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Chapter 43: Father and Daughter

Penulis: Evve
last update Tanggal publikasi: 2025-12-27 00:10:09

The click of the lock, as she’d turned it, was the final punctuation mark on the death of her childhood.

Aurora was on the floor, her back pressed against the cold, polished wood of the door, in the small, dark, windowless office.

She wasn't shaking anymore.

The violent, silent tremors that had wracked her body moments ago had passed, leaving behind a strange, numb stillness. The "unwell" girl, the "hysterical" daughter who had wanted to scream, had been allowed her brief, gasping moment of ter
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    The lab at the New York Center for Reproductive Medicine was a world of stainless steel, liquid nitrogen, and quiet miracles.Aurora lay on the familiar gurney, wearing the blue paper gown. She knew the drill. She knew the way the ceiling tiles were patterned. She knew the exact temperature of the room.But this time, the fear was different. It wasn't the jagged, panicked fear of the last attempt, where every needle felt like a gamble against her own body. This fear was softer. Quieter. It was the fear of handing over the blueprint to someone else."Ready?" Dr. Rosenberg asked."Ready," Aurora said.She looked at Liam. He was sitting by her head, holding her hand. He wasn't wearing the bunny suit this time—just his street clothes, a blazer over a t-shirt. He looked calm. Solid."We've done this before," he reminded her."We have," she agreed. "But this time... the ending is different."The anesthesia took her under. It was a quick, velvety darkness.When she woke up, the recovery bay

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 430: FINDING EMMA

    The binder was heavy. Cream-colored leather, embossed with the agency’s logo—a stylized lotus flower that looked suspiciously like a corporate merger of nature and commerce.Aurora sat in the high-backed chair, the binder open on her lap. The room was aggressively soothing. Beige walls. White noise machine. A tea service that smelled of chamomile and contracts."Take your time," the agency director, a woman named Mrs. Sterling (no relation, simply the universe repeating its favorite joke), said softly. "It’s a matching process. Like... finding a home."Aurora turned the page.Candidate 412.Age: 24. BMI: 21.Hobbies: Yoga, watercolor painting, organic gardening.She looked perfect on paper. They all did. They were vetted, screened, psychologically profiled, and presented like luxury real estate listings. Good bones. Great light. Move-in ready.Liam sat next to her. He wasn't looking at the binders. He was looking at Aurora. He was checking her structural integrity, watching for the cr

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 429: THE CONVERSATION

    The iPad screen went black, extinguishing Sophia’s radiant, pixelated face.Aurora set the tablet on the limestone railing of the terrace. The silence that followed the video call wasn't empty; it was heavy with the echo of Sophia’s laughter and the image of her hand resting on a six-month bump.Sophia was glowing. She was complaining about heartburn and swollen ankles, but she was glowing with the specific, terrifying bioluminescence of a woman growing a life she had thought she would never have.Aurora looked out at the city. The wind was warm tonight, carrying the scent of late summer rain and hot asphalt.She wrapped her cardigan tighter around herself. Underneath the wool, her stomach was flat. Scarred, yes. Marked by the silver line of the C-section that had brought Hope into the world and nearly taken Aurora out of it. But flat.Empty."She looks good," Liam said.He was sitting on the outdoor sofa, watching her. He had a glass of wine in his hand, the condensation dripping ont

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 428: THE OVERPROTECTOR

    SophiaThe brownstone in Brooklyn was supposed to be a home. Marcus had turned it into a biosphere.Sophia lay on the velvet chaise in the living room, a cashmere throw tucked around her legs with military precision. The thermostat was set to seventy-two degrees. The humidifier hummed in the corner, maintaining a humidity level that Marcus had decided was optimal for placental health.On the low table next to her sat a glass of water (room temperature), a bottle of prenatal vitamins, and a plate of sliced pears arranged in a fan.She shifted her weight. Her hip ached from three weeks of modified bedrest."Don't move," a voice rumbled from the doorway.Marcus walked in. He wasn't wearing his boots. He was wearing socks, moving silently across the restored hardwood floors. He carried a fluffier pillow."I am just shifting, Marcus," Sophia said. "I am not running a marathon.""Dr. Evans said minimize strain," Marcus said. He walked over and lifted her legs—gently, as if they were made of

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    The blood on the white tile of the bathroom floor looked like a mistake in the design.It was too bright. Too red. A violent, organic splash against the cool, veined marble of the master bath in the Hamptons estate.Sophia stared at it. She was holding a towel to her body, her hands trembling so violently the terry cloth vibrated.Twelve weeks, she thought. The danger zone is supposed to be over.She felt a cramp. Not the gentle flutter of the wedding night. A hard, twisting knot low in her pelvis."No," she whispered.She didn't call Marcus. He was in the city, at a site meeting for the foundation housing project. He was two hours away. If she called him, he would drive like a madman. He would kill himself trying to get to her.She called the only person who knew what it felt like to lose a blueprint before the foundation was poured."Aurora," she choked into the phone. "I'm bleeding."The hospital room in Southampton was small and smelled of iodine.Sophia lay on the gurney. She was

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 426: WEDDING NIGHT

    The silence in the honeymoon suite was heavy, but it wasn't the heaviness of concrete or steel. It was the weight of velvet.The room smelled of the ocean—salt and cold water—mixed with the lingering scent of the beeswax candles that had burned down to nubs on the mantelpiece. The sounds of the reception had faded hours ago, the last car door slamming, the last laugh carried away by the wind.Now, there was only the tide.Sophia stood by the French doors. She hadn't turned on the lights. The moonlight spilled across the floor, turning the hardwood into a sheet of silver.She wore the gold dress. It felt different now. In the garden, it had been a statement. Here, in the quiet, it felt like a wrapping she was ready to shed."You're quiet," Marcus said.He was sitting on the edge of the massive bed. He had taken off his tuxedo jacket, his tie, his shoes. He looked unmoored without his boots, but solid. Always solid."I am listening," Sophia said."To what? The ocean?""To the house," sh

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 17: A Choice

    The vow hung in the cold, salt-damp air, a new and terrible covenant.He will never know you. I will die before I let him touch you.Aurora was still on the bathroom floor, but the hysterical, broken woman who had laughed and sobbed was gone. In her place was a new creature, forged in the ice of th

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  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 15: Hidden Away

    The bus was hot, and it smelled of damp wool and exhaust. Aurora was huddled in the back, on a hard plastic seat that vibrated with the rattling of the engine. She had been on it for over an hour, a ghost in her ivory slip, tucked into the anonymity of the crowd. People got on, people got off. Th

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  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 18: New Identity

    The vow she’d made in the cold, fog-gray bathroom had settled in her bones.He will never know you.It was a promise that had solidified the ice. The hysterical, broken woman who had sobbed on the bathroom floor was gone, frozen out. In her place was a new, cold, calculating intelligence.She was n

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  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 11: Silent Scream

    She ran.She was a blur of white lace, a comet of her own destruction, fleeing the epicenter of the blast.The door to Room 305 was open behind her."Aurora!"Liam’s voice. Not pleading. Not apologetic. It was a roar of pure, unadulterated fury. A command.The sound of it, the sheer, arrogant posse

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