Content Warning

Hidden Bonds is a dark romance featuring mature themes, emotional trauma, psychological tension, and morally complex relationships. This story includes scenes involving abuse (emotional and physical), toxic family dynamics, and slow-burn romantic tension that may be unsettling to some readers.

Please read with care.

Recommended for mature audiences (18+).

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Hidden Bonds

Part 1: Secret Family of My Father 

Chapter 1 – Nora 

November 14

'This was never going to work.'

It’s not even been an hour and I still don’t know what to feel.  

How should I react? My dad got married to someone else and I only found out a month ago. Now I’m here, in their house, unpacking my life into a room that doesn’t feel mine, waiting to be introduced to my so-called “brother.”  

Stepbrother, technically. There’s no blood between us, but the word still leaves a weird taste in my mouth.  

The first time I found out, I wasn’t angry. Not exactly. Just numb.  

My dad didn’t tell me. That’s what hurt the most.  

While I was finishing my degree overseas, he got remarried, settled into this whole new life, and kept it hidden from me like I was some distant relative who didn’t need to know. I should’ve expected it. He’s always had a way of compartmentalizing emotions, filing people into little boxes and only opening them when convenient.  

Mom never did that. She raised me on her own, no complaints. No guilt-trips. Just quiet resilience. She never said she sacrificed her future for me, but I saw it in the way she never dated, never traveled, never put herself first.  

Which is why I finally convinced her to go on that cruise trip. She needed to get away. She deserved something that was hers.  

Of course, she doesn’t know I’m here.  

Telling her would've made her feel like she failed, and this? This whole secret-marriage-to-a-woman-I’ve-never-met situation? That’s a mess I decided to walk into alone.  

My pen hovers over the page.  

I don’t know what to write. There are too many things I could say, and none of them would make me feel better.  

Then I hear it..

A soft thud outside the room. Footsteps.  

I glance at the clock. Too late for guests.  

“Hello?” I call out.  

No response.  

My fingers pause over the journal. I push back from the desk and open the door.

Standing just a few feet away is a guy. Tall, lean but muscular, wearing loose sweatpants and a faded t-shirt like he just finished working out.. or maybe just woke up. His curls are damp, and there’s a water bottle in his hand.  

He stops mid-step when he sees me. His expression is unreadable, but his body language says it all. Annoyance. 

“You’re not Elise,” he mutters.

I blink, caught off guard. “No. I’m not.”  

A long silence stretches between us. He stares, as if waiting for me to explain why I exist.  

I match his gaze, trying not to shrink under it. “I’m... his daughter.”  

I intentionally emphasized the ‘his’ just enough for him to understand I meant my dad.

There’s a flicker of recognition, then his jaw clenches.  

“Of course,” he says flatly. “Right.”  

He starts to walk past me.  

That’s it?  

“Sorry,” I call out, sharper than I intend. “Did I interrupt something? I didn’t realize existing here would be so inconvenient.”  

He stops, turns slightly. His brows raise, just a little. “You didn’t interrupt. You just surprised me.”  

“Seems like the whole situation surprises people,” I say, folding my arms.  

He doesn’t answer. Just studies me for a moment. Then, with a scoff that could mean anything, he keeps walking.  

“Nice talk,” I mumble under my breath and close the door with a quiet slam.

Back at my desk, I stare at the open page of my journal. My fingers tighten around the pen.  

That was him. Axton.  

So far? He’s exactly what I expected. Condescending. Cold. Zero interest in welcoming me.  

But fine. I wasn’t planning to play the nice-girl card anyway.  

If he wants to act like I don’t belong here, that’s his problem. I’m not going to beg for space. I’m not going to fight for it, either.  

I’ll take it.  

I scribble the words across the page,

This was never going to work.

And that’s fine.

Because I’m not here to please anyone.