MARRIED TO MY ENEMY'S GHOST

Chapter 4: The Clause

"I'm not running," I said.

Damien stared at me. "Eleanor, someone tried to kill you tonight."

"And someone succeeded in killing you." I crumpled the note in my fist. "If I run, I look guilty. I'm already the girl who hated the Blackwoods. If I vanish on the night my husband dies, the police won't need another suspect."

"You're thinking like a strategist." A ghost of his old smirk appeared. "My father would have hired you."

"Your father destroyed mine."

"Yes. Well." The smirk faded. "I never said we were good people."

Before I could answer, voices rose in the corridor outside. Heavy footsteps. The lock turned again, and Marcus Cole entered with a silver-haired man in a gray suit, carrying a leather briefcase.

"Mrs. Blackwood," Marcus said. "This is Mr. Hargrove, the family's attorney. He needs to speak with you. Immediately."

"At one in the morning?"

"Mr. Blackwood's will requires it," Hargrove said gravely. "Within hours of his death."

Damien went rigid beside me. "I updated my will last month. Only Hargrove and I knew the details."

"Then why does he look nervous?" I murmured.

"Pardon?" said Hargrove.

"Nothing. Please, go ahead."

The lawyer opened his briefcase and withdrew a thick document sealed with red wax. He cleared his throat.

"Mr. Blackwood's marriage contract contained a clause that, until tonight, was known only to him. In the event of his death within the first year of marriage, his wife, Eleanor Hart-Blackwood, inherits his controlling shares in Blackwood Global."

Silence.

"His what?" I whispered.

"Fifty-one percent," Hargrove said. "Roughly forty billion dollars."

The room spun. I looked at Damien. He wasn't looking at me. He was staring at the wall, jaw tight, eyes distant, as if replaying a calculation he'd made weeks ago.

"You planned this," I said under my breath. "You knew someone might kill you."

"I suspected," he said quietly. "I needed someone the family would never expect to protect the company. Someone with every reason to hate us." His gaze finally met mine. "Someone who couldn't be bought."

"You used me!"

"I chose you."

"That's the same thing!"

"Mrs. Blackwood?" Marcus frowned. "Are you all right?"

I straightened, forcing my voice steady. "I'm fine. Is that everything?"

"Not quite." Hargrove's eyes flicked to Marcus, then back to me. "Lady Victoria has called an emergency family meeting for dawn. She intends to challenge the will."

"Of course she does."

"She also wishes you to know," Marcus added carefully, "that tonight's maid has gone missing."

My stomach dropped. "Missing?"

"Her room is empty. Her belongings are gone." Marcus held my gaze a second too long. "Did she speak to you, Mrs. Blackwood?"

Beside me, Damien's voice dropped to a whisper only I could hear.

"Eleanor. Don't answer him."

Marcus took one slow step closer, and the temperature in the room seemed to plummet.

"Because if she did," he said softly, "then you're in far more danger than you realize."