Novels by Bil

Eira was looking up at her now, hands clasped under her chin. “Mommy, I’ll call you every day. Promise.”“I know, baby.”“And Gramma said we could bake and ride horses and...”“You won’t spoil her too much?” Vera asked Mrs. Fontaine, only half teasing.Mrs. Fontaine's eyes crinkled with warmth. “I’ll return her with only half the sugar she’ll demand, I swear.”Vera gave a soft laugh, but the smile never fully reached her eyes.Dorian stepped closer. “You’ve done more than enough on your own for six years. Let her have this break. Let yourself have one.”“I don’t need a break,” Vera said under her breath.Dorian’s eyes were steady. “Maybe not. But you deserve one anyway.”She looked down at Eira, who was still clutching her hand tightly, her smile full of hope and stars.How could she say no?How could she say I don’t trust the timing without sounding like she was reading too deeply into something?“Alright,” Vera said at last, brushing hair from Eira’s face. “You can go. But only for

Vera met her eyes, unsure if it was meant as a compliment or a calculated observation.“Raising Eira alone, keeping her safe all these years… You gave her a beautiful life. That much is clear.”Vera's defenses lowered slightly. “I did what I had to.”She nodded. “That’s what mothers do. Even when the world doesn’t give us the tools.”Dorian finally spoke. “Eira seems happy.”“She is,” Vera said softly. “She doesn’t know how much the world shifted this past week.”Mrs. Fontaine tilted her head, watching Vera with that knowing gaze that only older women perfected.“You’re in a difficult position,” she said gently. “Two men. One heart.”Vera stiffened. “I didn’t realize this visit came with an interrogation.”Mrs. Fontaine smiled kindly. “It’s not. I promise. Just a woman who’s lived long enough to know the weight of choices.”Vera looked away.Dorian moved to sit across from her, but kept his distance. “My mother wanted to see Eira. That’s all.”That wasn’t all.She could feel it in the

“I had my suspicions the moment Eira was born. She has his eyes.” His throat worked as he looked away again. “I ran a background check years ago. I saw the records. I knew who her father was.”“And yet you never told Vera?” she asked, her tone neutral.“She didn’t owe me an explanation. And I… I didn’t want to push her away.”Mrs. Fontaine's expression softened just a touch. “You’ve always had a generous heart, Dorian. Even when it was breaking.”He gave a quiet laugh with no humor in it. “It’s not just breaking now, Mother. It’s being ripped apart piece by piece.”She said nothing.“I gave her everything,” he whispered. “Space. Support. Love. Eira calls me ‘Daddy’ more than she ever called anyone else that. And now…”He swallowed hard. “Now the man who gave her up is back to take everything I built.”Mrs. Fontaine leaned forward, her tone still calm but threaded with steel. “You’re not just talking about Eira.”“No,” Dorian admitted. “I’m not.”She studied him for a long moment. “And

The jet engines hummed softly beneath the clouds, but Asher couldn’t hear a thing over the storm in his chest.He sat alone in the cabin of his private plane, the city growing smaller beneath him, disappearing in the wake of everything he was leaving behind, and everything he was finally ready to fight for.He had said what he needed to say to his mother.To Sarah.The war had officially begun.But this battle, this next one, it was the one that mattered most.Winning Vera back.Not as an entitled heir who expected forgiveness as a birthright.But as a man who had been broken by his own blindness, reshaped by regret, and who now carried the truth with reverence like a sacred offering.He reached into the breast pocket of his blazer and pulled out a small velvet box.Inside sat a ring.Not a cold diamond soaked in status.No.This one was different.The band was forged from white gold, thin, elegant, simple. The stone in the center wasn’t a diamond, but a yellow sapphire, soft and gold

Sarah tried again, stepping forward. “Please, Asher, let’s talk about this rationally. I was jealous. I made mistakes, but it’s not too late...”He cut her a look that could have frozen bone.“You’re lucky I don’t press charges.”She paled again.Asher turned back toward his mother, his tone final. “I’m going to fix what you broke. I’m going to fight for Vera. And I’m going to raise my daughter away from your poison.”Evelyn's voice was sharp now, brittle like glass. “You’d throw away everything? Your inheritance? Your place in this family, for her?”Asher looked her dead in the eye.“I already did. I just didn’t know it at the time.”Then he turned on his heel and walked out.This time, there was no one to stop him.No lies.No chains.Only the path forward.And for the first time in six years ,he was ready to burn down the world to reach her.The echo of Asher’s footsteps faded down the hallway like distant thunder.Sarah stood frozen in the sun drenched garden room, her heart still

“I’m not afraid of him,” Vera said slowly. “I’m afraid of hoping too much. Of getting hurt again.”Eira leaned into her side, small and warm and full of love. “I think he’s really sorry. And I think he loves you, Mommy.”Tears prickled behind Vera’s eyes.She closed them for a moment and pressed her lips to her daughter’s forehead. “Maybe he does.”“He said he’d come back soon.”“I know.”“And when he does, I’ll ask him to bring flowers for you.”Vera smiled against her daughter’s hair. “That would be nice.”They sat there together, curled up in silence, the weight of a child’s hope pressing against a mother’s cautious heart.Later, when Eira had drifted off to sleep, Vera sat alone by the window, the stars faint and scattered above the city skyline.Would she go with him?If he truly came back, if he fought for them, not just for Eira, but for her, could she open the door again?She’d walked away once because she had to.But now?Now the door was cracked.And she didn’t know if she w

Julian exhaled slowly, nodding. “I don’t want you to forget,” he murmured. “I just want you to let me make it right.”His fingers brushed over her knuckles, tentative, as if giving her the chance to pull away. But she didn’t. She let him hold her hands, let him be close.“I spent years blaming your father for what happened to mine,” Julian continued, his voice thick with emotion. “And maybe some of that blame was justified. But I made the mistake of thinking you were just another extension of him, that hurting you would somehow fix what was broken inside me.”A pained look crossed his face, regret etched into every feature. “But all I did was hurt the one person who had nothing to do with any of it. And I will never forgive myself for that.”Alexis swallowed the lump in her throat, her own regrets beginning to surface.She had tried to ignore the way her heart had ached in his absence. She had told herself she was better off without him, that his betrayal had severed the connection be

As they strolled beneath the Eiffel Tower, the golden glow of the city casting long shadows around them, Alexis felt an unfamiliar warmth settle in her chest. She had spent so long running, from her past, from Julian, from herself. But now, in this moment, it was as if time had slowed, allowing her to breathe, to truly take it all in.Julian didn’t rush her. He simply walked beside her, their fingers still loosely intertwined, as if he was afraid that if he held on too tightly, she would slip away.“Do you remember what you told me that night?” Julian asked softly.Alexis frowned slightly, searching her memory. “Which night?”“The night of the gala,” he clarified, glancing at her with a knowing look. “You told me that I was a mistake waiting to happen.”Alexis let out a small, breathy laugh. “That does sound like something I would say.”Julian’s lips curved into a smirk. “And you weren’t wrong.”Alexis tilted her head up, watching the soft glow of the tower above them. “It wasn’t just

Harrison Montgomery had always been a man of power, control, and strategy. He built an empire from the ground up, ensuring that his family never lacked anything. To him, emotions were liabilities, love was a distraction, and personal connections were just another battlefield where the strongest prevailed.And yet, as he stood by the large windows of his estate, watching his daughter through the glass as she sat in the garden, something in him shifted.Alexis was smiling. A real, genuine smile.For months, she had walked around with a guarded expression, a shadow of the confident, fierce woman he had raised. She had been betrayed, humiliated, and hurt in ways no father would ever want for his child. He had watched her hide her pain behind work, pretending she was fine, but he had known better.But now, this was different.She was laughing softly as she stared at her phone, a small, almost shy smile on her lips. Her fingers hovered over the screen, typing something before deleting it an

Julian answered on the first ring.“Alexis?” His voice was cautious, unsure.She swallowed hard, her grip on the phone tightening as she stood outside his childhood home. The wind rustled through the overgrown grass, carrying with it the echoes of the past she had just walked through.“I went to your house,” she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper.Silence.For a long moment, there was nothing but his breath on the other end of the line. When he finally spoke, his voice was rough, strained. “You didn’t have to do that.”“But I did,” she countered. “I had to see it. I had to understand.”A bitter chuckle escaped him. “And? Do you understand now? Do you finally see what your father did to me?”Her heart clenched at the raw pain in his voice.“I see everything, Julian,” she said softly. “The eviction notices, the empty cabinets… the house falling apart. You had nothing.”He exhaled shakily. “We had worse than nothing.”She closed her eyes, imagining a younger Julian standing in th

Julian sat in his car, gripping the steering wheel tightly. His heart still pounded in his chest, the image of Alexis standing in the doorway burned into his mind.She hadn’t told him to leave.She hadn’t slammed the door in his face.That had to mean something, didn’t it?He let out a heavy breath, resting his forehead against the wheel. He had spent so long fighting battles against Charlotte, against his mother, against the world… but this was the most important fight of all. The one for Alexis.And if waiting was what it took, then he would wait.He just prayed she would give him the chance to prove himself before it was too late.Julian knew better than to push.For the first time in his life, he was stepping back, not because he was giving up, but because he finally understood that love wasn’t something he could win like a business deal or a war. Alexis wasn’t a prize to be claimed. She was a woman who had been hurt, who had every right to doubt him, and if he truly wanted a futu

Alexis pressed the power button on her phone, silencing the vibration that followed Julian’s call. Her heart was pounding, her emotions tangled in a war between longing and self preservation. She had spent weeks convincing herself that she was done with him, that she had buried every last trace of love she had for him beneath the rubble of his betrayal.But then, there he was, standing in front of the entire world, stripping himself of his armor and baring his soul in a way she never thought he would. And now, she didn’t know what to do with the feelings clawing their way back to the surface.A knock at the door jolted her from her thoughts. Her breath caught. Had he come to see her? No, Julian wouldn’t be that reckless, would he?Slowly, she made her way to the door, her pulse racing. When she opened it, she wasn’t sure whether she felt relieved or disappointed to see Sophia standing there instead.“Can I come in?” Sophia asked softly, her eyes searching Alexis’ face.Alexis stepped