HE MARRIED HER FOR REVENGE

Chapter 1 — The Bride He Swore to Destroy

The night Alexander Blackwood married Isabella Hart, he made himself a promise.

He would destroy her family, take everything her father had built, and make the Hart name suffer the same humiliation his own family had endured.

And Isabella would be the first piece of his revenge.

The wedding took place in a grand cathedral overlooking the city. Crystal chandeliers glittered above hundreds of wealthy guests, while cameras flashed as the most feared billionaire in the country slipped a diamond ring onto his bride’s trembling finger.

Isabella looked breathtaking in her white gown, but there was sadness behind her smile.

She had never dreamed of marrying a man who barely looked at her.

Yet when her father announced that the marriage was necessary to save their family business from bankruptcy, Isabella had agreed. She believed Alexander was a cold, distant man who simply did not know how to love.

She had no idea he had chosen her for a far crueler reason.

As the priest declared them husband and wife, Alexander leaned toward her ear.

“Congratulations, Mrs. Blackwood,” he whispered. “Your family has just handed me the perfect opportunity to destroy it.”

Isabella froze.

“What did you say?”

He smiled for the cameras, his hand resting firmly on her waist.

“Smile, darling. Everyone is watching.”

That night, Isabella discovered that her new husband had prepared a separate bedroom for her in his enormous mansion. There were no flowers, no tenderness, and no words of affection.

Only a folder placed neatly on her bedside table.

Inside were newspaper articles about the mysterious death of Alexander’s father fifteen years earlier.

Her blood ran cold when she saw the photograph on the first page.

Her own father stood beside the dead man just days before the tragedy.

Beneath the photograph, Alexander had written a single sentence.

“Your family stole my father’s life. Now I will take everything from yours.”

Isabella sank onto the edge of the bed, struggling to breathe.

She had never known what happened to Alexander’s father. Her own father had always refused to discuss the past, and whenever she asked questions, he would become furious.

But the final document in the folder shattered everything she thought she knew.

It was a confidential report bearing her father’s signature—and a handwritten note claiming that Isabella’s late mother had tried to expose the truth before she died.

Someone had deliberately buried the evidence.

Someone had made sure Isabella would never discover it.

The bedroom door suddenly opened.

Alexander stood in the doorway, his expression unreadable.

“Now you understand why I married you,” he said.

Isabella slowly lifted her head, tears shining in her eyes.

“If you hate my father so much, why punish me for what he did?”

For the first time that evening, Alexander hesitated.

He had prepared himself for her tears, her anger, even her desperate pleas for mercy.

He had not prepared himself for the quiet pain in her voice.

“Because,” he replied coldly, “you are a Hart.”

Isabella stood, clutching the report against her chest.

“Then perhaps you should investigate your enemy more carefully.”

His eyes narrowed.

“What does that mean?”

“It means I don’t know what my father did. But I know he lied to me about my mother’s death.” She swallowed hard. “And if he destroyed your family, I want the truth as much as you do.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Alexander had spent fifteen years building his empire, gathering evidence, and planning the perfect revenge. He had believed Isabella would be nothing more than a helpless pawn in his war against her father.

But as he watched her fight back her tears, something unfamiliar stirred inside him.

Doubt.

He turned away before she could notice.

“Don’t mistake this marriage for love,” he warned. “You will never have my heart.”

Isabella looked at the wedding ring on her finger.

“Don’t worry, Alexander. I never asked for it.”

Her words struck him harder than he expected.

He left without another word, unaware that the woman he had married to destroy was about to become the only person capable of uncovering the truth.

And neither of them knew that the real mastermind behind their families’ tragedy was still watching them.

Waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Because this marriage had never been part of a love story.

It had been the beginning of a war.

And before it ended, Alexander Blackwood would have to choose between the revenge he had lived for and the woman he had never meant to love.