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Chapter Nineteen
Last Updated:
2025-04-15 23:16:30
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Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Twenty
…The world vanished in a scream of cold. Salt and black water swallowed me whole. The pain ripped through my body instantly...shock, breathlessness, panic.But I didn't fight it. I let myself sink. Let the waves take me. Under long enough to fool him. Long enough to disappear.Aiden's scream echoed through the air above me... ripped from his soul, raw and guttural. It was the sound of a man losing everything.And I almost let it get to me.Almost.I swam under the rocks, the secret way Sophia and I had discovered years ago during one of her escapes. The current was vicious, and I scraped my knees, cut my palms. But I didn't stop.Couldn't.Not until I broke the surface again, gasping, behind the Cliff's bend where no one could see.I ran.Dripping, barefoot, bleeding… I ran through the rain soaked woods and down the road. My heart was pounding so loud it drowned the wind.Behind me, I could hear the chaos.Shouts, flashlights, dogs barking.They were looking for a body.Good. Let th
Last Updated : 2025-04-16Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Twenty One
Aiden's POV: The water was still. Too still.I stood at the edge of the cliff, soaked to the skin, shoes abandoned, fingers trembling in fists I couldn't unclench. My breath came slow and shallow, like my lungs refused to take in air she wasn't breathing.Caitlin.Gone.She didn't scream when she jumped. She didn't flinch. She just looked at me with eyes full of everything I couldn't give her, and let go.Like she knew it would destroy me. And maybe that was the point.I never cried. Not even when my mother died… Not when my father left. Not when the board tried to burn down my empire from inside out.But as I stood there dripping, the scent of her still clinging to my skin like a curse, my chest fractured in quiet, invisible ways. My vision blurred. I tasted salt, and I didn't know if it came from the rain or me. Was I crying? Aiden Gallagher crying? Tf!I dried the droplets of water falling from my eyes right away.. they obviously weren't tears, but water. Why should I cry
Last Updated : 2025-04-17Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Twenty Two
It's been a week already. A week of helplessly searching for my wife. Still no news.My eyes remained fixed on the papers scattered across my desk, as though I could focus on them long enough to drown out the noise in my head.Sophia was here again. This time, in my office.She didn't wait for permission. She stepped inside, and before I could stop her, she was at my side, leaning down as if offering some twisted version of comfort. I wanted to ignore her. I wanted to shut her out, but something was off about her tone."Aiden," she began, her voice laced with an eerie calm, "I have news. Caitlin's body… It's been found."For a moment, the words didn't make sense. The blood drained from my face, and the world seemed to tilt on its axis. Caitlin… Caitlin was dead. She was gone. But I'd never seen her body. I'd never seen proof.Sophia was still talking, her voice a buzz in my ears, but it didn'tatter. The world had narrowed into a single image..The grave that would be dug for her. Th
Last Updated : 2025-04-17Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Twenty Three
The air was thick, heavy with the weight of memories I could never shake, and it clung to me, suffocating me with every step I took.I didn't know how I had gotten here, standing in front of her grave.I didn't know why I thought this would bring me any kind of closure. Maybe I had come for absolution, hoping that standing here, at the final resting place of the woman I had loved and lost, would somehow make it all stop.But it didn't.The pain only deepened, cutting into me like a jagged knife. I could barely breathe. My chest was tight, constricted by grief and the crushing weight of my own guilt. Caitlin's name was carved into the cold, unforgiving stone before me, and for a moment, I forgot how to exist. I couldn't even move.She's gone.The words bounced around in my mind, echoing like a cruel mantra. I had told myself this truth a thousand times. But standing here, inches away from the grave that held her, it felt like the ground beneath me was falling away. There was nothing st
Last Updated : 2025-04-17Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Twenty Four
The car ride was too quiet.Sophia sat beside me, pretending not to stare, pretending she wasn't watching the way I kept clenching my jaw like it might hold back everything threatening to spill out. I didn't look at her. I couldn't. Not after what just happened. Not after Caitlin.My knuckles were scraped raw. I didn't remember hitting the ground that hard, but it didn't matter. Pain was something I understood. It was simple, direct, easier to carry than guilt.I pressed my forehead against the cool window, watching the city blur past. Neon lights bled into shadows. People walked with purpose, like they didn't know the world had ended.Maybe it hadn't tho.Maybe it was just mine."You need sleep," Sophia said softly.I ignored her. My fingers tapped against my thigh, out of rhythm, uneven. Just like everything else in my life.She kept going, voice too careful. "You're scaring me, Aiden."Good.Let her be scared.I closed my eyes, leaned back into the leather seat, and tried not to th
Last Updated : 2025-04-21Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Twenty Five
The envelope felt heavier than it should.Like it carried more than paper. Like it carried memory, power, threat.I turned it over in my hand, fingers brushing the wax seal. The color was wrong for comfort. Blood red, deep as dried rust. My thumb hovered for a second too long, like part of me believed that if I opened it, I’d be letting something in.But it was already in.Had been, ever since Caitlin disappeared.I cracked the seal. It snapped with a dry, delicate sound, like old bone breaking. Inside, a single piece of ivory cardstock, thick and unblemished. Not handwritten, no signature, just six words, printed in clean, precise type.“You’ve forgotten the rules.Come home.”No address, no date, just the silence behind the message and the cold certainty that it wasn’t a suggestion.It was a summons.My breath left me slow, like I’d been holding it this whole time without noticing. I sat down hard on the edge of the couch. The paper fluttered slightly in my hand, and I felt the pas
Last Updated : 2025-04-22Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Twenty Six
The roads to Montauk were empty.The world looked washed out, like even the sunrise was too tired to show up properly. My car cut through the fog like a scalpel. Silent, silver, and sharp.I hadn’t been back here in almost twelve years.The last time, there had been laughter. Expensive wine. A dead girl cooling by the pool.We called it the accident.But it wasn’t. Not really.Dylan had cleaned up the blood. I had made the calls. The others... well, most of them were gone now. Buried by time, scandals, or the group’s own cleanup crew.Emily was the last real casualty. And the first one that made Dylan crack.I used to think I was the monster. But Dylan?Dylan had learned how to make his violence look like devotion.*The estate still looked untouched.Same rusted gates, same overgrown garden that once pretended to be wild on purpose. I parked by the side entrance. The air was heavy with salt and silence.The front door was unlocked.That alone should’ve sent me back to the car. But I
Last Updated : 2025-04-22Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Twenty Seven
I didn’t sleep.Sleep was for men with peace, and I’d traded that a long time ago for power and silence.The city looked soft from the penthouse windows. Fragile. Like if I breathed too hard, it would crack.The glass in my hand was sweating. Scotch untouched.I watched the streets for hours, waiting for the ache in my chest to harden into something I could use. Rage. Strategy. Anything but longing.But it didn’t.It just sat there. Thick and heavy.And beneath it, something quieter. Something older.Shame.*Flashback – Nine Years AgoMontauk, before Emily died.The house was louder back then.Laughter spilled through the walls like water. Dylan was drunk, slurring theories about the future, biotech empires, programmable memories, synthetic limbs. Emily was wearing red, barefoot on the marble, dancing like no one was watching.But I was watching.Dylan didn’t notice. He never noticed when she needed him. Not the way I did.Later that night, we stood outside, just Dylan and me. Cold a
Last Updated : 2025-04-22
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Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Sixty Two
I didn’t cry.I thought I would.I thought I’d make it to the elevator and fall apart, slide down the wall and sob until my throat cracked. But I didn’t.I rode the elevator down like I was made of steel. Hands still clenched. Face still burning.The lobby lights buzzed overhead. The security guard gave me a stiff, polite nod, like nothing was wrong. Like I hadn’t just stood in the same room as the man who reprogrammed my body and tried to erase my soul.I nodded back.Because that’s the game, isn’t it?Pretend nothing’s bleeding.Pretend you’re not drowning.Pretend you didn’t just learn you were built.It was cold outside. Not winter-cold. But the kind that sneaks under your skin when you’re already brittle inside. My heels clicked across the pavement as I walked to my car, and every sound felt too loud. Like the world was trying to draw attention to me. Like it knew.I sat behind the wheel with the engine off for a long time.Not thinking. Not planning. Just existing.And even tha
Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Sixty One
I left Dylan’s apartment without looking back.He didn’t try to stop me. Just stood there, silent, like a man watching a fire he didn’t bother putting out. And maybe that was the truth, maybe I was always meant to burn.I drove until I couldn’t feel my fingers on the wheel. Ended up in a parking garage, staring at nothing, chewing on the edge of a panic attack.Then I opened the flash drive again.Not on my laptop this time. On a secure system. A hacker friend from my undergrad days owed me favors, and I called one in. Said I needed everything decrypted. Hidden files. Metadata. Time stamps. Anything.They called me an hour later, voice low and clipped.“There’s a hidden folder. You didn’t see it.”I hadn’t.I went back, followed the breadcrumb they gave me.Inside were audio logs, notes, screenshots of messages, even therapy session transcriptions. And a folder marked...“HER”.My hands shook as I opened it.Dozens of photos.All of me.Years back, Surveillance stills, Social media scr
Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Sixty
I didn't sleep there. How could I? I drove until the sky went pale, then parked in a grocery store lot and sat there, staring at my reflection in the rearview mirror. I didn’t recognize the woman looking back. Eyes ringed in black, lips chewed raw, heart ticking like a bomb.Emily knew me.Not “knew of me.” Not guessed or imagined.She said my name.I kept playing the message in my head, those last words, like she was whispering straight through time, through death, into my ear. “Don’t trust either of them.”How did she know?And why did it feel like I was already too late?By 8 a.m., I was parked outside a library. Not mine. Not local. A town over. Somewhere neutral. I signed onto a public computer with trembling fingers and searched for anything. Old records. Articles. Social media scraps. There was almost nothing about Emily after her death. Just sanitized obituaries and half-hearted blog posts about water safety.But I wasn’t looking for her anymore.I was looking for me.I dug
Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Fifty Nine
I didn’t go home.Home felt like a place for people with answers. People who knew what side they were on. I didn’t know anything anymore.Who was I running from? And who was I even running to? So I found a diner. One of those nowhere-places with cracked vinyl booths and a jukebox that hadn’t worked since the 90s. I sat in the corner, hunched over my laptop, the flash drive clenched in my fist like a trigger.I hesitated before plugging it in.Part of me already knew this wouldn’t be something I could unsee.The drive had one folder./EMILY/Inside were three files.Audio_Log_06.m4aJuly_14_CamFootage.mp4Letter_To_Caitlin.docxThat last one hit me like a brick.Letter to Caitlin.I never met her. Not once. I only knew Emily from Dylan’s stories. From the quiet grief in his voice when he mentioned her. From the wedding photos still shoved in a box in our closet. She was a ghost in my life. Beautiful, Tragic and Untouchable.How the hell did she know my name?I opened the letter.> Ca
Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Fifty Eight
I didn’t want to go.But the invite, or more accurately, the command, was sitting in my calendar like a trap with a blinking countdown. “Meeting with Mr. Gallagher. 12:05 PM.”Of course he’d make it five minutes after noon. A power play. Make me sweat.I stared at the screen a moment longer than I should’ve, then stood. My legs were shaky, even though I tried to play it cool. Everyone was still pretending not to watch, but I felt it. The tension when I passed someone’s desk. The fake typing that stopped just long enough to eavesdrop.I hated them. I hated how they looked at me now, like I was some broken puzzle they couldn’t wait to solve. Like a scandal in heels.When I reached Aiden’s office, I hesitated for half a second. Just long enough for my nerves to kick. Then I opened the door.He was already standing. Backlit by the floor-to-ceiling windows, crisp and composed in a suit too perfect for someone with a heart so rotted.He didn’t say a word as he stepped around the desk and c
Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Fifty Seven
The morning air felt unusually thick as I returned the office building, the weight of the previous day still lingering in my chest. I had to quickly finished the tasks at hand before Aiden would ask for it.I pressed the button for the elevator, hearing the soft hum of whispers that echoed from the lobby. “… Did you hear? Mr. Gallagher spent hours in his office with Emily yesterday. Alone. I thought they just worked together on the big reports?”“Yeah, but did you hear what he called her?” A second voice whispered. “I swear, he called her Caitlin. I thought her name was Emily?”“Wait, what? Are you sure?”“I heard it too. Something’s up with those two, that’s for sure…”The elevator doors slid open, and I stepped inside, trying to ignore the rising tension in the air. It was hard not to notice the undercurrents of gossip, the shifting glances from people who weren’t even trying to hide their curiosity.As the doors closed, I sighed and leaned against the wall, willing myself to shak
Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Fifty Six
The day had barely begun when I found myself standing at my desk, a stack of files before me. The office buzzed with the usual hum of conversations, clicking keyboards, and ringing phones. But for me, everything felt muted, distant. I couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened earlier. Aiden’s words had burrowed into my mind, and despite my best efforts to shake them off, they lingered like a shadow over my thoughts.I was determined to push past it. I was stronger now. At least, that’s what I told myself.But that resolve was put to the test the moment I saw Aiden emerge from his office. His sharp suit and imposing presence commanded the room, and everyone seemed to freeze in their tracks as he walked through the floor. I tried to focus on my work, my eyes fixed on the screen, but I could feel his gaze sweeping across the room, his eyes lingering on me for a fraction of a second longer than necessary.And then, I heard his voice."Caitlin." He called out, his tone smooth, too
Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Fifty Five
The morning after, I woke up to an unsettling quiet. The kind of quiet that, for most people, would signify peace. But for me, it was like a raw wound still too tender to touch. My first peaceful night under Dylan's roof had been a relief, a balm to the wounds that Aiden’s presence had left on me. I had expected to wake up feeling safer, more at ease, but instead, the dread still clung to me like a shadow.Dylan had left early for work, but his absence felt comforting, as if he had given me the space I needed to begin reclaiming some semblance of normality. I sat in the living room, sipping my tea, trying to gather the strength to start my day. The phone buzzed on the coffee table, pulling me from my thoughts. It was a text from my work.“Emily, the company expects you to come in today. We’re a bit behind. Hope you’re feeling better. See you soon!”I stared at the message for a long moment, the weight of it sinking in. Going back to the office meant facing the reality of everythin
Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace Chapter Fifty Four
The drive back to Dylan’s house felt surreal. The air seemed to shimmer with a sense of possibility, but there was still an undercurrent of caution running through me, as if I was unsure whether I could truly trust the peace I felt, or if it was just a fleeting illusion. My hands rested on my lap, and for the first time in ages, I didn’t feel the urge to clutch my body in a defensive posture. I didn’t feel the weight of Aiden’s presence looming behind me, controlling my every move. The physical relief was immense, but the emotional burden was still there, heavy and complex.Dylan glanced at me as we drove, his face drawn, like he was balancing a thousand thoughts, but he didn’t rush me. He didn’t push me for anything more than what I was willing to give. His silence was comforting, as if he was giving me space to breathe, space to think, while also showing that he was there, unwavering in his presence.The road seemed to stretch endlessly before us. The soft hum of the tires on asph
