공유

Chapter ten

작가: Alexson
last update 게시일: 2026-03-31 05:02:19

Adrian’s POV

One month.

Thirty days.

Seven hundred and twenty hours of nothing.

No trace.

No location.

No mistake to follow.

Seraphina had vanished.

And for the first time in years adrian vale was losing.

The office felt colder these days.

Or maybe it was just him.

He stood by the glass wall of his office, staring down at the city that once bent to his will.

It felt distant.

Unreachable.

“Still nothing?” he asked without turning.

Behind him, Jonas hesitated.

“No
이 작품을 무료로 읽으실 수 있습니다
QR 코드를 스캔하여 앱을 다운로드하세요
잠긴 챕터

최신 챕터

  • 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

    Elara POV Her brain took a moment to process the number on the check. Five hundred thousand dollars. She kept her expression completely still through what felt like a considerable act of will. "I don't understand," she said carefully. "I think you do." Dorian leaned forward slightly. "You signed a contract with my brother this morning. A marriage certificate." He watched her face. "Whatever he's offered you whatever arrangement brought you to that courthouse I'm offering you more. Walk away. Quietly. Today." The car moved through the city. Elara looked at the check. Five hundred thousand dollars. Marcus's surgery. Every bill. The specialist. Rehabilitation. Everything her mother had pressed her hands together about and everything Elara had been carrying since the accident. Gone. Handled. Today. She felt the pull of it like a physical thing. And underneath the pull underneath the immediate animal relief of it something smaller and more stubborn that she couldn't quite si

  • Billionaire Second Choice    Chapter fifteen

    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

  • 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

  • Billionaire Second Choice    Chapter twelve

    Elara POV For some reason Elara mind still puzzled on the idea, it seemed all planned and no emotions and she asked him...... " Do you believe is yours" And he answered "does it matter" I need you as my substitute wife and you need provision for your child and also you would be completely ta

더보기
좋은 소설을 무료로 찾아 읽어보세요
GoodNovel 앱에서 수많은 인기 소설을 무료로 즐기세요! 마음에 드는 작품을 다운로드하고, 언제 어디서나 편하게 읽을 수 있습니다
앱에서 작품을 무료로 읽어보세요
앱에서 읽으려면 QR 코드를 스캔하세요.
DMCA.com Protection Status