My Alpha Husband Forgot I Was The Blackridge Reaper Chapter 02
His Foster Sister Moves In
I married Adrian two weeks later.
I told myself I was honoring my mother’s last wish.
I was giving someone a chance.
For the first three days, Adrian behaved like the perfect husband.
He joined me for breakfast. He spoke politely to the staff. He even made my coffee himself.
On the fourth day, Ivy arrived with three SUVs full of luggage.
She stood outside the gates of my private estate and shouted orders at my staff as if she owned them.
“Adrian said I’m moving in. He wants me close so we can take care of each other.”
The guards heard her from the other end of the driveway.
She chose the east wing.
It was the second-best section of the house, with six bedrooms, a private sitting room, and a balcony overlooking the lake.
Emma and the rest of my personal staff used those rooms.
I watched from an upstairs window as Ivy ordered them to move their things.
Emma’s face went white.
“Miss Halston, this is your estate. It belongs to you, not the Hale family. She can’t just move in.”
“She can because Adrian gave her permission,” I said.
Adrian’s car appeared less than ten minutes later.
He walked inside wearing the same calm smile he always used whenever he wanted an unreasonable demand to sound respectable.
“Ivy has been with my family since she was nine,” he said. “She isn’t used to living alone. Let her stay in the east wing. She won’t bother you.”
“No.”
His smile tightened.
“Her luggage is already inside. Forcing her to leave now would humiliate her.”
“Then you should have asked before bringing it here.”
“Scarlett.”
His voice stayed soft, but his scent turned sharp.
“People already think the Alpha’s daughter looks down on everyone else. What will the pack say if you throw out a young female with nowhere to go?”
There it was.
He was not asking me to help Ivy.
He was using my father’s position to force me.
I held his gaze for three seconds.
“Fine.”
Emma stopped breathing behind me.
I turned and walked back to my rooms.
By the end of the week, my estate no longer felt like mine.
Ivy complained that the chef’s food was bland, so she replaced him with one Adrian sent from the Hale house.
She hated the white roses my mother had planted, so she ordered the gardeners to tear them out and replace them with bright purple flowers.
Pack custom requires everyone living under my roof to acknowledge me as the Halston heiress.
Ivy never lowered her head.
No one corrected her.
Adrian had already warned the staff.
“She’s young. Be patient with her.”
He always said she was young.
She was nineteen, not nine.
Old enough to move into another female’s home.
Old enough to take over her rooms.
Old enough to know shame.
Now, one week into my marriage, I wait alone in my study.
The clock strikes midnight.
The door opens without a sound.
Knox Reed steps inside.
I have not called for him in ten years, but he looks almost the same.
Broad shoulders. Dark hair. A hard face that gives nothing away.
He wears black and carries a pistol beneath his jacket.
Knox is the captain of the Twelve Enforcers my mother left to me.
When I locked away my guns, he took his men into the shadows with him.
For ten years, he has stayed out of my sight.
For ten years, he has remained within thirty paces of me.
Knox drops to one knee and lowers his head.
“Miss Halston.”
His voice is exactly as I remember it.
“At your command.”
“Do you still have your men?”
“All twelve.”
“It’s been ten years. Have their weapons rusted?”
Knox raises his eyes to mine.
“Your guns never rust.”
Something inside my chest settles.
Not my anger.
Something colder.
“I’m not ready to use them yet.”
“Then give me your orders.”
“Two things.”
He waits.
“First, find out who Ivy Lane really is. I want her parents, her childhood, and the reason the Hales took her in.”
“Understood.”
“Second, find out what she is to Adrian.”
Knox’s expression does not change.
“His foster sister?”
“That’s what they call it.”
He understands immediately.
“I’ll bring you proof.”
Knox rises and disappears through the door.
Moonlight falls across the empty chair in front of me.
Mom, I am still trying.
I put down my gun. I gave Adrian a chance. I let Ivy walk into my home, and she treats my kindness like surrender.
But people do not respect mercy when they think it comes from weakness.
They test it.
And sooner or later, they learn what it costs.