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Chapter 77

Fried Tomato In Oyster Sauce
last update Veröffentlichungsdatum: 29.03.2026 01:59:54

At ten forty-five on Saturday night, Elara was in the sitting room when she heard the distinct sound of his car on the gravel outside.

She had the Edinburgh confirmation file open on her laptop. This was a fact—the data had arrived at six, and she had spent the last several hours working through the third-phase annotations. But it was also a fact that she had been checking the clock since nine-thirty. The time had mattered to her for reasons that had nothing to do with sequencing or peptide bri
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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 23

    Elara stood completely alone in the center of the massive laboratory. Bright morning sunlight streamed through the expansive windows, warming the floor tiles. The heavy machinery hummed softly around her while the climate control system maintained perfect environmental equilibrium. Walking back to

    last updateZuletzt aktualisiert : 2026-03-25

  • Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride   Chapter 25

    The car ride to the hotel took exactly fifteen minutes. Alexander sat beside Elara in the spacious back seat, his attention focused entirely on the digital screen of his phone. His face remained completely neutral, wearing the same controlled, unreadable expression he utilized in the boardroom. E

    last updateZuletzt aktualisiert : 2026-03-26

  • Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride   Chapter 18

    Elara left the library. The heavy oak doors clicked shut behind her. She walked to the private elevator. She pressed the silver button for the underground garage. The descent was rapid and silent. A black sedan idled near the concrete pillars. The driver stood by the

    last updateZuletzt aktualisiert : 2026-03-23

  • Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride   Chapter 21

    ‘’He simply got lucky by associating with the right institutions. Every legitimate researcher in the field knows he lacks original vision.”This statement echoed loudly In her headElara blinked, her eyes burning slightly, and set her pen down on the leather notebook.

    last updateZuletzt aktualisiert : 2026-03-24
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