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chapter sixteen
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2025-11-16 21:13:20
Latest chapter
Legally Bound Chapter 105
The lights on the thirty-ninth floor of Cromwell & Partners were still on long after most of Manhattan had gone to sleep.Alex Cromwell stood by the glass wall of his office, tie loosened, sleeves rolled up, city lights reflecting faintly against the dark circles beneath his eyes. The skyline that usually energized him now felt distant, like a painting he’d seen too many times. Files lay open on his desk, three separate matters, three different crises each one demanding precision, dominance, control.Exactly what he needed.Work had become the only thing that quieted his mind.He turned back to his desk, flipping through another document, when the soft click of heels echoed from the hallway. He didn’t look up immediately. Most people knew better than to interrupt him at this hour.“Alex?”That voice; calm, familiar, cut through the fog.He finally looked up.Eileen stood just inside the doorway, coat draped over her arm, her sleek hair still perfectly in place despite the late hour. S
Legally Bound Chapter 104
The apartment wasn’t permanent, but it was quiet.That was the first thing Lily noticed when she stepped inside with Gillian, the silence. Not the hollow, echoing kind that made thoughts louder, but the kind that settled gently, like a pause between breaths. The building was modest compared to the penthouse they’d left behind, but it felt neutral. Untouched. No memories clinging to the walls yet.Gillian dropped the spare keys on the counter and stretched her arms above her head.“Okay,” she said lightly. “Temporary home.”Lily nodded, setting her bag down by the couch. Her one-week leave had started that morning, and for the first time in weeks, there was nowhere she had to be. No courtroom. No deadlines. No Alex-shaped silence waiting for her in another room.They unpacked quietly. Clothes went into wardrobes. Files stacked neatly on a desk. Lily placed her diary, the one she wrote to her mother in inside the bedside drawer without opening it. Not yet.Gillian checked her watch.“I
Legally Bound Chapter 103
Alex hadn’t planned the visit.That, in itself, should have warned Mr. Smith.The gates to the estate slid open after a brief exchange with security, the gravel crunching beneath Alex’s tires as he drove in. The house stood exactly as Alex remembered, vast, imposing, and deliberately intimidating. A place designed to remind anyone who entered that power lived here and breathed here. Mr. Smith didn’t know Alex was back in New York.That was intentional.Alex stepped out of the car without waiting for a greeting, adjusting the cuffs of his shirt as if this were just another business meeting. His expression was calm, but beneath it sat weeks of suppressed anger, exhaustion, and something colder; clarity.Inside, the air was still. Heavy. The kind of silence that came from money insulating a man from consequences.Mr. Smith was in the sitting room when Alex walked in, seated with a tablet in hand. He looked up slowly, surprise flickering across his face before smoothing into something me
Legally Bound Chapter 102
Sleep did not come easily to Alex. As at 6am he was still reading his texts with Lily, looking at her pictures. When sleep finally came, it was shallow and restless, the kind that felt more like drifting than resting. His eyes fluttered open sometime after 9am, his body heavy, his head pounding. The room felt unfamiliar in a way that hurt; too quiet, too still. New York had always been home, but after Chicago, after Lily, it felt like a place he no longer fully belonged to.He lay there staring at the ceiling, replaying the same thoughts on a loop. Everything he could have said. Everything he should have said sooner.A soft knock came at the door.Before Alex could answer, it opened slowly and Wilson stepped in, holding a paper bag in one hand. He looked around the room once before his eyes settled on Alex.“There you are,” Wilson said quietly.Alex pushed himself up a little, his movements slow. “You didn’t have to come.”Wilson scoffed gently. “Your mum called me. When a mother cal
Legally Bound chapter 101
The message delivered.“I’ve arrived.”Alex stared at the screen for a long moment after it sent, the phone resting heavily in his palm. He didn’t wait for the read receipt. He didn’t wait for a response. Some part of him already knew there wouldn’t be one, not today. Maybe not for a while.On the other side of the city, Lily sat curled on the edge of her bed, phone clutched tightly in her hands as the tears came running down her cheeks again. Quiet at first, then uncontrollable. Seeing the words “I’ve arrived,” did something to her chest. It made everything real. Final. Distance made physical.She didn’t reply.Alex didn’t expect her to.The car rolled through the gates of the Cromwell estate just before dusk. The familiar sight, the wide driveway, the manicured hedges, the quiet confidence of old wealth should have felt grounding. Instead, it felt like walking into a museum of a life he didn’t quite belong to anymore.Philip,one of their drivers pulled to a stop.“Welcome home, sir.
Legally Bound chapter hundred
Alex woke before the alarm.For a moment, disoriented by exhaustion, he reached instinctively toward the other side of the bed.Empty.The reality settled again, slow and crushing.He sat up, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor as if it might offer answers. He hadn’t slept more than an hour, just a shallow nap filled with half-dreams and fragments of Lily’s voice. The note. Her words. The look in her eyes outside the courthouse yesterday. Flat. Final.Alex dragged a hand down his face and stood. Today, he was supposed to leave Chicago.That thought alone made his chest ache.He showered mechanically, dressed in a dark suit he barely registered choosing, and packed the rest of his things into a single carry-on. Every item reminded him of her; her scarf folded carefully in a drawer he hadn’t opened, the mug she liked by the coffee machine, the faint scent of her shampoo still clinging to the pillows.By the time he stepped into the elevator with his suitcase, he felt like he was w
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