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CHAPTER 245: JOY, INTERRUPTED

Penulis: Evve
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-03-08 03:37:39

The wind on the terrace was cold, carrying the metallic bite of the Hudson River and the exhaust fumes of a million cars. It was the scent of the city Liam Cross owned, or at least, the city he was fighting to keep.

He leaned against the limestone railing, a tumbler of scotch in his hand. Amber liquid, neat. He hadn't drunk it yet. He was just holding it, letting the glass chill his palm.

Below him, New York was a grid of light. Chaos ordered into lines.

We're turning the corner, he told himsel
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    The baby was awake.It was 8:00 PM. The penthouse was silent, save for the hum of the city seventy floors below, but inside Aurora’s body, there was a riot.Kick. Roll. Flutter.It felt like the child was trying to break out, sensing the toxicity of the adrenaline coursing through Aurora’s veins and demanding an exit strategy.Aurora lay on her side in the center of the massive bed, her hand pressed against the tight curve of her stomach."Shh," she whispered to the darkness. "I know. I'm sorry."The room was cold. The "command center" table Liam had set up—water, books, iPad—looked like artifacts from a lost civilization. A time when she was just a high-risk patient, not a betrayed wife.She rolled over.There was a manila envelope lying on the rug near the door.Liam had slid it under the gap an hour ago. He hadn't knocked. He hadn't begged. He had simply pushed the truth into the room and retreated.Aurora stared at it.For sixty minutes, she had treated it like a bomb. If she open

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 262: THE FORENSICS

    The office of DarkTrace Analytics didn't look like a detective agency. It looked like a server farm inside a bunker.Located in a windowless sub-basement in TriBeCa, the room was kept at a constant sixty degrees to protect the hardware. The air hummed with the white noise of cooling fans and the faint, ozone smell of overheated processors.Liam sat on a steel stool, his elbows on a steel table. He hadn't changed his suit from yesterday. He hadn't shaved. He hadn't slept since he sat outside Aurora’s door, listening to the silence that felt like a verdict."Well?" Liam asked. His voice was a rasp.Across the table, a man named Chen—no first name, just Chen—typed on a keyboard that had no letters, just blank black keys."Patience, Mr. Cross," Chen said without looking up. "Digital forensics is like an autopsy. You can't rush the cut."On the massive wall of monitors in front of them, the photo of Liam and Vanessa in the Mercer Hotel lobby was dissected into layers.Red lines gridlocked

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 261: DENIAL AND TRUTH

    The door clicked. A soft, mechanical sound. Then the heavy thud of a deadbolt sliding home.Liam stood in the hallway, the silver tray of cold truffle eggs still in his hands. He stared at the wood grain of the master bedroom door. It was mahogany. Solid core. Soundproof.He had installed it to give them privacy. Now, it was a barricade."Aurora," he said. His voice was calm, but his heart was hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. "Open the door."Silence."Aurora, please. Whatever you saw... we can fix it. Just let me see it."Nothing.Liam set the tray down on the hallway console table. The china clattered, loud in the silent penthouse. He walked to the door and pressed his forehead against it. He could hear... something. A faint, rhythmic sound.Breathing? Crying? Or just the white noise of the air filtration system?Panic, cold and sharp, spiked in his chest. She was high risk. She was bleeding last night. She was in there alone, spiraling, and he was on the wrong side o

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  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 259: THE ABDICATION

    The phone in Aurora’s hand felt heavy. Not physically—it was a sleek slab of glass and titanium that weighed less than six ounces—but metaphorically. It weighed exactly as much as her career.She sat propped up in the hospital bed at Mount Sinai. The bleeding had stopped. The monitors were quiet, humming a steady, rhythmic reassurance that the life inside her was still holding on.But the silence in the room felt like a funeral."Aurora?" Claire’s voice on the speakerphone was tinny. Anxious. "Are you still there?"Aurora looked out the window. It was raining again. Gray streaks against gray sky. The city looked like a watercolor painting left out in a storm."I'm here," Aurora said. Her voice sounded strange to her own ears. Thin. Detached. "Did you get the file keys?""Yes. I have access to the Tokyo drive, the spring collection drafts, and the financial models. But Aurora... surely you can still approve the final sketches? I can courier them to the penthouse. You can look at them i

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 258: CRISIS POINT

    Pain didn't have a sound, but if it did, this pain would be a scream.It woke Aurora at 2:14 AM. Not a flutter. Not a cramp. A contraction. A vice grip tightening around her lower back and squeezing forward, turning her uterus into a fist of stone.She gasped, sitting up in the dark.Then she felt the dampness.Warm. Sticky. Wrong."Liam," she whispered. The word came out as a croak.Beside her, Liam shifted. He was deep asleep, one arm thrown over his eyes. He had been working eighteen-hour days again, trying to manage the fallout from the leaks while keeping the unions at bay."Liam!" She reached out and grabbed his shoulder, digging her nails in.He woke instantly. No grogginess. He went from zero to combat readiness in a heartbeat—a reflex honed by months of siege."What?" He sat up, scanning the room for intruders. "What is it?""Something's wrong," Aurora said. Her voice broke. "The baby."Liam turned on the bedside lamp. The light flooded the room, harsh and yellow. He looked a

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