The Davenport Debt

~BECKETT~

Daphne’s fingers traced the glossy edge of an open bridal magazine. Her soft smile illuminated the spacious living room of my downtown apartment. I sat beside her on the leather sofa, watching her circle photos of flowing white dresses, towering floral centerpieces, and grand tiered cakes with a black marker. She had been sitting there for the past hour, lost in a world of wedding planning while I simply enjoyed the peace of having her near me.

"I still think the outdoor ceremony by the lake would be perfect. We have waited this long, and I want it to feel like us. I want something extravagant. I want everyone in the city talking about it." She glanced up at me, her eyes shining with pure excitement.

I reached over and tucked a stray strand of her light brown hair behind her ear.

Daphne Winslow was my childhood sweetheart. She was the only woman on earth who knew every single version of me. She stood by the reckless teenager fighting in junior leagues, she supported the hungry rookie trying to prove his worth on the ice, and she loved the man who had finally clawed his way to becoming the captain of the Frostpeak Wolves. Marrying her had always been my plan. It was the only plan I ever cared about.

"Whatever you want is fine with me. As long as you are the one walking toward me down that aisle, I do not care where it happens or how many people are there." I leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips.

The heavy front door of my apartment clicked and swung open without a knock.

"Beckett. I need a word." My father’s harsh voice echoed into the quiet living room.

Daphne pulled back away from me. She recognized that sharp tone immediately. Lawrence Calloway never showed up unannounced unless a disaster had struck. She gave my hand a gentle squeeze, gathered her bridal magazines into a neat stack, and quietly slipped out of the room toward the hallway. She did not need to be asked twice.

I pushed myself off the couch and stood to face him. He looked much more stressed than usual. His broad shoulders were stiff, and his jaw was locked in a rigid, unforgiving line.

"What is going on?" I asked.

"It is time we repay the Davenport family for everything they have done for us." He refused to sit down, pacing a short line across my living room rug.

I frowned, crossing my arms over my chest. I knew that name well. My father never let me forget it. "What are you talking about?"

"This weekend, you will marry Harrison Davenport's daughter. There will be no delays." His voice carried zero emotion.

The words did not process in my brain at first. I stared at him, waiting for the punchline to drop. I waited for him to crack a smile and tell me it was a twisted test of my loyalty to the family business. The silence stretched across the room. The joke never came.

"You have got to be kidding me. Tell me this is a joke." I dropped my arms to my sides.

"No. This is reality. The Davenports are the sole reason this family has anything." His eyes met mine without a hint of hesitation or warmth. "They are the reason we went from struggling to pay our basic bills to becoming millionaires overnight. They are the reason you are on the path to becoming a billionaire through the corporate opportunities Davenport Athletics opened for you. Harrison Davenport funded my business when no one else would look my way. He used his untouchable corporate influence to get you onto the Wolves, and he kept doors open that would have stayed firmly shut. We owe them our entire lives. Debts like this do not stay unpaid forever."

My pulse pounded in my ears, drowning out the ambient hum of the city traffic below my window.

"What the hell does that have to do with me marrying his daughter?" I stepped closer to him, my temper flaring.

"It settles everything. Publicly and permanently."

I dragged a hand through my hair, pacing across the hardwood floor before turning back to face him.

"And what happens to Daphne? We have been planning our life together since we were teenagers. She is in the other room planning our wedding right now."

"You end it."

The flat delivery felt like a physical punch to my gut.

"I love her. I have loved her my entire life. You expect me to just throw the woman I love away because you owe a financial debt?"

A brief flash of regret flickered across my father’s stoic expression, but he buried it just as fast.

"I am sorry, son. My hands are tied here. This is bigger than what either of us wants, and you have a duty to this family to see this through."

Anger ripped through my chest so fast and hot that I clenched my fists to keep from punching a hole straight through the drywall.

"You made a deal with my future without even asking me. You sold my life." I raised my voice.

"Watch your mouth." He snapped back.

"How can I stay quiet about this? I have done everything this family needed. I bled for my team on the ice. I broke bones to secure those championships. I became the captain they wanted me to be. Their corporate money is not the only reason I made it to the top. I earned my spot. And now you are telling me I have to marry a total stranger and destroy the one relationship I never wanted to end?"

He did not answer my question. He just looked at me with a tired, empty expression. It was the same look he gave his board members when a ruthless corporate decision had already been finalized and signatures were on the dotted line.

"This weekend. Be ready." He turned around and walked out the front door without another glance in my direction.

The heavy oak door slammed shut. The silence he left behind in my apartment was deafening. I stood frozen in the center of the living room, trying to process the sheer magnitude of what had just happened. My entire life had been rewritten in a three-minute conversation.

Daphne appeared in the hallway doorway a few moments later. Her slender arms were wrapped tightly around her waist, and her dark eyes searched my face for answers.

"What was that about? I heard a lot of shouting." She spoke with a quiet, cautious tone.

I stared at the woman I loved. I searched my racing brain for a gentle way to deliver the crushing blow, but there was no way to soften this kind of news.

"I have to marry someone else." The words tasted like toxic ash in my mouth.

Her face went deathly still. "What did you just say?"

"I have to marry Harrison Davenport's daughter. This weekend. My father just informed me the decision has already been made."

The vibrant color drained out from her cheeks. Her hands dropped to her sides in shock.

"And you agreed to this?"

"I did not get a choice in the matter, Daphne."

"There is always a choice! How could you even let him make that decision for you?" Her voice cracked, tears welling in her eyes. "We have been together for years, Beckett. We are planning our wedding right now. You are just going to marry some girl because your father commanded it?"

I closed the distance between us and grabbed both of her hands. Her skin was freezing cold.

"I do not want her. I want you. I have only ever wanted you." I gripped her fingers, my voice rough with rising desperation. "But if I refuse to do this, it does not just hurt me. It destroys everything my father built from the ground up. It destroys everything the Davenports made possible for us. They own us. I cannot walk away from this arranged marriage without burning my entire family to the ground."

A single tear slipped down her pale cheek, but the fierce anger in her eyes refused to fade.

"So I am just supposed to accept that you are going to be someone else's husband by Sunday?"

I cupped her face with both hands, forcing her to look up and meet my intense gaze.

"Listen to me. I will do everything in my power to make that girl hate me. I will be cold. I will be distant. I will be impossible to live with. I will give her every single reason to want out of this fake marriage as fast as humanly possible. The second she files the divorce papers, it is over. I will come straight back to you. I swear it on my life."

Her bottom lip trembled under my thumb.

"And until then? What am I supposed to do while you are playing the sweet, devoted husband with another woman in front of the press?"

"Stay with me. I will not let go of you." I kept my hands pressed firmly against her cheeks. "I do not care what the legal papers say. I do not care what the public thinks of this arrangement. You are the one I love. You are the one I am coming back to. I will keep you close, and I will still see you. Nothing about how I feel changes just because I am forced to wear a ring on my hand."

Daphne stared at me for a long, painful minute. I watched the violent war raging behind her eyes. She was torn between agonizing heartbreak and the fierce loyalty that had always bonded us together since we were kids.

"You are asking me to share you." She whispered.

"I am asking you to trust that this is temporary. I will make her want out. I will end this as fast as I can. Just do not leave me while I do it." I begged.

She did not say yes right away. She also did not pull her face away from my touch. She took a shuddering breath, her gaze hardening with a final ultimatum.

"Okay. But I am only giving you one month. You have exactly one month to get rid of her. Make her leave, Beckett."

Everything I had built my future on had just been ripped apart and shredded without my consent.

Hadley Davenport.

I did not know her. I did not care what she looked like, and I did not care what she wanted out of life. I already resented the very sound of her name. She was a heavy iron chain locked around my neck, dragging me away from the only future I ever wanted.

If I had to marry this stranger to satisfy an ancient debt and protect everything my family owned, then I would make damn sure she regretted every single second of being tied to me. I would turn her life into a living nightmare until she begged her powerful father for an escape.