All Chapters of MARRIAGE PACT: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

ZARA'S POVI couldn't shake the feeling that everything I knew was built on a house of cards that was ready to collapse at the slightest pressure of truth. As soon as the day began, I was determined to dive into research regarding my mother's past. I sat at my desk, turned on my laptop, and blocked the world from view as the need to learn her story overcame me.All couples of searches resulted in just her name, with a couple of details about her life as a prosecutor. Then, I struck an article outlining the fight by her to unmask corruption within Adler's family business. Every word, in my reading of her stand-up to giant figures and how she took on the nails to bring them to book, my heartbeat was racing fast; her being strong-headed, career-oriented-aggressive, a veritable warrior in a world full of darkness."How come I didn't know any of this?" I grumbled. And the betrayal of my own ignorance, washing over me like a cold wave. “How come my father had never mentioned anything abo

ZARA'S POVI stepped out of the hospital and inhaled deep as the cool breeze stroked my skin. Jacob walked beside me wordlessly but was there with me as we walked away from the sterilized confines. My head whirred on Is this real? Had we just given them a DNA sample? Was I finally going to see whether my dad isn't my real father?Not a single one of those emotions escaped onto my face. Jacob didn't see that the slightest bit of chaos was churning inside me."So." Jacob's voice cut through the silence. "How are you feeling?”I gave him a sideways look. "I'm good," I said a little too quickly. Thing was, I hadn't been feeling good for days. My belly had been tied up in knots since that old conversation in the park, but like heck was I about to let that on.We had stopped at the curb where his car was parked, and yet he didn't open my door. He turned to me instead; his eyes seemed an etching of concern. "Zara, the doctor said you haven't been eating well, and you're carrying a child. Yo

ZARA'S POVHovering outside his study door, my shaking hand toyed over the handle. My heart ran a mile a minute inside my chest and my palms clutched the voice recorders hard enough to leave bruises. Now, it all weighed upon me-the secrets, the lies, the truth. Yet I just have to find out.I took a deep breath, feeling my chest start to quake as I reached for the cold door handle and slipped silently inside Kai's study. It was empty, but the slightest hint of his cologne hung in the air. As it usually was, the room was neat, everything in its place, nothing out of order. I went right to his desk, not trying to feel one bit guilty, knelt down, and pushed the recorder underneath. My hands shook when trying to clip it in and I made sure that it was connected to my phone.I whirled and ran backward, with my heart pounding in my chest. This was wrong, yet necessary. I could still hear Jacob's voice in my head. ‘You deserve the truth.’I turned and exited the study as quickly as I entered,

ZARA'S P.O.V.The sunlight streaming through the large dining room windows was too warm, too bright. I sat across from Kai, my eyes fixed on the breakfast laid out before us, but unable to eat a single thing. My head still reeled from the conversation I'd overheard the night before, that dark and horrifying truth about the way my mother had been murdered. The man opposite me, my husband, the man I've grown to love, had been a part of her death. And Jacob was next.I took a deep, hard breath and fought hard to go numb, push all my anger, my sadness, my fear inside. Kai didn't know what I'd heard. Not yet. I wasn't ready for that kind of confrontation.“Zara," Kai's voice pulled me back to reality. He was smiling at me, that disarming smile he always seemed to hold up as his defense. My skin crawled now. How could he even look at me like that, as if he hasn't ripped my world in two?"Hm?" I muttered, barely able to lift my gaze to his."You've been going out quite frequently lately," he

ZARA'S POV I sat on the bed and stared into the report that I just received from the hospital. It was it. Jacob was my biological father. Not that this was news to me anymore, for everything that I had heard over the past two weeks had pointed in that direction. Yet, I had spent the better part of my life in a lie amalgamating with those very people I was supposed to trust. Now, I know the truth.I had recordings, evidence of every whispered conversation, every shady deal between Kai and my so-called father, Mr. Klein, even Mrs. Adler, Kai's mother; they were all involved, deeper than I could have ever imagined. My mother's murder, the illegal operations running beneath Kai's company, it all connected. And I was right in the middle of it.Kai, though. Kai had been sweet. Too sweet. More presents, more cuddles. Each touch of his hand, each kiss only seemed to pull that knot in my stomach tighter. He was trying to make me feel secure, trying to make me to believe nothing was wrong. I