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Chapter 7: The Aftermath

Penulis: Clare
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-08-28 02:08:01

The town car glided through the sleeping city, a silent spaceship swooping through canyons of steel and glass. In the interior, the world was hushed, the silence broken by the growl of the engine. Jonah sat in the soft leather, Clarkson's tuxedo jacket a heavy, perfumed weight beside him. He didn't wear it. It would be like holding a live wire, a straight line to the charged, confusing minutes on the aft deck.

His head was reeling with the night on a drunk repeat: the stunned silence, Albright's sneering face, the reporter's intense questioning, Clarkson's hand on his back. The railing of moonlight. Clarkson's eyes. That yelling, exhilarating, incapacitating sensation that everything in the world had finally been reduced to him and Clarkson alone and the inch of night between them.

You did good.

The words echoed out, each time coursing through him a fresh, unbidden shiver. He had wanted to despise Clarkson Roberts. It was a clean, sharp sensation. The billionaire tycoon. The abductor.
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  • Hearts at the Helm:A Billionaire's Gamble on Love   Chapter 30: The Space Between

    The service elevator fell with a muffled hum, a discordant counterpoint to the storm still raging in Jonah's breast. The close, dark box was a coffin after the broad, electric blackness of Clarkson's office. He backed into the cold metal wall, shutting his eyes, but all he could see was the naked, pleading terror on Clarkson's face. The image was seared onto his retinas.I said get out!The words were more than a rejection; they were a reflexive recoil. A door not only closed, but slammed and barred shut. The warmth of the moment—the magnetic attraction, the communal breath, the unmistakable rightness of it—had been doused by a cold so complete it was a physical shock.He'd let his guard down. He'd caught the vulnerability in the dark, caught the CEO's mask dropping, and he'd foolishly assumed it was an invitation. He'd mistaken a crack in the ice for a thaw. He'd been a fool.The doors of the elevator opened on the bleak concrete of the sub-level. The hum of the servers was a mocking

  • Hearts at the Helm:A Billionaire's Gamble on Love   Chapter 29: Uncharted Currents

    The tempest that hit Manhattan that night was biblical. Rain lashed the glass hide of the Roberts Global tower, and wind howled around its summits like an avenging angel. Inside, the silence of the empty office was a discordant counterpoint to the elemental violence outside.Jonah sat alone in his basement server room, trying to lose himself in the calming logic of structural simulations. The encounter on the rooftop had left him agitated and disturbed. Clarkson's jealousy would have been a victory—proof that the invincible billionaire was, in fact, quite vulnerable. But it just felt empty. He was a prize to be won, then shelved.A message popped up on his secure terminal.R. Roberts: Storm's knocked out the primary data link to the Singapore foundry. Final mold schematics need to be verified and transmitted over the backup satellite uplink. My office. Now.The message was vintage Clarkson: brief, professional, with no reference to their earlier conflict. My office. Now.Jonah took th

  • Hearts at the Helm:A Billionaire's Gamble on Love   Chapter 28: Across the City Lights

    The rooftop terrace of the Metropolitan Museum of Art was a fantasy of twinkling lights, champagne flutes, and the muted, cultured hum of New York's elite. The annual "Innovators in Industry" gala was in full swing, a fundraising dinner where philanthropy and deal-making played a discreet, high-dollar game of Tag. For Clarkson Roberts, it was less an event than an obligatory act.He was over by the parapet, a crystal tumbler of whiskey in his hand, holding court for a senator and a tech billionaire. He was making the right replies, the charming smiles, the gestures of a man totally at home in his kingdom. But his focus was elsewhere, a laser beam cutting through the crowd to one source of discordant energy. Jonah Jones.Jonah was across the terrace, in a group of young architects and artists, people Clarkson knew vaguely as rising stars in their respective universes. He was not wearing a tuxedo Clarkson had ordered for him. He was wearing a nicely tailored but off-the-rack navy suit,

  • Hearts at the Helm:A Billionaire's Gamble on Love   Chapter 27: The Reckoning

    The lobby of the Roberts Global tower was a sea of media. Camera lights created a false, buzzing daylight, and the air hummed with the sound of dozens of simultaneous conversations and the frantic clicking of shutters. A podium stood ready, emblazoned with the company’s logo.Backstage, in a holding room, the atmosphere was funereal. Maya stood by a window, her arms crossed tightly, staring out at the city as if it were a foreign land. Jonah paced, his heart trying to hammer its way out of his chest. He’d chosen a simple, dark suit, feeling the need for armor.Clarkson was uncharacteristically calm. He went through notes on a tablet, his face that of a CEO practicing for an earnings call, not a man who was going to publicly savage the memory of his father and out himself in the most publicly grilled manner humanly possible. "We don't have to do this," Maya said without turning. "We can let the lawyers deal with it. Issue a statement. This is…. a circus.""Circuses are remembered," Cl

  • Hearts at the Helm:A Billionaire's Gamble on Love   Chapter 26: The Unraveling

    The stillness that followed Clarkson’s phone call was not peaceful. It was the eye of a hurricane, a moment of suspended animation before the full force of the storm hit. Jonah stood frozen, the subpoena from his former partner feeling like a lead weight in his hand. The betrayal from Ben, a man he’d considered a brother, cut deeper than any corporate attack.Maya was the first to break the tension. “You’re releasing the Vance affidavit? Clark, that’s… that’s our family’s darkest secret. You’ll be dragging Dad’s name through the mud. Our name.”“Our name was already dragged through the mud by the man who built it,” Clarkson replied, his voice devoid of emotion. He was a general deploying his final, most devastating weapon. “Harper doesn’t get to use our past as a cudgel and expect us to hide from it. She exposed a wound. I’m sterilizing it. No matter how much it burns.”He turned to Jonah. “As for your friend….” He took the subpoena, his fingers brushing against Jonah’s, a jolt of ele

  • Hearts at the Helm:A Billionaire's Gamble on Love   Chapter 25: The Counterstrike

    The penthouse stillness in the wake of the courier’s departure was the calm of the eye of a hurricane. Maya’s fury had been extinguished, replaced by a stunned, ashen horror. The legal document lay on the kitchen island like a dead thing.“The Singaporeans…” Jonah breathed, the reality of the disaster crashing down. “They were the cornerstone investors. Without them, the capital requirement…”“.becomes impossible for the current board to approve,” Clarkson finished, his voice a low, furious thrum. He wasn’t looking at the document; he was staring out at the city, his mind racing at a terrifying speed. “This isn’t just a withdrawal. It’s a coordinated attack. Harper and Albright have friends in Singapore. They orchestrated this.”He turned, his gaze sharp and calculating. The vulnerability from the confrontation with Maya was gone, burned away by a cold, focused rage. “They’re not just trying to ruin us. They’re trying to sink the Nereid permanently.”Maya finally found her voice. “Cla

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