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CHAPTER 30
publish date:
2026-02-07 20:23:16
Latest chapter
Ashes Of His Regret Chapter 131
Esmeralda's POVDr Reeves… hmmm, he was the financial Expert, he is a compact man in his sixties with reading glasses he pushes up his nose every time he references a document, which is frequently, because his entire testimony is built on documents, numbers and different timelines. The language of forensic accounting that turns what was done to my father's company into columns and rows and percentage points.It is the least human part of the proceeding.It is also, in some ways, the most devastating.Because numbers don't have motivation. Numbers don't have a narrative that can be cross-examined or complicated or framed differently depending on who is asking the questions. Numbers are what they are.And what these numbers are is damning.*****Dr. Reeves speaks for forty minutes.He walks the court through the Morrison Manufacturing financials year by year, the genuine performance of the company before the interference began, and the engineered decline that followed. He identifies the
Ashes Of His Regret Chapter 130
Esmeralda's POVVivienne walks like she is counting something too.Not steps…she doesn't do it the way I do. It's something in her breathing. The particular rhythm of a person who has told herself a thing repeatedly until it became true enough to act on. I watched her do it once before, years ago, across a dinner table when Julian said something that required a response she hadn't prepared. She breathed, she organized and she answered.She is doing it now.Walking toward a witness stand.In a room full of people who know at least part of her story.She is doing it anyway.I watch her from my seat beside my attorney and I feel something that doesn't have a clean name,not quite pride, because she doesn't belong to me and her choices are her own. Something adjacent. The particular feeling of watching someone choose the harder right thing in real time.She sits.She smooths her jacket once.Then she is still.*****Adriana is gentle with her.That was by design… I know because we discuss
Ashes Of His Regret Chapter 129
Julian's POVI notice it immediately, the slight downward focus, the deliberate pace. Eleven steps from the plaintiff's table to the witness stand and she counts every one of them. It's a grounding technique. Something she learned somewhere, probably therapy, probably recently.She didn't used to need that.The woman I married walked into rooms like she owned them or didn't walk in at all. There was nothing deliberate about it… it was simply how she moved through the world. Unguarded. Open. Occupying space without calculation.The woman sitting in that witness stand is deliberate about everything.I did that.Not as a compliment to myself. As a fact.*****I keep my hands folded on the table.Richard told me this morning: *whatever you feel in that room, keep it off your face. The judge is watching you as much as the witnesses. Composure.*I am composed.What is underneath the composure is something I have no clean name for.Adriana begins.“Ms. Voss can you describe for the court t
Ashes Of His Regret Chapter 128
Esmeralda's POV"We were acquainted," I say. "We moved in some of the same professional circles. We had met at industry events.""Would you characterize your relationship as friendly?""Professional.""Not friendly.""Professional can include friendly. We were collegial.""Collegial." He repeats the word the way lawyers repeat words they want to color. "And yet you attended a charity gala together in—" He checks his notes. "Three years ago.""I attended the gala. Mr. Hale also attended the gala. We spoke.""For how long?""Approximately an hour.""An hour is a significant conversation.""An hour at a charity event with many other people present is not remarkable.""And your husband at the time.. Julian Voss…was not present.""He had a scheduling conflict.""So you attended alone.""I attended without my husband. There were several hundred other people in the room."He pauses. Lets it sit. Moves on."Ms. Voss… you testified that you were removed from Morrison Manufacturing's operations
Ashes Of His Regret Chapter 127
Damien's POVI am three rows back in the gallery.I chose the seat deliberately close enough to see her face, far enough that the cameras can't easily put us in the same frame. Marcus suggested the back row. I compromised. Three rows. I am not going to sit at the back of this room while Esmeralda testifies about the seven years of her life that were taken from her.She walks to the stand and she counts the steps.I notice because I know her. Because I have watched her closely enough to recognize the small things she does when she is managing the distance between what she feels and what she shows. The counting is grounding. It's something Dr. Chen suggested months ago she told me about it one evening, almost offhand, and I filed it away the way I file everything about her.Eleven steps.She sits.She is composed in a way that has nothing to do with performance.That is the thing that I want the room to understand and cannot say from this gallery seat. That her composure is not armou
Ashes Of His Regret Chapter 126
Esmeralda's POVThe walk from the plaintiff's table to the witness stand is eleven steps.I count them.Not because I'm nervous I told Damien this morning that I was ready and I meant it and I still mean it. I count them because counting is a way of being present in a body that wants to float slightly above itself. Eleven steps. Solid floor. My heels on marble. Real.I sit.The courtroom settles.Adriana stands.And we begin.************************"Ms. Voss… can you describe for the court the nature of your relationship with Morrison Manufacturing before your marriage to Julian Voss?""My father founded Morrison Manufacturing twenty-three years ago. I grew up in that company. I worked there during summers through university. When my father's health began to decline I became more formally involved in operations." I pause. "It was not just a business to our family. It was the thing my father built with his hands from nothing.""And during your marriage to Julian Voss how did your in
Ashes Of His Regret CHAPTER 77
ESMERALDA'S POVMy phone wakes me at 6:23 AM.Not the alarm. The buzzing.Constant, relentless buzzing.Text after text after text.I grab it, still half asleep.47 missed calls.132 text messages.What the—Then I see the news alert.BREAKING: Is Hale Marriage a Fraud? Contract Details ExposedMy
Last Updated : 2026-04-05Ashes Of His Regret CHAPTER 58
DAMIEN'S POVThe footage is grainy but clear enough.Table 14 at Lucienne. Camera angle from the bar.Her foot. His foot.Under the table where she thinks no one can see.I watch it three times.Then pour another drink.Then watch it again.The way she leans forward when she talks. The way he mirro
Last Updated : 2026-03-30Ashes Of His Regret CHAPTER 53
DAMIEN'S POVI watched the footage three times.It's from the coffee shop. Angle from the security camera across the street. You can barely see their faces but I can read body language.The way Julian leans forward.The way Esmeralda leans back.The flowers he brought that she left behind.Marcus
Last Updated : 2026-03-28Ashes Of His Regret CHAPTER 46
JULIAN'S POVVivienne won't stop talking."—and then the caterer said the orchids weren't available in white, so I had to settle for cream, which completely throws off the color scheme for the nursery reveal party—"I'm not listening.I'm watching Esmeralda across the ballroom.She's wearing red. S
Last Updated : 2026-03-27
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