Novelas de Sarah Richard

Pressure settled heavily over Cross Enterprises, thick as an unspoken accusation. Elena felt it the moment she stepped into the building, the air buzzing with whispers that stopped the instant she passed. Employees smiled too quickly, avoided her eyes, pretended nothing was wrong. Everyone knew something was coming. No one knew how bad it would be.She tightened her grip on her bag and walked on.Since the night Vivienne appeared in the study, sleep had become shallow and unreliable. Fears no longer waited politely in the dark. They followed her into daylight, into meetings, into every quiet moment where her thoughts had room to wander.Damian had barely spoken to her since.Not from anger. From distance.That hurt more.Elena reached the executive floor just as the elevator doors slid open again. Julian Crane stepped out, perfectly composed in a tailored suit, his smile sharp enough to cut glass. He looked pleased, which immediately told her this encounter was no coincidence.“Elena,

Restlessness followed Elena through the quiet corridors of the Cross mansion, clinging to her like a second skin. Sleep had refused her, no matter how long she lay staring at the ceiling, listening to the muted hum of the house that once felt like safety and now felt like a waiting storm.Footsteps echoed faintly somewhere below. Too deliberate to be a servant. Too late to be routine.Her fingers tightened around the silk robe at her waist as she paused near the staircase, heart ticking faster, sharper. Ever since the poisoned rumor surfaced, everything had felt brittle—like one wrong word could shatter what remained of her marriage.Voices drifted upward.“…can’t let her find out yet,” a man murmured.Elena froze.Damian’s voice followed, low, controlled, but threaded with something dangerously close to fear. “That option is gone. She already suspects.”Suspects what?She leaned closer, breath shallow, the banister cold beneath her palm.Adrian spoke again, quieter now. “Marcus is pu

Unease settled into the apartment long before either of them spoke.Elena stood by the window this time, arms folded tightly across her chest as if holding herself together required constant effort. Outside, traffic moved with indifferent purpose, unaware of how close everything inside this penthouse was to breaking apart.Damian watched her reflection in the glass. She hadn’t looked at him since dawn.“I’m holding the press conference at noon,” he said quietly.She didn’t turn. “I know.”“I’ll deny the rumors. All of them.”Her lips pressed into a thin line. “Words don’t erase damage.”“They stop it from spreading.”“Sometimes,” she replied. “Sometimes they just confirm what people already want to believe.”Damian moved closer, careful not to crowd her. “You don’t trust me.”Elena finally turned, eyes sharp with exhaustion. “I don’t know where I stand with you.”That hurt more than she intended, and she saw it land.“You stand with me,” he said firmly. “That hasn’t changed.”“But it

Silence pressed against Elena’s ears as the car door shut behind her, sealing her inside the narrow space like a held breath that refused to release.The city blurred past the window, lights smearing into long streaks of white and gold. Every vibration of her phone felt heavier than the last, even when it didn’t ring. Damian sat beside her, gaze fixed forward, hands folded tightly in his lap as though holding himself together required effort.Neither of them spoke.That hurt more than the shouting outside Cross Enterprises, more than the accusations, more than the headlines still burning behind her eyes.Silence meant distance.Elena broke first. “They didn’t even let you defend me.”Damian exhaled slowly. “If I had, it would’ve escalated.”Her fingers curled into the fabric of her coat. “So you stayed quiet.”“I stayed strategic.”The words landed wrong.She turned to him, searching his face. “This isn’t just strategy anymore. They’re dragging my name through the dirt. They’re callin

Pressure wrapped around Elena’s chest as the elevator doors slid shut behind them, sealing out the chaos of flashing cameras and shouting reporters.The car ascended in silence.Damian stood beside her, shoulders rigid, expression carved from stone. His phone vibrated endlessly in his hand, ignored. For the first time since she had met him, the unshakable CEO looked like a man bracing against a collapsing world.“Say something,” Elena whispered.His jaw flexed. “If I speak now, I might say the wrong thing.”The elevator chimed.The executive floor of Cross Enterprises felt unfamiliar—tense, hushed, alive with fear. Assistants whispered behind desks. Screens on the walls replayed the same headline on a merciless loop.CROSS ENTERPRISES UNDER INVESTIGATION: CEO AT CENTER OF STORMElena’s stomach tightened.Adrian emerged from a side corridor, face pale but determined. “Board members are assembling. They want answers.”Damian nodded once. “They’ll get them.”As they walked toward the con

Unease lingered in Elena’s chest as the car rolled through the quiet streets, the city lights blurring past the window like fractured thoughts she couldn’t piece together.No one spoke.Damian sat rigid beside her, his jaw clenched, hands folded as if holding himself together by force alone. Adrian drove with focused precision, eyes flicking to the rearview mirror more often than necessary.“What exactly does Marcus mean by phase two?” Elena finally asked, breaking the silence.Adrian exhaled slowly. “Acceleration.”Damian turned sharply. “Of what?”“Exposure,” Adrian replied. “Pressure. Public destabilization.”Elena’s pulse quickened. “You mean scandals.”“Yes,” Adrian said. “Manufactured ones.”The car stopped at a private underground entrance beneath a nondescript office building. Adrian keyed in a code and guided them inside.“This isn’t Cross Enterprises,” Elena said.“It’s safer,” Adrian replied. “Off-grid servers. No official ties.”They stepped into a secure room lined with s

The dawn bled across the horizon, pale and uncertain, as if the sun itself feared to witness the last breaths of a kingdom caught between ruin and rebirth. The battlefield below Dawnspire lay quiet now, strewn with broken banners and shattered steel, the echoes of clashing armies fading into silence.Serenya Vale stood atop the marble steps of the ruined citadel, her chest rising and falling as though every breath was drawn from the ashes of all that had been lost. Her hair, once bound and hidden under disguises, now tumbled free—flame-gold strands glinting in the morning light, the mark of her bloodline finally revealed for all to see.Around her, knights, rebels, and remnants of the court gathered in hushed awe. The truth no longer hid behind veils or shadows. The secret heiress of the Vale stood before them—crowned not in gold, but in the weight of sacrifice.Kaelen Draven moved closer, his dark cloak torn and bloodstained, the steel of his blade catching the first rays of sunlight

Dawn crept slowly, painting the horizon with pale hues of silver and rose. Yet within Dawnspire’s fractured walls, the morning brought no peace. The fortress still echoed with the screams of the wounded, and the stones still bled with the memory of shadow and fire.Serenya awoke to the weight of silence. Her body ached, her chest felt hollow, and when her eyes opened, she realized she was lying in the high chamber of the keep. A thin veil of starlight lingered on her skin, fading with every breath.Kaelen sat at her bedside, his dark cloak discarded, his eyes shadowed with exhaustion. He had not slept. When she stirred, his hand clasped hers instantly, as though afraid she would vanish again.“You came back,” he whispered. His voice carried both relief and disbelief.Serenya tried to speak, but only a rasp came. “I thought… I was gone.”“You almost were.” Kaelen’s jaw tightened. “You burned so brightly I thought the stars themselves would swallow you. But you held on.”Held on—but onl

The night sky was ablaze with silver fire. Beyond the walls of Dawnspire, where banners lay torn in the mud and the scent of iron clung heavy to the air, Serenya stood at the balcony of the shattered throne room. The moonlight spilled over her like a second crown, but her eyes were fixed on the horizon—where shadows writhed like a living tide.The war was not finished.Kaelen’s cloak brushed against her arm as he stepped closer, his dark hair plastered with sweat and blood. He had fought all day—on the walls, in the courtyards, at her side—and yet his gaze held a quiet steadiness.“They will come again before dawn,” he said, voice low.Serenya tightened her grip on the stone rail. “We cannot withstand another assault. Not with the gates splintered, not with half our guard lying in the ashes of the courtyard.”Kaelen turned to her fully, the faint scar that cut across his jaw catching the light. “That is why it ends tonight. Shadows and stars—the prophecy was always about this hour.”T

Dawn spilled across the sky in strokes of gold and crimson, as if the heavens themselves had painted the horizon with fire and hope. For the first time in years, the banners of the Vale dynasty rose over Dawnspire’s highest tower—Serenya’s crest, silver and starlit, gleamed against the morning light.Yet, despite the triumph, Serenya felt the weight of silence pressing upon her heart. The throne hall was rebuilt, but her soul remained fractured. Kaelen was gone, his oath shattered in the eyes of her people, though in the shadows of her memory she still clung to the belief that his betrayal carried deeper meaning.The council gathered beneath the vaulted ceiling, their voices filled with the business of a kingdom clawing its way back to life. Food supplies were measured, alliances brokered, soldiers sworn anew. But as Serenya sat upon the throne—her throne—she found herself lost in thought.Could a kingdom truly be reborn when her heart was still broken?Eloria Thorne stepped forward,

The storm had not passed—it had only grown heavier. The skies wept as though mourning the unraveling of every promise made beneath them.Serenya stood on the ruined battlements of Dawnspire, her cloak whipping wildly around her as lightning forked across the horizon. The fires of war still smoldered in the valleys below, villages blackened by the clash between crown and rebellion. But it was not the destruction that hollowed her chest—it was the silence of a vow broken.Kaelen had not come back.He had sworn before her, under starlight and shadow, that no matter what trials were placed in their path, his sword and his heart would never falter. Yet, in the final confrontation with Thalric Veynor, the ruthless duke who had hungered for the throne, Kaelen had made a choice that still cut deeper than any blade.He had left her side.Serenya’s hand tightened around the silver crest she wore, the token Kaelen had pressed into her palm the night he confessed his love. Its edges dug into her

Chapter 95Heiress CrownedMorning broke across Dawnspire with a sky painted in molten gold and violet, as if the heavens themselves had been scorched by the fire of the Starforge. The air carried the scent of ash and rain, a mingling of ruin and renewal. Serenya Vale stood at the heart of the shattered courtyard, her cloak torn, her hair loose and glinting with the faint shimmer of starlight that had not faded since the forge claimed her.Every soldier, every wounded warrior, every trembling villager gazed upon her with awe. They did not see the hidden girl who had lived in shadows. They saw the heir unveiled, the dawn their stories had whispered into being.Yet beneath the crown of fire that glowed faintly upon her brow, Serenya’s chest ached with the weight of what lay ahead. A crown was not victory—it was burden, sacrifice, and the promise of endless battles yet to come.Kaelen stood beside her, his sword grounded but his posture tense, ever the shield between her and the world. H