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Chapter 45: The Business Proposal

作者: Evve
last update 公開日: 2025-12-28 00:23:49

The "transparent prison" of the penthouse was no longer a metaphor. It was a fact.

Aurora stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, her hand gripping the cold, steel mullion, her forehead pressed against the glass. Fifty floors below, the ants on the street, the yellow river of taxis, the city... it all felt like a different, louder, and more dangerous world.

The park had been a mistake.

She had been a fool, seduced by a single, sun-drenched, five-minute slice of "normalcy." She had, in a moment o
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  • 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

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 427: THE SCARE

    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 425: THE DANCE

    The reception tent was a canopy of white silk and Edison bulbs, glowing against the deepening indigo of the Hamptons twilight.It smelled of salt air, roasted figs, and the heavy, sweet scent of the peonies Aurora had fought for.Aurora stood at the edge of the dance floor, a crystal glass in her hand. The wine was a vintage Rosé, pale pink and crying with condensation. She ran her thumb over the stem.She hadn't had a drink in eight months. Between the IVF cycles, the two-week waits, and the brief, bright flares of hope that had eventually flickered out, her body had been a temple. A laboratory. A waiting room.Tonight, it was just a body.She took a sip. The wine was cool, tart, and grounding. It tasted like permission."You're hiding," a voice rumbled in her ear.Liam.He stepped up beside her, sliding his arm around her waist. He had shed his tuxedo jacket, his white shirt glowing in the ambient light, cuffs rolled up to reveal his forearms. He smelled of sea breeze and the expens

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 68: Ethan Tags Along

    The "five minutes" with Liam had stretched into something dangerous.A crack in the wall. A glimpse of a future that Aurora had sworn was impossible.Now, twenty-four hours later, the crack was widening.It was a Saturday. The penthouse was filled with the morning sun, turning the white surfaces in

    last update最終更新日 : 2026-03-21

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 64: Liam's Investigation

    The "war" wasn't being fought with supply chains anymore. It was being fought in the dark.Liam Cross sat in the back of his Maybach, the city of New York sliding past the tinted windows like a film noir. It was raining again, a relentless, gray drizzle that matched his mood.He wasn't going to the

    last update最終更新日 : 2026-03-21

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 60: The Breakup That Wasn't

    The "war" Vanessa Leigh had promised was not starting now. It had started five years ago, in the aftermath of a wedding that never happened.The present—Liam’s office, the dossiers, the obsession—faded as Vanessa sat alone in her dark apartment, pouring a glass of wine she didn't want.She closed h

    last update最終更新日 : 2026-03-21

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 69: The Collision

    The American Museum of Natural History was a cathedral of bones.It was vast, echoing, and smelled faintly of floor wax and old dust—the scent of time standing still. It was the perfect place to hide, surrounded by things that had already lived, died, and been cataloged.Aurora walked through the H

    last update最終更新日 : 2026-03-21
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