them. I could feel it. "Can I speak with your daughter?" Alexander asked. My father's jaw tightened. "No." Alexander smiled. It was the first time I saw emotion on his face. It was not warmth. It was amusement. "I was not asking you." My father moved in front of me. "You will not involve my daughter in this." Alexander's eyes shifted to me. "I am afraid she is already involved." My heart began to pound. "What does that mean?" I asked. He looked directly at me. "You will find out soon enough." Then he turned and walked away. I watched him disappear into the ballroom. "Dad, what was that?" He did not answer. "Dad." He finally looked at me. "I want you to stay away from him." "Why?" "Because that man does not forgive." "What did you do to him?" My father's face changed. Nothing. Then he walked away. That night, I went home with more questions than answers. But things became worse the following morning. At seven thirty, three lawyers arrived at our house. At eight, our family accountant called. At eight fifteen, my father's main bank account was frozen. At eight thirty, the police arrived with another notice concerning the investigation. By nine, my father was sitting in his study with his head buried in his hands. I stood in the doorway. "What are we going to do?" He did not answer. "Dad." He looked up. "We are finished." The words broke something inside me. "What?" "I have lost control of the company." I stepped into the room. "That cannot happen." "It already has." "Then we fight." He gave a tired laugh. "With what money?" I had no answer. He looked at me for a long moment. Then he said something that changed my life forever. "There is one person who can save us." I already knew the answer. "Alexander." My father nodded. I sat down slowly. "What does he want?" My father's silence answered before he did. "He wants you." I stared at him. "What?" "He has made an offer." I stood again. "What kind of offer?" "He will pay every debt." I waited. "He will return the company." I waited again. My father's eyes filled with pain. "In exchange, you marry him." For several seconds, I could not breathe. I thought I had misunderstood him. "You want me to marry Alexander Blackwood?" "I do not want this." "But you are asking me." "I am asking you to save this family." I laughed because the alternative was crying. "Do you even know him?" "Yes." "Do you know what kind of man he is?" My father looked at me. "I know exactly what kind of man he is." "Then why would he want to marry me?" He said nothing. "Dad, why?" My father's hands trembled. "Because he hates me." The room became silent. "And he believes marrying you will give him the revenge he has wanted for years." I stared at him. Everything suddenly made sense. The way Alexander had looked at me. The coldness in his eyes. The fear on my father's face. This was never about business. It was personal. I walked toward the window. Outside, our once beautiful garden looked strangely peaceful. I wanted to say no. I wanted to tell my father that I would never marry a man who hated my family. But then I remembered the bank notices. The reporters. The employees who would lose their jobs. The house that could be taken from us. My father had spent his entire life building that company. And now everything was collapsing. My phone rang. I looked at the screen. Unknown number. I answered. "Sophia Hart?" His voice was calm. Cold. Alexander. "Yes." "I believe your father has explained my proposal." My fingers tightened around the phone. "He has." "Then you understand what I want." "Why me?" There was a pause. "Because destroying you will hurt him more than destroying his company." My heart sank. "You really hate my father that much?" "I hate what he did to mine." "What did my father do?" "That is a question you should ask him." I looked toward the study. My father was watching me. Alexander continued. "You have until midnight." "To decide?" "Yes." "And if I say no?" "You will lose everything." The call ended. I lowered the phone. My father looked at me. Neither of us spoke. I had always believed marriage was supposed to begin with love. Alexander Blackwood had just offered me something very different. A marriage built on hatred. And somehow, I already knew that saying yes would be the biggest mistake of my life. I just did not know yet that it would also become the greatest love story of my life.