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Chapter 45

Author: Ruby
last update publish date: 2026-03-07 22:32:40

Sophia POV

By the time dinner was ready-, the kitchen smelled faintly of roasted garlic and warm spices,.

I had spent longer than necessary preparing it,.

The dishes sat arranged on the counter-, steam rising softly from them,.

Rice,. Stir-fried vegetables,. Grilled chicken,.

Simple, clean food,.

Not extravagant.

But done properly.

I wiped my hands on a towel and carried the plates to the dining table,.

The apartment was quiet except for the distant hum of the city outside the glass walls,.

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  • Gilded Hearts   Chapter 48

    Sophia’s POVIt's already been a week, since I started living like this.Like a puppet A week doesn’t sound like much until you live through it like this.By Friday, I didn’t wait for instructions anymore. I anticipated them.That evening, I was in the kitchen-, slicing vegetables with precise-, mechanical movements when I heard his footsteps behind me,. I didn’t turn immediately,. I waited, because that’s what he preferred,.“Tomorrow.” Damien's voice cut through the quiet.I glanced over my shoulder. “Tomorrow… what?”“There’s a party.”I turned fully this time, setting the knife down. “Here?”“Yes.”“How many people?”“Five. Maybe ten.”“Friends?” I asked“Some friends and some business.” Damien replied.“What exactly do you want me to handle?” I wiped my hands on a towel,. He leaned against the doorway-, his posture relaxed-, but his gaze steady and sharp,. “Everything,.” “Be specific.” I held his eyes.A faint pause. Then, “The terrace. Set it up.”“Seating arrangement?”“Yes.

  • Gilded Hearts   Chapter 47

    Sophia POVI don’t think I actually slept,.Not properly.It was the kind of night where your body gives up before your mind does,. Every time I drifted-, something dragged me back—the cold floor beneath me-, the stiffness in my spine, or worse,.His voice.It didn’t echo loudly.It lingered.Morning came quietly,.A thin strip of light slipped through the curtains and stretched across the room—stopping just short of where I lay on the floor,.Of course it did,.I stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before forcing myself to move,. My muscles protested immediately-, a dull ache settling deep into my back and shoulders,.I sat up slowly-, inhaling through it,.I stood, adjusting my clothes, smoothing out creases that didn’t really matter,. The room still carried the silence of last night,.Damien was on the bed,.Asleep.Unbothered.For a moment, I watched him.Not with anger.With distance.Then I looked away.I picked up the pillow he had thrown at me,. It felt heavier now—not phy

  • Gilded Hearts   Chapter 46

    Sophia POVBy the time the dishes were washed and the kitchen was finally quiet again-, the apartment had settled into a heavy silence,.The city lights outside the glass walls flickered against the dark marble floors-, stretching long reflections across the living room,.I dried my hands slowly-, hanging the towel back in its place,.My body felt exhausted-, but my mind refused to quiet down,.Dinner.The table.His words.You’re staff in this house now.The sentence replayed in my head like something stuck on repeat.I inhaled slowly.Fine.If that was the role he had decided to force on me, then I would survive it. Just long enough to find something else,. Just long enough to walk away from this place without needing anything from him,.I turned off the kitchen lights and walked toward the hallway,.The bedroom door stood slightly open,.For two months, that room had been ours.Not perfect. Not easy.But… real.Apparently I had imagined most of it.I pushed the door open,.The room

  • Gilded Hearts   Chapter 45

    Sophia POVBy the time dinner was ready-, the kitchen smelled faintly of roasted garlic and warm spices,.I had spent longer than necessary preparing it,.The dishes sat arranged on the counter-, steam rising softly from them,.Rice,. Stir-fried vegetables,. Grilled chicken,.Simple, clean food,.Not extravagant.But done properly.I wiped my hands on a towel and carried the plates to the dining table,.The apartment was quiet except for the distant hum of the city outside the glass walls,. Footsteps echoed from the hallway,. Damien entered the dining area just as I finished setting the table,.His presence filled the space immediately,.He was wearing a T-shirt and joggers as his gaze moved from the table to me,.“So,” he said calmly, “the staff has begun working.”I ignored the comment.“Dinner is ready,.”He pulled out a chair and sat down slowly-, studying the plates in front of him like they were objects under inspection,.For a moment he didn’t speak,.He simply picked up his f

  • Gilded Hearts   Chapter 44

    Sophia POVThe drive back from Hayes Global felt heavier than ever.This morning, I had walked in with quiet defiance.Now, I walked into the penthouse with clarity.He had done this deliberately.I could have argued there. I could have demanded answers in the lobby-, insisted on being escorted upstairs-, forced someone to call him out of that board meeting,.But I didn’t,.I didn’t want whispers trailing behind me in marble corridors. I didn’t want my humiliation turning into office gossip by lunchtime. Hayes Global was still a place I had respected—still a place I had worked hard in. I wouldn’t turn it into a spectacle.So I left.As I returned to the apartmentEvery step echoed in the silence of the apartment as I set my bag down on the console table. The space felt too large. Too empty. Like it was waiting.Before doing anything else, I pulled out my phone.Edward Hayes.For a moment, my thumb hovered over his name.I wasn’t calling to complain. I wasn’t calling to accuse his gran

  • Gilded Hearts   Chapter 43

    Sophia POVDarkness came back in fragments.Not gently.First, the cold.It crept across my skin before my mind fully woke-, cool air brushing over my bare shoulders, my legs, and my stomach,. The sheets beneath me were smooth and expensive-, but they felt like ice,.Then the silence.Too quiet.My eyes fluttered open,.The room was dim-, the city lights bleeding faint gold through the curtains. For a second-, I didn’t move. My body felt heavy, disconnected-, like I had borrowed it from someone else,.Then memory rushed back.My breath caught sharply,.I pushed myself upright too fast-, dizziness spinning the room,. The blanket slid from my lap, and the realization hit with humiliating clarity,.I was still half naked,.Only my underwear clung to me,. My T-shirt lay discarded near the foot of the bed,. My pajama bottoms were somewhere on the floor,.Damian was gone,.The side of the bed where he had stood loomed empty,. The door to the bedroom was slightly ajar,. No sound from the hal

  • Gilded Hearts   Chapter 11

    Damien POVPersonally, I usually do not spend the night in the office, but due to a necessity of an important meeting the following day I had to.The still office, the vacant floor, During night, the lights were reduced, the soft buzz of machines winding down for the evening.And her.Sophia Rivera

  • Gilded Hearts   Chapter 10

    Sophia POVI hardly got any sleep Each time I shut my eyes, I was drawn back by a memory of the elevator. That moment.His face inches from mine.It came to my mind, and my heart was still racing, as my body hadn’t yet acknowledged that the moment was over.What struck me more than the proximity

  • Gilded Hearts   Chapter 9

    Sophia POVIt had been over ten days since I joined Hayes Global, and by now, I’d begun to understand exactly what kind of man Damian Hayes was: a playboy and flirt, but he was also brilliant. and sharp when it comes to business.I never would’ve thought that a person with such a reputation, a famo

  • Gilded Hearts   Chapter 8

    Damian POVI didn’t like her.From the moment that coffee-stained whirlwind stepped into Hayes Global, something about her unsettled me.Sophia Rivera,Some middle-class girl with a degree from a mediocre college and a comparatively low sense of confidence. She belonged nowhere, nowhere here, not i

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