ANMELDENChapter 146Matteo When the rain started, I was glad. Finally. Finally she'd leave.No one would stand out in this weather. She'd go find shelter and stop this pathetic display.But an hour passed. Then two. And she still stood there.I could see her through the rain, a dark shape standing against the wall.Rage burned through me.Was she trying to kill herself? Was this some manipulative attempt to make me feel guilty?Because it wouldn't work.I went back to my desk. Forced myself to focus on the reports in front of me.But I could feel her heartbeat.The mate bond was still there, faint but present. I could always sense when she was near, could always hear the rhythm of her heart like background music.It was steady at first. Fast, but steady.Then it started to slow and became irregular.Then... Pain.It was sharp and sudden. Radiating through my chest like someone had driven a stake through my heart.Something was wrong.I searched for her heartbeat and found nothing.I was movi
Chapter 245MatteoI didn't sleep that night. Neither did Kian.We spent hours in my office, laptops open, phones ringing, calling in every favor we had. Tech specialists. Legal teams. PR firms. Anyone who could help scrub that video from the internet.It was like trying to stop a flood with our bare hands.Every time we got one site to take it down, three more popped up. Every time we threatened legal action, someone would post it anonymously somewhere new.We knew someone powerful was involved. But we kept trying.Because that's what you do when you love someone. You fight for them. Even when they've broken your heart. Even when they've said they regret ever knowing you.Kian hadn't said a word about what Elowen said to him. He'd just started making calls, his face a blank mask, working with a focus that scared me."You don't have to stay," I'd told him around three in the morning. "You should go clear your name.""I'm not going anywhere until this is handled," he'd said."She doesn
Chapter 244ElowenI made the decision that I was going to fight for my family no matter what, so I took the first step.I went there.My hands were shaking as I stood outside the gates of Matteo's estate, staring at the security camera I knew was watching me.I pressed the intercom button. Once. Twice. Three times but no one answered, even though I knew they were aware of my presence.I stood there for twenty minutes, pressing that button every few minutes, before I finally saw movement through the gates.Matteo's car, and he was leaving.I stepped closer to the gate, waving my arms, trying to catch his attention. But he looked right at me and kept driving.The car passed through the gates and turned onto the main road without slowing down. Without acknowledging me, like I was invisible. Like I was nothing.I stood there long after his car disappeared, staring at the empty driveway, before finally turning and walking away.I came back the next day. And the day after that.Same routin
Chapter 243Elowen Alessandro. And... Margaret.They were standing beside their table, looking down at them with an expression of pure disgust. Marco stood in-between them, holding his father's hand, looking confused.The three women went silent."Excuse me?" one of them finally said."I asked if you have any shame," Alessandro repeated, his voice calm but cold. "Sitting here, in public, loudly discussing someone's private business. Mocking her. Insulting her. Do you have any idea how pathetic that makes you look?""We were just...""You were being cruel. There's no 'just' about it." I was surprised when I heard Margaret words. Wasn't she the one that...?"That woman has done nothing to you. You don't know her. You don't know her story. You don't know what she's been through. But you're sitting here tearing her apart for entertainment.""Did you see the video?" one of them challenged. "She...""I don't care about the video," Alessandro interrupted. "Even if everything you're saying i
Chapter 242ElowenThe hotel room was small, with walls that seemed to close in on me more with each passing day.I'd been here for five days.Five days of staring at the ceiling. Five days of ordering room service I didn't eat. Five days of existing in a fog so thick I could barely remember my own name.I missed them.God, I missed them so much it physically hurt.I missed Giuliana's laugh. The way she'd call for me in the morning. The way she'd hold my hand when she was scared. The way she'd look at me like I hung the moon.I missed Matteo's presence. The way he'd pull me close without saying anything. The way his hands felt on my skin. The way he looked at me like I was precious.I missed Kian. Everything about Kian. His rare smiles. His quiet intensity. The way he'd braid my hair. The way he'd hold me like I might break.I was incomplete without them.Like someone had taken a knife and carved out essential pieces of me, leaving behind a hollow shell that walked and breathed but di
Chapter 241ElowenI woke up to emptiness. The kind that lived in my chest where my heart used to be.Sunlight streamed through the curtains. I'd cried myself to sleep on the floor and somehow ended up in bed, though I didn't remember moving. My eyes were swollen, my throat raw.For a moment, I just lay there. Staring at the ceiling. Trying to convince myself to get up.Then I heard Giuliana's laughter from downstairs.That got me moving.I washed my face, trying to make myself look less like I'd spent the night sobbing. It didn't work. My eyes were still puffy, my face blotchy. But I couldn't hide in here forever.I made my way downstairs slowly, each step feeling heavier than the last.Matteo was in the kitchen with Giuliana, making her breakfast. She was sitting at the counter, swinging her legs, talking animatedly about something Marco had said yesterday."Mama!" She brightened when she saw me. "You're awake!"I forced a smile. "Good morning, baby.""Papa Matteo is making pancakes
Chapter 156Kain kissed me and I let him, and for a moment I stayed exactly where I was.I felt it happen and let myself exist inside it without thinking about what came next or what it meant or what I had done to get here.Then he pulled back and looked at me with that expression I had been always
Chapter 158ElowenHis hands moved to my waist and he walked me back slowly until my legs found the edge of the bed. We stopped there.He pulled back and looked at me the way someone looks at something they've been denied for too long.I held his gaze and waited, I didn't fill the silence with any
Chapter 155 The apartment felt colder after Adrian left.I stood in the hallway for a full minute after the elevator doors closed, listening to the faint mechanical hum fade away. Thursdays were his long days—client dinners, late strategy sessions, the kind of nights that stretched until the city
Chapter 148Elowen Inside the apartment, Zac made me promise to stay inside, to not look at social media, to call him if I needed anything.I agreed to all of it, knowing I wouldn't follow through on any of it.The moment he left, I was back online, scrolling through the increasingly vicious comme







