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Chapter 74
publish date:
2026-03-29 01:51:57
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Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride Chapter 85
Walking back to the laboratory, Elara ran the variables through her mind.The symptom that didn't present correctly. The timeline misalignment. The practiced fluency of Victoria’s answers—which was notable precisely because Victoria’s usual speech was anything but fluent. She was typically immediate and irreverent, her words arriving slightly ahead of her thinking. This rehearsed quality was new. Or perhaps, it was simply the first time Elara had allowed herself to see it.Victoria had told her during their second week: I am perfectly healthy. Always have been.Elara had assumed at the time it was a warning—a signal that the cover story was thin and she should respect the boundary. She had filed it away because it wasn't her story to examine.It was her story now.The laboratory was tomb-quiet; Dr. Chen had left an hour ago. Elara sat at the primary workstation and pulled up the Thorne International medical database. It was one of the many high-level clearances Alexander had granted h
Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride Chapter 84
It was a Tuesday, eight days after the Saturday dinner, and Victoria mentioned the shift in her health the way she mentioned most things—without preamble, dropped into a gap in the conversation as if it had always belonged there."The left hand has been worse this week," Victoria said, reaching for her water glass. Her movements were steady enough, but she held the glass with a deliberate, conscious grip. "Apparently the cold affects it. Dr. Harmon says it is within the normal progression, but I should monitor the changes.""What specifically?" Elara kept her voice conversational, her tone matching Victoria’s lightness. She reached for the bread basket, her movements casual. "The tremor, or the fine motor response?""Both, I think. The tremor mostly." Victoria set her glass down and smoothly changed the subject to a concert series she was considering for the following month. The conversation moved with her, fluid and bright.Elara moved with it. Her face did exactly what it was suppos
Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride Chapter 83
Mrs. Chen cleared the soup bowls and brought the main course, disappearing again with such practiced invisibility that Elara suspected she had been rehearsing the movement for years."Sebastian talked me out of stopping twice," Alexander said. He directed the words to his plate first, then looked up, his gaze steady. "After the first acquisition fell through, I was ready to close the company and take a comfortable position at an existing firm. He was seventeen. He sat across from me at a table very much like this one and said—and I am quoting him directly—'You’re not done yet, Alexander. Don’t be an idiot.'""He was seventeen," Elara repeated, struck by the image."He was always older than his age." Alexander paused, his expression softening into something distant. "And invariably right. He said it again after the second failure. Same words. I eventually stopped needing him to take the lead on it.""How did you know when you’d stopped needing it?"He looked at her, his dark eyes searc
Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride Chapter 82
Elara came to the table at seven to find Alexander already there. He had discarded his jacket, and his shirt sleeves were rolled to the elbows, revealing the lean, corded muscle of his forearms. He was reading a single sheet of paper, which he set aside as she entered without making a production of it.She had seen this version of him before, but it was usually a brief glimpse before the jacket came back on and the formal composure rebuilt itself. This version—unbuttoned, with no performance requirements—was the one she found herself observing with a precision that had nothing to do with her research.Mrs. Chen served the soup and retreated with the purposeful efficiency she used when she had decided to let a moment breathe."Victoria looked well today," Alexander said, picking up his spoon."She brought pastries and spent forty minutes insisting she hadn’t.""Standard." He reached for the bread. "How is she, actually?"The distinction was deliberate. He wasn't asking how she seemed t
Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride Chapter 81
"Victoria—""I am not going to make it weird." Victoria held up one hand, preempting the deflection. "I just want you to know—whatever this is—" she gestured vaguely at the air between them, indicating the house, the silence, the unnamed thing that had taken root, "—I am glad it exists."Elara said nothing. She kept her hands wrapped around her water glass, focusing on the condensation."He has been alone since Sebastian died." Victoria’s voice dropped its usual lightness. It wasn't heavy—she didn't do heavy—but it was direct. "Not just in the way people usually mean. It was the kind of alone that meant he had stopped expecting anything else. He stopped wanting things, really. Thorne International became his entire architecture. As long as he was working, he didn't have to notice that the rest of the building was empty." She paused. "He noticed things were missing, Elara."Elara felt her throat tighten. She kept her expression level, refusing to let the emotion reach her eyes."You ch
Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride Chapter 80
Victoria arrived at noon carrying a box of pastries she claimed Mrs. Chen had requested, a claim Mrs. Chen denied with practiced, stony indifference."She is lying," Victoria said, sliding the box onto the marble kitchen island. "She texted me a specific list.""I sent no such text." Mrs. Chen moved the box to the far counter without opening it."She sent a list," Victoria told Elara, leaning in as if sharing a state secret. "With descriptions. She used bullet points and emphasized the almond croissants."Elara looked at Mrs. Chen. The woman’s expression remained perfectly neutral, confirming both that she had definitely sent the list and that she intended to maintain her denial for the rest of her life.They took lunch in the smaller dining room—the one that caught the warm, south-facing light and felt significantly less like a corporate stage than the main table. Victoria had made this a weekly habit for the past month, and the rhythm of it had settled into a routine Elara had stopp
Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride Chapter 9
The city lights blurred past the tinted windows. Rain hammered the roof in a steady rhythm. Elara sat in silence. She was still dripping onto the floor. Her wet clothes clung to her skin. She didn't apologize. Alexander Thorne watched her from the opposite seat. His steel-gray eyes assessed her
Last Updated : 2026-03-18Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride Chapter 6
The television in the motel room had twelve channels. Elara flipped through them while eating a protein bar she'd bought from the vending machine in the lobby. Her second meal in two days.She stopped on Channel 7.Marcus was on the screen.He sat in a leather chair across from a news anchor, his e
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The slide into oblivion did not happen all at once. It happened in slow, agonizing increments that stripped away dignity one layer at a time. Day four started with a confrontation at a 24-hour diner. Elara sat in the back booth, nursing a cup of hot water she had asked for, claiming she was waitin
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Elara woke early on Monday morning.She had slept poorly. Her rest was fractured by scattered, disjointed images from the charity gala. Marcus's cold eyes, Isabella's triumphant smile, and Alexander's assessment in the back of the sedan all blurred together into a chaotic sequence.Giving up the
Last Updated : 2026-03-31
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