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chapter 368
publish date:
2026-10-30 01:05:21
Latest chapter
RECLAIMING MY LIFE FROM THE UNTOUCHABLE CEO chapter 400
POV: Hazel“Open it, Hazel. Not because I want to see your face, although I do. Open it because I have never been so frightened of giving anyone anything in my whole life.”Julian said it on the roof of the tower at midnight, the day after the opening, in a wind that smelled of rain and rivers. The city spread out around us, jewelled and enormous. Below, a late train crawled across a bridge like a string of lit beads.He held out a small black box. I took it with both hands. My shoulder ached from the fall, and my knee wore a tight bandage, and I did not care.Inside, on a bed of grey velvet, lay a watch.It was plain. Brushed steel, with a narrow strap of dark leather. A round white face, no numbers, only two thin black hands. It looked like something made by a man who did not trust ornament.I turned it over. On the back, in small, clear letters, someone had engraved a single word.Now.“I do not understand,” I whispered.“You have counted for a year.” He sat on the low wall beside
RECLAIMING MY LIFE FROM THE UNTOUCHABLE CEO chapter 399
POV: Hazel“Do not look up, Hazel. Walk exactly as you always do. Do not hurry, do not slow, and when I say left, you go left, as fast as you have ever moved in your life.”Adrian’s voice came low and calm through the small earpiece I wore under my hair. I stood in the wings, in the dark, with the ballet ending in front of me like a long exhalation. Thirty dancers held the final pose on the white stage. The last note of the cello trembled in the air, and then went still.The curtain would fall. The audience would rise. And I would walk out, nine steps, and stand on the tape mark.“Four officers are above you,” said Adrian. “The man on the catwalk is called Dorian Vale. He is wearing a stage hand’s black. We have a sniper’s view of him, and we have a net rigged below his feet. We are ready. But we need him to move first.”“I know.”“If he drops anything, it will be on your mark. It will be heavy. I want you to be a foot to the left before it arrives.”“I understand.”“Are you afraid?”
RECLAIMING MY LIFE FROM THE UNTOUCHABLE CEO chapter 398
POV: Hazel“I know you do not want to see me tonight, Julian. I will not stay long. I only came to place something in your hands, and then I will vanish like a bad dream.”Penelope stood in the grand lobby of the Foundation theatre, on opening night, in a long black coat and pearl gloves. The chandeliers blazed over her. Behind her, the crowds streamed in, silk and velvet and murmuring excitement, and every few seconds a camera flashed.She looked thin. Under the glitter, in the unforgiving light, I could see how tired she was.Julian said nothing. I held his arm, and I felt the long muscles go tight.“You are on bail,” he said.“Mr. Hartley arranged it. Detective Okonkwo agreed, on the condition that I leave the country on Monday and answer questions by video.” She tried to smile. “I am going somewhere warm. I shall learn to garden.”“Penelope.”“Please. Let me finish.” She took a small cream envelope from her coat. It was sealed with grey wax. In the centre, in her elegant hand, it
RECLAIMING MY LIFE FROM THE UNTOUCHABLE CEO chapter 397
POV: Hazel“If anything goes wrong, you say the word pineapple, and Adrian is through that door in four seconds. Four. Say it back to me, Nora. Please. Say it back.”I whispered it into her collar at ten to four the next afternoon, on a cold wet corner of Mercer Street. Rain tapped on the awning of a little tea shop with yellow curtains. Nora wore a plain blue coat, and a tiny microphone was sewn into the lining, no bigger than a grain of rice. She held my hands very tight.“Pineapple,” she said. “Four seconds.”“And you do not drink anything she hands you.”“Not even the lemon.”“Not even the lemon.” I tried to smile. “If you want to leave, you stand up and leave. You do not need a reason. You do not need to be polite.”“That is the hardest part.”“I know.”I let go. I watched her cross the road, a small straight figure under a pale umbrella, with her chin up. She pushed open the door, and the bell chimed, and she was gone.I walked back to the van parked at the end of the street. De
RECLAIMING MY LIFE FROM THE UNTOUCHABLE CEO chapter 396
POV: Hazel“These were the last shoes I ever danced in, Nora. I have not opened this box for two years. I want you to have them, and I want you to say yes before I change my mind.”I held out the old cardboard box in both hands. It was soft with age, tied with a faded green ribbon. We stood alone in my dressing room, behind the theatre, at eleven at night, with the low lamps on and the whole building asleep.Nora stared at it. She did not touch it.“Mrs. Daniel,” she whispered. “I cannot.”“You can.”“They are your shoes. They were on the stage when you…” She stopped, and a flush crept up her neck. “When you stopped.”“When I fell,” I said. “You may say it. It is only a word.”“I did not want to be rude.”“You are not rude. You are the only person who has not tiptoed round that word in a year.” I sat down on the sofa and set the box on my knee. “Come here.”She perched on the edge of the cushion, small and stiff. I untied the ribbon. The lid came off with a dry whisper, and a faint sm
RECLAIMING MY LIFE FROM THE UNTOUCHABLE CEO chapter 395
POV: Hazel“Open it slowly, Mr. Daniel. And please, nobody breathe on the contents. I would like to know what is in here before it becomes a rumour.”Detective Okonkwo said it in the basement vault of Merrow Private Bank, in a room as cold and quiet as a church. The walls were lined with small steel doors. A single lamp hung from a chain. A bank manager in a grey suit stood by the entrance with a ring of keys, and he looked as though he would rather be somewhere else.Julian stood in front of box 114. He held the brass key in a hand that was perfectly steady. I knew the calm. It was the calm he wore when he was most afraid.“Hazel,” he said without turning. “Stand with me.”I stepped up beside him. Our shoulders touched. The key slid into the lock and turned, with a deep metal sigh.The door swung open on a long steel tray. Inside lay a stack of ledgers, bound in black cloth, tied with red ribbon. Beside them was a flat wooden box, a small leather notebook, and a photograph in a silve
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