NEVER MEANT TO LOVE YOU

CHAPTER 5

The first thing I noticed was the smell, sharp and antiseptic, followed almost immediately by a dull ache pounding behind my temples. Voices drifted somewhere around me, muffled, like I was hearing them through water. My eyelids felt impossibly heavy. I forced them open anyway.

A blank white ceiling stared back down at me.

For a few seconds I just lay there, confused, trying to place where I was. Then it hit me all at once.

Hospital.

My heart lurched. I turned my head too fast and my eyes landed on the faces gathered around the bed.

Melody stood close, pale, her hands twisted together. Bryan sat right beside me, his face dark with something I couldn't quite read. By the window stood Mr. and Mrs. Roman, quiet in a way I'd never seen from either of them, their expressions saying more than words could.

I stared at them blankly for a second before memory crashed back in, all at once, brutal.

Tires screeching. Glass shattering. Gunshots. My driver's voice cracking into a yell. The car spinning.

Then nothing.

I gasped and tried to sit up, and pain shot through my side hard enough to steal my breath.

"Lily, easy."

Bryan was there instantly, hands steady as he eased me back down. "Don't move too fast."

My breathing came in uneven pulls, fear already clawing up my throat, one question burning louder than anything else.

"My driver," I whispered. "Where is he?"

Nobody said a word.

The silence told me everything before anyone had to.

My chest caved in on itself.

Mrs. Roman stepped closer, her face softening in a way I'd rarely seen from her.

"Lily. I'm so sorry."

The pity in her voice was what broke me.

"He didn't make it."

The words landed like a physical hit. I couldn't process them at first. Then I did.

He was gone.

The man who greeted me every single morning with a kind smile and a nod like I mattered.

Gone.

Because of me.

A sob tore out of me before I could stop it, tears flooding fast.

"No."

My shoulders shook, grief taking over completely.

This wasn't a scare tactic. This wasn't some petty attempt to push me away from the company.

Someone had tried to kill me.

And an innocent man had paid for it instead.

Guilt wrapped around my chest like chains while the sobs kept coming. Bryan didn't hesitate, he pulled me straight into his arms, his hand moving slowly along my back, saying nothing because there was nothing to say.

I clutched at his shirt like he was the only solid thing left in the room.

"It's okay," he murmured.

It wasn't. Nothing about any of this was okay.

My tears soaked through his shirt while the truth settled into my bones. I was in real danger. And I had no idea who was actually behind it.

My mind flipped through faces without my permission.

Martel.

Summer.

Eden.

Dante.

Every one of them had made their hatred for me obvious in their own way. Every one of them thought this inheritance belonged to them by blood. Every one of them had a reason to want me gone.

"I don't understand," I whispered, voice breaking apart.

Melody moved closer, resting a shaking hand on my shoulder. "We'll figure this out."

I shook my head, helpless. "They hate me, Mel."

Across the room, Mr. Roman shifted, uncomfortable, while his wife looked away. For the first time, the cracks in this family's perfect image were impossible to pretend weren't there. Their children had let greed eat them alive, and neither of them knew how to stop it anymore.

Bryan tilted my chin up gently until I was looking at him.

His eyes were dark, steady, unmoving.

"My queen," he said quietly, and something in his certainty made my breath catch. "I will protect you."

The words sank in deep.

"We'll get through this. I promise you that."

I wanted so badly to believe him.

I was discharged that evening. Getting out of the hospital was its own battle, the press had already swarmed the entrance the moment the attack broke online. Camera flashes went off like lightning, questions shouted from every direction.

"Miss Roman, was this an assassination attempt?"

"Do you suspect someone in your own family?"

"Is this connected to inheritance?"

Security walled me in while Bryan kept a hand firm against my back, steering me through the noise. I kept my head down, but inside, I was falling apart.

The funeral came together fast. I insisted on handling it myself. It was the least I could do.

It was quiet, dignified, just his grieving wife, their two kids, a handful of relatives. Rain came down soft over the cemetery while I stood at the graveside in black, completely still.

No amount of money could undo what happened. Still, I made sure his family would never want for anything again. A trust for the children. Lifetime security for his wife.

Even that felt hollow.

None of it brought him back.

By the time I got back to Bryan's estate that night, exhaustion had settled into every part of me. The house felt colder than usual. Too quiet. Too exposed.

I stood at the window in my room, staring out into the dark.

A soft knock broke the silence. Before I could answer, the door opened and Bryan walked in.

He crossed the room without a word and wrapped his arms around me from behind. The warmth of him sank in instantly.

Neither of us spoke for a long moment.

Then his voice, low, cut through the quiet. "Are you scared?"

My first instinct was to lie. But I was too tired to bother.

"Yes."

His arms tightened around me. "You don't have to pretend with me."

Something about that sentence cracked walls I'd spent years building.

I turned to face him.

"Bryan." My voice shook. "I thought once we got married and the inheritance thing was settled, everything would calm down. But it's getting worse. It feels like everyone's coming for me. And now someone's willing to kill for it."

Bryan reached up and framed my face, thumbs wiping away tears I hadn't noticed falling.

"Listen to me," he said, steady, grounded. "This marriage started as a contract. But as your husband, I will protect you."

My breath caught.

"I'll stand beside you through all of it. I'll be your safe place for as long as you need one."

Something swelled painfully in my chest.

His gaze sharpened. "I've already hired investigators. Whoever did this will be found."

There was something in the certainty on his face that undid me completely.

He looked at me like I mattered. Like my life was worth fighting for.

And before I could stop myself, I closed the distance and pressed my lips to his.

It lasted barely a second.

But it sent something like electricity straight through me.

The second I realized what I'd done, I pulled back fast, face burning. "Oh God. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

Before I could retreat further, his hand slid around my waist and pulled me right back.

This time, when his mouth found mine, there was no hesitation in it at all.

The kiss was deep, consuming, carrying every ounce of tension neither of us had said out loud until now. His mouth moved against mine with an intensity that melted something in me instantly. I gripped his shirt and kissed him back just as desperately, every bit of fear and grief and loneliness I'd been carrying pouring straight into that moment.

His fingers tangled in my hair. My body pressed against his without me deciding to move it there.

For those few seconds, the world just disappeared. No inheritance. No threat. No contract.

Just him. Just that.

When we finally broke apart, we were both breathing hard, foreheads pressed together, hearts pounding loud enough to fill the silence.

Then reality came flooding back in.

I stepped away first, my lips still buzzing. The air between us was thick with everything we'd just crossed.

"We need to forget that happened," I finally said.

His jaw tightened. "Lily."

"No." I shook my head fast. "This marriage has boundaries. If we cross them, everything gets complicated."

And complicated was the one thing I couldn't afford right now. Not with my life hanging by a thread.

I drew in a shaky breath. "Let's just pretend it never happened."

He looked at me for a long moment before he finally nodded. "If that's what you want."

It wasn't.

We both knew it.

But I didn't say anything else.

Because somewhere underneath all of it, I already knew the truth.

That kiss had changed everything.