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CHAPTER 47: THE DIRT UNDERNEATH
publish date:
2026-03-21 08:21:00Aria's POV
The silence that followed was deafening. The girl didn't know who Lucien was. She didn't know she was crying to the man who sat at the very top of the pyramid that had crushed her family. She just saw a man in a sweater who smelled like expensive soap.
Lucien closed his eyes for a long while. When he finally opened them, the Simple Li
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Aria's POVHe hung up and looked at me across the desk. There was a beat of silence where I could see him thinking about something he wasn't saying yet."What?" I asked."Nothing," he said.It wasn't nothing. But I let it go.~~~Marcus arrived twenty minutes later with Chen and a plate of food that neither of us had asked for specifically but both needed. He set everything on the side table and pulled up a chair without being asked."So," Marcus said, looking between us. "The leak.""Three pieces of false information," I said. "Three people. We feed each one something different and specific, something actionable. If Victor moves on any of it, we know exactly where
FORCED TO WED THE BILLIONAIRE CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX — DIGGING DEEPER
Aria's POVI didn't sleep until four.By the time I finally pulled myself away from the study, my eyes were burning and I'd gone through three cups of coffee that had all gone cold before I finished them. Lucien was still at his desk when I left. I touched his shoulder on the way out and he caught my hand briefly, held it for a second, then let go and went back to whatever he was reading.I was asleep before my head properly hit the pillow.~~~In the morning, Marcus had left a folder on the kitchen counter with a Post-it note on top that just said Hale - personal. I poured myself coffee and sat down with it.Victor Hale was not what I expected.I'd pictured someone cold and corporate, t
FORCED TO WED THE BILLIONAIRE CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE — THE NAME BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Aria's POVThe cottage was already a world away. But as I sat down across from him and pulled the document toward me, I realized something quietly and without drama.This was also where I belonged.It took Chen until two in the morning to find it.I was still in the study with Lucien, working through the subsidiary transaction records, when Chen knocked and walked in without waiting. He had that look on his face, the one where he was trying to stay professional but was clearly buzzing underneath it.He set the tablet on the desk between us."Victor Hale," he said.Lucien didn't react immediately. He picked up the tablet and read. I watched his face. Whatever was on the screen, it landed somewhere deep because his expression went very still in a way that wasn't neutral. It was controlled."Who is Victor Hale?" I asked.Neither of them answered straight away, which told me the name meant something to Lucien specifically."Lucien," I
FORCED TO WED THE BILLIONAIRE CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR — THE REAL WORLD
Aria's POVThe drive back to Los Angeles took four hours.I slept for most of it, curled against the window with Lucien's jacket over my shoulders. When I woke up, the highway had turned into the familiar stretch of city freeway, the skyline sitting flat and bright against the darkening sky.Lucien was on the phone. He'd been on it for at least two hours, I could tell from the way his voice had that worn, flat edge it got when he'd been talking business too long. He wasn't angry, just precise. The kind of precise that meant someone on the other end of the call was having a very bad evening.I sat up and looked at him.He glanced over, saw I was awake, and reached across to briefly squeeze my hand. Then he went back to his call.That was the transition. That small, quiet moment between the cottage and everything else. One second he was the man who sat in a cottage armchair just to keep a frightened girl company. The next he wa
FORCED TO WED THE BILLIONAIRE CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE — GOODBYE FOR NOW
Aria's POVElena Park called on a Thursday.I was in the kitchen when my phone buzzed, halfway through a second cup of coffee and a conversation with Chen about whether the penthouse needed more plants. Chen was firmly against it. I answered on the second ring."It's done," Elena said. "Both parents cleared. They'll be out by noon."I set my coffee cup down."And the children?""Still at the cottage. I've arranged transport. They should be reunited by early evening."I thanked her and hung up. I stood there for a moment without moving. Chen glanced at me from across the counter."Good news?" he asked."Yes," I said. Then I picked up my coffee and went to find Lucien.~~~He was in his study. I knocked and pushed the door open. He was on a call but turned when I walked in. I held up my phone and mouthed the words. They're free.He wrapped up the call in under a minute."Elena confirmed it?" he asked."This morning.
FORCED TO WED THE BILLIONAIRE CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO — BACK TO REALITY
Aria's POVI woke up to the sound of the jet engines.Lucien had arranged a private flight from the small regional airstrip outside Southampton. I didn't even know how I was transferred from the car to the plane, I'd been that exhausted. But now I was fully awake, reclined in a cream leather seat with a blanket tucked around me that I definitely hadn't put there myself.Across the aisle, Lucien was working.Of course he was.His laptop was open, two phones on the armrest, a glass of water untouched beside him. His sleeves were rolled up, his eyes moving across the screen with that focused, unblinking intensity that made everyone around him feel slightly inadequate. The flour was gone from his sleeve now. At some point between the cottage and here, he had become the CEO again.I watched him for a moment without saying anything.He felt it. He always did."Go back to sleep," he said, without looking up."I'm not tired anymore," I
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Aria's POVI quietly shook off the skeptism slowly rising in my heart.~~~The morning sun hit the glass walls of the medical suite with a cold, unforgiving brightness. I sa
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