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Chapter fifteen

last update Veröffentlichungsdatum: 03.04.2026 05:55:01

Elara POV

She hadn't meant to call Jonas.

Her fingers had moved before her brain muscle memory, maybe, or just the desperate need to hear a voice that didn't want something from her. His phone rang twice before he picked up, and the moment she heard his voice she almost hung up.

"Elara?"

"Hi." She winced at how small she sounded. "Sorry. I don't know why I called."

A brief pause. "Are you home?"

"Yes."

"I'll bring food."

He didn't ask what was wrong. Didn't push. Just showed up twenty minutes
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  • Billionaire Second Choice    Chapter twenty five

    She was beautiful in the specific way of women who had been told so their entire lives and had organized their personalities around it. Long legs crossed at the ankle, wine glass balanced in one hand, dark hair falling perfectly over one shoulder. She looked up from her phone with the unhurried ease of someone in their own space which, Elara realized, she probably considered this to be.She looked at Elara.Then at Jonas.Then back at Elara.And the assessment that moved across her face was so swift and so thorough and so nakedly dismissive that Elara felt it like a change in air pressure."You must be the girl," she said."Vivienne." Jonas's voice came out carefully. "I didn't know you'd be here.""Adrian gave me a key years ago." Vivienne uncrossed her ankles and recrossed them the other way, the movement slow and deliberate. Her eyes hadn't left Elara. "He's my stepbrother. I go where I like." A small smile. "You must be the rushed courthouse arrangement. I heard about it this aft

  • Billionaire Second Choice    Chapter twenty four

    His voice came out slightly strained at the edges.Elara stopped.She turned slowly and looked at him at this man she'd married this morning who had a fiancée four doors away and who was standing in a hospital corridor telling Jonas where to take her like she was a package to be delivered. Like she was an arrangement. A contract. A convenience.That's all this is, she reminded herself.That's all you agreed to.It didn't make it feel any better."I'll decide where I go," she said quietly."You're staying at the penthouse," he said. "It was part of the arrangement. You need to be—""I need to rest," she said. "After today I think I've earned the right to decide where I do that.""Elara—""Good night, Adrian."She turned and walked toward the elevator.Jonas fell into step beside her without a word. He pressed the button. The doors opened immediately — small mercies — and they stepped in.In the last second before the doors closed she saw Adrian still standing in the corridor watching

  • Billionaire Second Choice    Chapter twenty three

    Elara POV "Fluids helped significantly," she told Elara, making notes on her tablet. "Your blood pressure has stabilized and the baby's heartbeat is strong. No cause for concern there." She looked up. "But I want to be direct with you. At fourteen weeks your body is already working harder than usual. Stress, dehydration, skipping meals any one of those is manageable. All three together is how you end up back here." A pause that was not unkind. "You have to take care of yourself. Not for anyone else. For you."Elara nodded."I mean it," the doctor said. Simply. Like she could see straight through to the part of Elara that always put herself last on the list."I know," Elara said. "I will."The doctor nodded, handed her the discharge paperwork, and left.Elara sat on the edge of the bed for a moment in the quiet the doctor left behind. She felt better genuinely better, the grey fog of the afternoon lifted, her hands steady again. The IV had done its work. The rest had done the rest.S

  • Billionaire Second Choice    Chapter twenty two

    Adrian moved first. "Why are you here," Adrian said. "Elara," Jonas said simply. Something shifted in Adrian's expression. "What happened. Is she—" "She's okay." Jonas kept his voice even. "Dehydration. Stress. The baby is fine." He held Adrian's gaze. "She called me because she was alone on a street corner after you left her at the courthouse." The words landed and Jonas watched Adrian receive them watched the slight tightening at his jaw, the almost imperceptible shift that meant something had connected that he wished hadn't. "I had to leave," Adrian said. "I know." "There was a call—" "I know, Adrian." Jonas looked at him steadily. "I'm not fighting with you. I'm just telling you what happened." "your brother," he said quietly. "Derrick got to her." Adrian's jaw tightened fully this time. He looked down the corridor and something moved behind his eyes cold an

  • Billionaire Second Choice    Chapter twenty one

    Jonas drove the way he did everything.Without urgency but without wasting a single moment either threading through afternoon traffic with one hand on the wheel and his phone on the dash with Elara still on the line. He didn't fill the silence with reassurances. Didn't ask questions she'd have to work to answer. Just drove and let her know through the simple fact of his voice that she wasn't alone on that pavement."Still there?" he said, at the second red light."Still here," she said."Two minutes."The light changed. He turned onto Carver.He saw her before she saw him small figure against a grey stone wall, one arm wrapped around herself, the other hand pressed flat against her stomach in that way she had that he didn't think she was aware of. Marriage certificate folded in her grip, slightly bent. No coat in November air.He pulled up and was out of the car before it had fully stopped."Hey," he said."Hey," she said back.He opened the passenger door."Come on," he said gently

  • Billionaire Second Choice    Chapter twenty

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  • Billionaire Second Choice    Chapter fourteen

    Elara POV Elara heard her mother before she saw her.The click of heels on the hallway floor outside her apartment door measured, deliberate. The kind of walk that meant a conversation was coming that Elara wouldn't be able to win.She opened the door before Linda could knock.

  • Billionaire Second Choice    Chapter thirteen

    Adrian had expected many things from his investigation into Elara's life.He had not expected this.He sat in his car outside the address Mercer had sent him — a modest apartment building in the older part of the city, paint peeling at the corners, a flickering light above the entrance. He looked a

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    The company car rattled slightly as Elara tightened her grip on the steering wheel. The address blinked on her phone screen again V.A.L.E Corporation Headquarters. Three point five kilometers, they had said casually. As if it wasn’t far. As if it didn’t matter that they had dumped it on her becaus

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