Forced to Marry the Guard, He Now Regrets It

I was the eldest daughter of the Carter family, yet the man I was forced to marry was a crippled security guard.

It was all because my childhood fiancé, Daniel Brooks, threatened my father with thirty years of future business cooperation, coercing him into agreeing to this ridiculous marriage.

When my father went to confront him, Daniel only gave a careless smile.

“I’ve been in love with Emma Carter for ten years, of course I’ll marry only her. But before marriage she publicly humiliated Chloe Miller, mocking her background—that was truly thoughtless.”

“It’s just a fake wedding anyway, considered compensation for Chloe. Her health isn’t good, and we can’t let her stay upset.”

Chloe Miller was the daughter of a maid in the Brooks family. At our engagement banquet, she clung to Daniel, hugging him. When I reminded her to mind the occasion and her identity, Daniel retaliated by humiliating me with this marriage.

But the Carters were truly in crisis, and the Brooks family’s actions nearly destroyed three generations of my family’s efforts. My grandfather was so enraged he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.

Later, I quietly held a wedding.

Yet when I became the laughingstock of New York high society just as Daniel wished, he suddenly went mad seeing the brightly colored U.S. marriage certificate in my hand.

“Dad, Mom, I’m marrying him.”

I pressed my palm against the glass of the emergency room, staring at my grandfather’s lifeless figure on the bed, despair tightening around my chest.

“Emma, don’t say such nonsense. Even if it ruins Carter Group, I will never let you marry a security guard Daniel pointed at on a whim!”

My father stood beside me, eyes bloodshot. The constant blows seemed to have aged him ten years overnight, strands of white appearing at his temples.

Everyone in our circle knew the Brooks and Carter families had been close for generations. Daniel and I had grown up together, and people had long awaited the day we wed.

But Daniel would rather gamble thirty years of cooperation between our families than allow me to marry anyone else—he insisted I wed a crippled guard.

The gossip in the social circle swirled like a storm:

“It must be Emma who wronged Daniel. That girl’s notorious, I heard she’s had several abortions. Maybe she even made him raise another man’s child.”

“Exactly, otherwise why would the Brooks family disregard decades of ties and leverage thirty years of deals? Clearly, Daniel must have his own grievances.”

“I heard the Carter patriarch’s in the hospital—driven there by that shameless daughter.”

In a single day, my reputation was ruined. I became branded as nothing more than a call girl.

My phone filled with lewd messages from men inviting me out, and all who had once befriended me avoided me like the plague. Even when my parents went out to secure investments and partnerships, they were ridiculed and pointed at.

At last, I gave in and asked Daniel for a meeting. Instead, he invited me to an amusement park he’d spent a billion dollars building.

“This is for Chloe,” he said, lifting the pouting girl from the carousel. “She’s always been like a child. After we’re married, if you want to come, you’ll need Chloe’s permission.”

After ten years of dating, Daniel had spoken to me mostly of business. I once thought all men were simply that dull. But now, seeing him spend a fortune to build an amusement park just to please another girl, a bitter ache spread through my chest.

He gently comforted Chloe, who shrank back whenever she saw me, his expression tender and indulgent—yet his tone toward me turned colder.

“Emma, Chloe was kidnapped as a child saving me. Since then, she’s never been able to leave my side. Yes, we’re close, but that doesn’t justify you lashing out at her.”

“She’s innocent, childlike. It’s only your filthy heart that twists everything.”

He spoke with righteous indignation, but I found his words absurd and laughable.

They were supposed to be adopted siblings in name only, yet they kissed and embraced before my eyes, their actions shameless. And when I dared say, “Mind your identity,” it became “verbal abuse.”

“You could have spoken to me beforehand. Why did you have to threaten the Carter family with thirty years of cooperation? Don’t you understand what state my family is in right now…”