Library
Search
Home / Romance / Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride / Chapter 124: Vanessa's Return

Share

Chapter 124: Vanessa's Return

Author: Evve
last update publish date: 2026-01-22 00:18:34

The waiting room of the Legal Aid office in Queens smelled of floor wax and desperation.

Vanessa Leigh sat on a plastic chair, her legs crossed. She wasn't wearing red. She was wearing gray. A cheap, off-the-rack suit she had bought at a discount store. Her hair, once a sleek, expensive ponytail, was loose and slightly frizzy.

She looked like a ghost of the woman who had once ruled the 80th floor.

But her eyes were the same. Sharp. Hungry. Unbroken.

She had been out on bail for a month. He
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Previous Chapter Next Chapter
Locked Chapter

Latest chapter

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 455: LILY

    The hospital room was different this time. It wasn't the sterile, high-tech fortress of the NICU, nor the tense waiting room of surgery.It was just a room. A room with beige walls and a window overlooking the same skyline that had witnessed every tragedy and triumph of the Cross family.But inside the room, there was only triumph.Marcus Cross sat on the edge of the bed. He was wearing a t-shirt that said Vale-Cross Foundation Construction Crew, covered in faint traces of sawdust because he had come straight from the site when Sophia called. His boots were on the floor. His hands—large, scarred, calloused—were wrapped around Sophia’s."You okay?" he asked. His voice was rougher than usual.Sophia leaned back against the pillows. She looked exhausted, her hair damp with sweat, her face pale. But her eyes were bright. Triumphant."I am perfect," she whispered. "Did you see her? Did you see the lungs on her?""I heard her," Marcus said. "I think they heard her in Jersey."He looked at t

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 454: GRACE ARRIVES

    The room didn't smell like iodine or panic. It smelled of lavender oil (Emma’s diffuser) and crushed ice.Aurora sat on a birthing ball beside the hospital bed, her hand resting on Emma’s knee. The lights were dimmed. A playlist of acoustic folk music—Emma’s choice—drifted from a speaker in the corner.It was the most boring, beautiful scene Aurora had ever witnessed."You're doing amazing," Aurora whispered.Emma opened her eyes. She was sweating, her hair plastered to her temples, riding the crest of a contraction that had started a minute ago. She gripped the bedrails, her knuckles white, breathing through the pain with a rhythmic, guttural sound."It’s... intense," Emma gasped as the wave receded. She slumped back against the pillows."You're at eight centimeters," the nurse said, checking the monitor. "Almost there."Aurora looked at Liam.He was standing on the other side of the bed, holding a cup of ice chips. He looked calm. His shoulders were relaxed. He wasn't wearing a bunn

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 453: THE MERCY THAT ISN'T

    The gun sat on the table between them. A black, ugly weight on the scarred wood.Isabella stared at it. Her chest heaved, the oxygen cannula whistling with every desperate breath. She looked like a gambler who had bet everything on red, only to watch the ball land on black."You coward," she hissed again. "You don't have the spine for it."Aurora stood over her. She felt tall. She felt like a spire that had weathered a hurricane and hadn't lost a single pane of glass."It isn't cowardice, Isabella," Aurora said. Her voice was ice. Clear. Transparent. "It's architecture. You don't build a future on a foundation of murder. That’s your design. Not mine."Isabella’s hands clawed at the armrests. "I gave you a chance. I gave you the ending.""You gave me a trap," Aurora corrected. "You wanted me to kill you so I would become you. You wanted to infect me with your violence so that every time I looked in the mirror, I would see your face."She leaned down. She placed her hands on the table,

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 452: THE FANTASY

    The gun was colder than the ring.Aurora’s fingers curled around the grip. It was textured rubber, designed for traction, for sweat, for the exact moment when a human being decided to stop being a person and start being a force of nature.She lifted it.It was heavy. Denser than a brick. Denser than gold.Isabella didn't flinch. She watched Aurora’s hand with a hunger that was almost obscene. She leaned forward in her chair, her breath hitching in the cannula, her eyes wide and black and glittering.Do it, Isabella’s silence screamed. Complete the circle.Aurora raised the barrel.She pointed it at the woman’s chest. At the cashmere sweater. At the heart that was failing but refusing to stop beating.For four seconds, the world dissolved.One.Aurora pulled the trigger in her mind. She felt the resistance of the metal spring. She felt the snap. The recoil kicking back into her shoulder, a physical jolt that traveled up her arm and into her spine.She saw the flash. The muzzle flare li

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 451: THE CHOICE OFFERED

    The phrase hung in the overheated air, vibrating against the wooden walls of the cabin.I want you to bury him.Aurora stared at the dying woman. "Henry is already buried, Isabella. He's been in the ground for twenty years.""His body is," Isabella wheezed. Her hand fumbled in the pocket of her cashmere cardigan, searching for something. "But his ghost... his ghost is sitting in this chair. It’s breathing my air. As long as I am alive... he isn't finished."She pulled her hand out.It wasn't a handkerchief. It wasn't a pill bottle.It was a gun.Small. Black. A snub-nosed revolver that looked heavy in her skeletal grip.Aurora didn't scream. She didn't scramble backward. She went perfectly, terrifyingly still. The Architect in her assessed the geometry of the threat instantly. Distance: three feet. Line of sight: clear. Caliber: lethal.Isabella didn't point it at her.She placed it on the table.It made a heavy, dull thud against the wood, sitting right next to the scorched gold ring

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 450: WHAT SURVIVED

    The silence in the cabin wasn't empty. It was crowded with the ghosts of twenty years of manipulation.Aurora sat in the wooden chair, staring at the fire. The logs were collapsing, glowing orange at the core, turning to gray ash on the surface.She felt like she was watching a time-lapse of her own life.Every decision she had ever made... every rebellion... every moment of "agency" had been a line of code written by the woman sitting three feet away.The investigation into her father’s death? Isabella’s breadcrumbs.The "chance" meeting with Liam at the gala? Isabella’s staging.The decision to marry for leverage? Isabella’s whisper.Aurora looked at her hands. They felt foreign. Were they her hands? Or were they just tools used to dismantle a dynasty?She closed her eyes. She felt the vertigo again—the terrifying sensation of falling through a floor she thought was solid.If the beginning was a lie, she thought, does the middle count?She searched her memory. She sifted through the

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 133: Henry's Intervention

    The Vale family lawyers were a different breed than the "sharks" Liam employed or the "wolves" who worked for the state. They were quieter. Slower. They were the kind of men who wore three-piece suits in July and spoke in whispers that carried more weight than a shout. They arrived at the penthou

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-26

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 126: Aurora's Defiance

    The office of Maison AVA was a kingdom without a queen. The staff walked on eggshells. The seamstresses whispered in corners. The "Secret Heir" scandal, which had briefly been a victory, was now a looming storm cloud. Aurora sat in her office, staring at the documents Miller had drafted. Transf

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-26

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 130: Liam's Public Statement

    The press room at the Cross Empire tower was a coliseum. It was a cavernous space designed to intimidate, with floor-to-ceiling screens, tiered seating for three hundred journalists, and a podium that looked more like a pulpit than a lectern. Usually, it was used to announce mergers, acquisitions

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-26

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 134: The Vale Support

    Henry Vale’s office in the Vale Industries tower was a relic of a different era. It was a place of dark mahogany, leather-bound books, and the quiet, ticking assurance of old money. It was a place where deals were made with handshakes and betrayal was a gentleman’s game. But today, it was a court

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-26
More Chapters

You may also like

Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status