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Chapter 37: Preparing for Return

Author: Evve
last update Last Updated: 2025-12-25 00:14:42

The Maison AVA, the beautiful, sunlit, Parisian fortress, was being executed.

It was a quiet, brutal, and efficient death.

The grand, white-walled atelier, which for five years had been a cocoon of creativity and survival, was now a hollow, echoing shell. The bolts of silk and wool were gone, packed. The state-of-the-art sewing machines were silent, shrouded in plastic. The dress forms, her silent, headless assistants, were wrapped in muslin, standing in a mournful row by the door, ready to be crated like precious, delicate corpses.

Her life was being dismantled, packed into wooden boxes stamped with the simple, black, three-letter logo: AVA.

Destination: New York.

Aurora, the "Madame" of the house, stood in the center of the chaos, a still, cold point in her own storm. She wore her uniform: a severe, black, high-necked tunic, black trousers, and the sharp, architectural bob that was, to the world, the only face of "Ariane Rousseau."

She was a general, her voice low, precise, and devo
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  • Runaway 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, her hands folded in her lap. She wore the "Reconciliation" gown, the midnight-blue velvet storm cloud that had almost been destroyed by turpentine and hate.Beside her, Elias Ward sat like a king in exile, his silver-topped cane resting against the table. On her other side was her father, Henry Vale.Three generations of secrets, sitting in a row.The awards ceremony was a marathon of speeches, clips, and polite applause. Aurora watched, but she didn't see. Her mind was a split screen.On one side, the stage. The lights. The prize she had fought for.On the other, the image of Liam Cross, sitting at Table Two, just ten feet away.He wasn't looking at the stage either. He was looking at her.

  • 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, celebrities, and the nervous investors of AVA and Cross Empire—from the wind off the river.Inside, the air was electric.The rumor of the "attempted arson" had spread, as all rumors did in New York, mutating into a dozen different stories. Some said it was a fan. Some said it was a rival brand. No one said "Vanessa Leigh." Liam had kept his word. The threat was neutralized, the secret buried.But the tension remained.Aurora stood near the bar, sipping a glass of water. She wore the "Reconciliation" gown.The midnight blue velvet storm cloud.It was even more breathtaking on her than it had been on the dress form. The bodice, structured and severe, held her like armor, while the skirt, layers of dee

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 93: The Apology

    The morning after Vanessa’s arrest, the sky over New York was a bruised, delicate purple. The storm had broken, leaving the air sharp and clean, but the city still felt like it was recovering from a fever.Aurora stood in the center of her atelier.It was 7 AM. The doors were locked. The staff hadn't arrived yet.The space was silent, but it wasn't empty.The midnight-blue velvet gown—the "Reconciliation"—stood on its form in the center of the room. It was untouched. Perfect. A storm cloud captured in silk and tulle.Aurora walked around it, her fingers trailing in the air, not quite touching the fabric.She had saved it. But she felt... heavy.The adrenaline of the chase, the terror of the sabotage, the rage at Vanessa... it had all burned off, leaving behind a cold, hollow ache.She had won the battle. But the war inside her was still raging.He didn't do it.The realization was a stone in her shoe. Liam hadn't sent Sophie. He hadn't tried to destroy her work. He had hunted Vanessa

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 92: Vanessa's Firing

    The lights of the Cross Empire tower blazed through the rain, but inside, the atmosphere was cold enough to crack stone.It was 3 AM. The building was on lockdown. The only sound was the hum of the servers being methodically scrubbed by the forensic IT team.Liam Cross sat behind his massive mahogany desk. He was still wearing the clothes he had worn to hunt Vanessa—dark jeans, a t-shirt, a jacket damp with the river fog. He hadn't changed. He hadn't slept.He was waiting.The door opened.Graves walked in. He was holding a tablet."We found the rest," Graves said, his voice low. "The backups she hid on the legacy server. The 'insurance' files.""Show me," Liam said.Graves placed the tablet on the desk.Liam swiped through the files. It was a catalogue of petty treasons. Stolen client lists. Leaked designs. Drafts of emails to gossip columnists detailing his "coldness," his "cruelty."And then, there was a folder labeled simply: AURORA.He opened it.It was worse than the map.It was

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 91: The Culprit

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  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 90: Liam's Innocence

    The "lady in red" was a ghost. A phantom who had moved through the locked doors and secure servers of Cross Empire for five years, unseen and unchecked.But tonight, Liam Cross was hunting her.He sat in his office, the lights off, the city below a grid of rain-swept indifference. It was 4 AM. He hadn't slept since Aurora’s call.The lady in red. Vanessa.The accusation burned in his chest. Is she? Because she seems very active on your behalf, Liam.Aurora thought he knew. She thought he was complicit. She thought he was the kind of man who would hire a terrified assistant to throw paint thinner on a dress because he was afraid of losing a competition.That thought—that she still saw him as a monster—was more painful than the sabotage itself.He looked at his computer screen. He had bypassed his own security team. He had bypassed HR. He was logged into the server root, tracing the digital footprints of a ghost.Vanessa Leigh.She had been fired. Her access revoked. Her keycard deactiv

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