My Fiancé Went Back to His First Love—So I Married Her Billionaire Fiancé Instead
Chapter 10
Emily stepped away from her father.
“You planned this?”
Thomas nodded weakly.
“I knew Richard would come for you.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you were safer believing I was dead.”
Emily shook her head.
“You let me live my entire life without you.”
“I thought it was the only way.”
She cried.
“I needed my father.”
“I know.”
Alexander remained quiet.
Thomas looked at him.
“You kept your promise.”
Alexander frowned.
“What promise?”
Thomas smiled.
“Your father made you one.”
Alexander froze.
“My father?”
Thomas nodded.
“Years ago, he promised he would protect Emily if anything happened to me.”
Emily stared.
She turned toward Alexander.
“You knew me before we met?”
“No.”
Thomas smiled.
“Not personally.”
Then he explained.
Emily’s father had worked closely with Alexander’s father.
Together, they discovered Project Horizon.
The organization was secretly manipulating mergers, buying distressed businesses, moving money, and controlling corporate leaders through blackmail.
Richard joined them.
Then betrayed them.
He wanted complete control.
Thomas tried to stop him.
Alexander’s father helped hide the evidence.
But eventually, Thomas had to disappear.
Before he did, he established Emily’s trust.
And he arranged for Alexander to inherit a role in protecting it.
“When I met you,” Alexander said quietly, “I didn’t know any of this.”
Thomas nodded.
“I wanted you to make your own choice.”
Emily looked at her father.
“Then why did you leave me with nothing?”
Thomas sighed.
“I didn’t.”
“The accounts.”
“Frozen.”
“The properties.”
“Protected.”
“The trust.”
“Hidden.”
Emily finally understood.
She had never lost everything.
Everything had been moved.
Protected.
And Alexander knew where much of it was.
She looked at her husband.
“You knew?”
“Not all of it.”
“But enough.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want your relationship with me to be based on money.”
Emily’s eyes filled with tears.
She realized what he had done.
He could have told her from the beginning.
He didn’t.
Because he wanted her to choose him without knowing what she possessed.
Unlike Jacob.
Unlike Victoria.
Unlike everyone who had approached her because of money.
Alexander wanted her without the fortune.
Her father continued.
“Richard is planning one final move.”
“What?”
“He wants the merger.”
“We stopped it.”
“No.”
Thomas shook his head.
“He wants Emily to sign the final transfer.”
“I won’t.”
“He knows.”
Thomas looked frightened.
“He will force you.”
Alexander stood.
“Not if I stop him.”
Thomas looked at him.
“You understand the risk.”
“I do.”
Emily looked between them.
“What risk?”
Thomas said quietly:
“Richard has people everywhere.”
Then the clinic lights went out.
Emily froze.
Emergency alarms began sounding.
Someone shouted in the hallway.
Alexander immediately moved in front of her.
“Stay behind me.”
Doors slammed.
Footsteps approached.
Thomas whispered:
“He found us.”
The room door opened.
A man entered.
Daniel Ross.
Emily stared.
“You.”
Daniel smiled.
“Hello, Mrs. Blackwell.”
Alexander stepped forward.
“What do you want?”
Daniel held up a phone.
“A message from Richard.”
He pressed play.
Richard’s voice filled the room.
“You have twelve hours.”
Emily’s heart pounded.
“Until what?”
The message continued.
“Sign the merger agreement, or everyone you love disappears.”
The phone went silent.
Daniel smiled.
Then he said:
“Starting with your father.”
