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Chapter 197: The Dating Attempt
publish date:
2026-02-16 00:04:19
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Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride CHAPTER 461: THE BATTLEGROUND
The boardroom of Vale-Cross Global was designed for consensus. The white oak table was round, the chairs were equal in height, and the acoustics were engineered to encourage dialogue.Today, however, it felt like a boxing ring.Aurora sat at the edge of the room, ostensibly taking notes but really playing referee. Liam was at the head of the table, his face a mask of careful neutrality. Marcus leaned against the wall, arms crossed, looking like he wanted to intervene but knew better.And in the center, facing each other across the expanse of wood, were her children.Ethan was seventeen. He wore a hoodie and sneakers, his laptop open in front of him, displaying a dense wall of code and financial projections. He looked like the future—fast, impatient, and terrifyingly smart.Hope was fourteen. She wore her 'creative lead' uniform—black turtleneck, architectural jewelry. She had a sketchbook and a stack of fabric swatches spread out like a defensive perimeter. She looked like the soul of
Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride CHAPTER 460: THE DIVIDE
The break room on the twelfth floor of Vale-Cross Global was designed to be a collaborative space. Low sofas, whiteboards for brainstorming, a barista-grade espresso machine.Ethan Vale-Cross hated it.He stood by the window, a can of energy drink in his hand, watching the construction crane across the street lift a steel beam into the sky. It was precise. It was efficient. It was necessary.Behind him, the room was buzzing. But not about code."Have you seen the prototypes?" a junior developer whispered to a marketing intern. "The resin vase? It's incredible. It looks like... like frozen light.""I heard the launch party is going to be at the Met," the intern gushed. "Hope Vale-Cross is a genius."Ethan crushed the aluminum can in his hand. Crunch.Genius.That was the word of the week. Hope was a genius because she glued metal shavings to wood. Hope was a genius because she made a chair that looked like a cloud.He walked over to the recycling bin and dropped the can.He walked out
Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride CHAPTER 459: THE PILOT
The boardroom of Vale-Cross Global had witnessed mergers, hostile takeovers, and the near-collapse of a dynasty. It had absorbed the shouts of angry men and the silence of terrified ones.Today, it was quiet. But it was a focused, electric quiet.Aurora stood at the head of the table. She wasn't wearing the armor of the early days—the severe chignons and the black suits. She wore a cream silk blouse and trousers that moved with her. She didn't need armor anymore. She was the structure itself.She clicked the remote.On the screen, the rendering of the resin vase appeared. It rotated slowly, catching the virtual light."The Atelier," Aurora said. Her voice was steady, pitched for the acoustics of the room. "A micro-division focused on artisanal home goods. Limited run. High margin. Sustainable materials sourced exclusively from our construction waste."She looked around the table.Julian Thorne was there, older now, his hair completely white, but his eyes still sharp. Elena sat next to
Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride CHAPTER 458: HOPE'S PROPOSAL
The dining room table was no longer a place for meals. It was a stage.Hope stood at the head of the table. She was fourteen years old. She wore a black turtleneck and wide-leg trousers—an outfit she had borrowed from Sophia’s "minimalist archive." It was slightly too big in the shoulders, but she liked the weight of it. It felt like armor.She adjusted the lighting. The dimmer switch was set to fifty percent. The afternoon sun was filtered through the sheer drapes, creating a soft, diffuse glow that hit the center of the table perfectly.On the mahogany surface, there were no plates. There were three objects.A vase made of poured resin and reclaimed glass.A swatch of fabric that looked like a storm cloud woven into wool.A sketchbook, closed."They're here," Ethan whispered.He was sitting in the corner, acting as her technical support (he was running the projector she didn't plan to use, just in case). He looked up from his tablet. "Do you want me to announce them?""No," Hope sai
Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride CHAPTER 457: THE MENTOR AND THE STUDENT
The view from the corner office of Vale-Cross Global hadn't changed in ten years, but the man looking at it had.Liam Cross stood at the window, nursing a cup of tea. He drank less coffee these days. Dr. Hale had been right about the cortisol; survival was a marathon, not a sprint.Behind him, at the smaller desk usually reserved for junior associates, sat Ethan.Ethan was sixteen now. He had grown into his height, filling out the lanky frame with the lean muscle of a runner. He wore a button-down shirt that fit him properly, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing wrists that looked capable.He was typing. Fast. The sound of the mechanical keyboard was a rapid-fire staccato in the quiet room."You're typing like you're angry at the code," Liam observed, turning around."I'm not angry," Ethan said, not looking up. "I'm optimizing. The legacy database for the foundation housing grants is a mess. It's built on spaghetti code from 2015. If I don't untangle it, the scholarship disburse
Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride CHAPTER 456: THE INTERN
The code on the monitor wasn't just text. It was a language, and right now, it was screaming.Ethan Vale-Cross sat in the bullpen of the AVA-Cross Technology Division on the twelfth floor. He was sixteen years old. He was wearing a hoodie he had bought at a thrift store in Brooklyn because he didn't want anyone to know his sneakers cost four hundred dollars. He had an ID badge clipped to his lanyard that simply said E. Cross - Summer Intern.Most people assumed he was a nephew. Or a cousin. Or a charity case.They didn't know he was the heir.And Ethan intended to keep it that way."It's a memory leak," said the Senior Engineer, a man named Patterson who had been sweating through his shirt since 9:00 AM. "It's in the kernel. We have to scrap the update.""We can't scrap it," another engineer argued. "The Tokyo integration goes live in forty-eight hours. If the logistics platform crashes, we lose real-time tracking on half the fleet."Ethan didn't speak. He adjusted his noise-canceling
Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride Chapter 94: Almost a Confession
The Intrepid Awards Gala was not a party. It was a ceasefire held on neutral ground.The massive aircraft carrier, docked on the Hudson, was transformed into a floating palace of light and steel. A transparent tent covered the flight deck, protecting the thousand guests—designers, models, celebriti
Last Updated : 2026-03-23Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride Chapter 95: The Awards Ceremony
The Intrepid was a floating palace, a contradiction of steel and silk, of warfare and artistry. The main tent on the flight deck was a glowing, transparent bubble against the New York night, filled with a thousand people who had come to witness a coronation.Aurora sat at Table One, her back rigid,
Last Updated : 2026-03-23Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride Chapter 71: Aurora's Panic
The "friendship" had lasted exactly ten minutes.It ended the moment Liam Cross let go of Ethan’s hand and looked at Aurora with an expression that was not friendly. It was shattered. It was hungry. It was the look of a man who had been starving for five years and had just tasted water.Aurora turn
Last Updated : 2026-03-22Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride Chapter 72: The Resemblance
The "escape" vehicle was moving too slowly.Aurora sat in the back seat, Ethan curled in her lap, his breath hot against her neck. She was stroking his hair, a repetitive, soothing gesture that was more for her than for him.Every time she closed her eyes, she saw it.The image of Liam, kneeling in
Last Updated : 2026-03-22
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