Library
Search
Home / Romance / Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride / Chapter 27: Recognition

Share

Chapter 27: Recognition

Author: Evve
last update publish date: 2025-12-22 16:42:31

The new apartment was not a home. It was a workshop, a fortress, and a nursery, in that precise order.

Elias had, as promised, "handled it." He had used Aurora's grandmother's money to lease a sprawling, light-filled apartment in his own building, all under the legal, paper-thin identity of "Ariane Rousseau."

But the grand, empty rooms, with their high ceilings and herringbone floors, had been colonized.

The living room was now a studio. Bolts of wool and silk were stacked against the walls lik
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 305: SMALL VICTORIES

    The nursery smelled of lavender and formula. It was a soft, powdery scent that usually made Aurora’s stomach clench with inadequacy.Today, however, the scent was just... a scent.Aurora stood in the doorway. It was 10:00 AM. The sun was streaming through the high windows, illuminating the Cloud White walls and the dust motes dancing in the air like microscopic fairies.Mrs. Higgins was in the glider, burping Hope. The baby was fussing—a low, grumbling sound that usually preceded the air-raid siren wail that shattered Aurora’s nerves."She's got a bubble," Mrs. Higgins murmured, patting the tiny back with a rhythmic thump-thump-thump. "Stubborn little thing."Aurora watched them.Yesterday, looking at this scene had filled her with a hot, acidic jealousy. That's my baby, the voice had hissed.Today, the jealousy was still there, but it had cooled. It had hardened into something solid. Something structural.Resolve.Aurora took a step into the room. Her legs felt steadier than they had

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 304: THE NIGHT NURSE

    The woman standing in the nursery doorway looked like a general disguised as a grandmother.Mrs. Marianne Higgins was sixty years old, stout, and wore scrubs patterned with cheerful yellow ducks that seemed at odds with her terrifying competence. She held a clipboard. She smelled of peppermint and discipline."Feeding schedule?" she asked, pen poised.Aurora stood by the crib, her hand resting on the rail. It was 8:00 PM. The sun had set over the Hudson, taking the last of the day's false energy with it."Every three hours," Aurora whispered. "She takes two ounces. We use the slow-flow nipple because... because she forgets to breathe sometimes.""Preemie protocol," Mrs. Higgins nodded, writing it down. "I've handled twenty-six weekers, Mrs. Cross. Your daughter is a heavyweight compared to my last charge."Aurora looked at Hope. The baby was sleeping, swaddled tight in a muslin blanket. She looked peaceful. She didn't know that her mother was about to abandon her for eight hours."Doe

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 303: CALLING SOPHIA

    The phone call was short."Sophia? It's Marcus Cross. Liam's brother."Sophia Laurent stood in the middle of her design studio in SoHo, surrounded by swatches of French linen and the hum of her assistants. She didn't know Marcus well. She had met him briefly at the foundation launch, where he had looked like a man wearing a tuxedo as a form of torture."Marcus," she said, signaling for her assistant to hold the calls. "Is everything okay?""No," Marcus said. His voice was rough, tight with a tension that vibrated through the line. "It's not. Liam collapsed this morning. Aurora hasn't left her room in a week. The baby is crying, and the seven-year-old is asking me if his parents are dying."Sophia dropped the fabric swatch."I'm coming," she said."Bring help," Marcus said. "Bring an army if you have one."Sophia arrived at the penthouse forty-five minutes later. She didn't bring an army. She brought something better.She walked out of the elevator carrying a bag from Dean & DeLuca, a

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 302: LIAM'S BREAKING POINT

    The math of survival was simple.There were twenty-four hours in a day. Hope fed every three hours. That took forty-five minutes. Ethan needed to be woken up, fed, and homeschooled by the tutor Marcus had vetted. That took two hours in the morning and three in the afternoon.The lawyers needed him for the civil suit depositions. Two hours. The board needed him to stop the stock from bleeding out due to the client exodus. Four hours. Aurora... Aurora needed him to be the anchor that kept her tethered to the earth. That took every second he wasn't doing the other things.Liam did the calculation as he stood in the kitchen, staring at the coffee machine.If he optimized the transitions, if he ate while on conference calls, if he slept in twenty-minute bursts while Hope was in the swing... he could make it work.He had been making it work for fourteen days."Mr. Cross?"Liam blinked. The kitchen came back into focus. It was bright. Too bright.The tutor, a young man named Daniel, was stan

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 301: WHISPERS

    The internet was a mirror. A cracked, distorted, infinite mirror that reflected not who you were, but who everyone feared you might be.Aurora sat in the window seat of the master bedroom, her knees pulled to her chest. It was 2:00 PM. The sun was shining on the river, bright and indifferent, but inside the penthouse, the air was thick with the dust of a thousand opinions.She held her new phone—the one with the uncracked screen—like it was a grenade with the pin pulled.She shouldn't look. Dr. Aris had said, disconnect. Liam had said, don't feed the beast.But the beast was already in the room.Isabella’s memoir, The Woman Henry Cross Destroyed, was currently the number one topic on Twitter. It wasn't just a book anymore; it was a cultural event. A live dissection of the Cross family pathology.Aurora opened the app.She didn't search for Liam. She didn't search for Henry.She searched for herself.#AuroraValeCross #BadMother #CrossCurseThe algorithm fed her immediately. It knew wha

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 300: THE FIRST NIGHT

    The sound wasn't loud, but it cut through the penthouse like a siren.Waaah. Waaah.It was a thin, reedy sound. The cry of a creature that had been pulled out of the water too soon and was still angry about the air.Aurora lay rigid in the center of the master bed. The duvet was pulled up to her chin. Her eyes were wide open, staring at the ceiling where the shadows of the city played in gray ripples.She hadn't slept. She had been waiting.Beside her, Liam shifted. He groaned, a low, exhausted sound, and sat up."It's 11:30," he whispered, checking the digital clock. "She's hungry."He turned on the bedside lamp. The pool of yellow light felt aggressive. It illuminated the mess on the nightstand—bottles of water, breast pump flanges, a half-read book on infant development that Aurora hadn't opened."I'll get her," Liam said. He swung his legs out of bed. He looked back at Aurora. "Do you... do you want to feed her?"Aurora felt a physical recoil in her chest. Her breasts were heavy,

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 75: The Business Trap

    The dawn over Manhattan did not bring light. It brought noise.It started as a low thrum, vibrating against the reinforced glass of the penthouse windows, a persistent, mechanical insect buzzing against a jar. Then, it grew. A rhythmic, chopping beat that rattled the expensive, minimalist furniture

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-22

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 76: Aurora's Countermove

    The board meeting was not a discussion. It was a tribunal.Aurora sat at the head of the long, concrete table in the AVA boardroom, a solitary figure in a white, high-collared tunic. The color was deliberate. She was not the "black-clad widow" or the "ghost" today. She was a blank canvas. A fresh s

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-22

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 81: The Private Meeting

    The office was silent, save for the steady, rhythmic thrum of the city fifty floors below. It was a sound Aurora had once found terrifying, a mechanical monster waiting to devour her. Now, it was just noise.Inside the room, however, the silence was a living thing. It was heavy with the weight of f

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-22

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 79: Memories Resurface

    The Cross Empire tower was quiet, a silence that felt less like peace and more like the held breath of a storm.Liam sat in his office, the lights dimmed, a single glass of amber liquid untouched on the desk beside him. The "Anonymous Tip" from the last chapter—the text about Sophia, the betrayal,

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-22
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