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홈 / Romance / Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride / Chapter 96: AVA's Victory

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Chapter 96: AVA's Victory

작가: Evve
last update 게시일: 2026-01-13 22:20:09

The car ride home was silent.

But it wasn't the heavy, suffocating silence of the past. It was a silence born of exhaustion and a strange, humming sense of peace.

Aurora sat in the back of the black SUV, her head resting against the cool leather. Her eyes were closed, but she could still see the lights of the gala. She could still hear the roar of the applause.

And she could still feel the phantom pressure of Liam’s arm around her waist as he walked her through the vultures.

Just save me a danc
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  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 399: HOPE TAKES THE STAND

    The witness chair was made of oak. The grain was tight, varnished to a high gloss that felt slick under Hope’s sweating palms.She sat all the way back, but her feet still dangled an inch above the floor. She resisted the urge to swing them. She planted her patent leather heels on the rung of the chair, locking herself into place.Structural integrity.The microphone in front of her looked like the head of a black snake."Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" the bailiff asked, holding out a Bible that smelled of dust and thousands of other people’s promises.Hope placed her hand on the leather. It was cool."I do," she said.Her voice didn't squeak. It didn't tremble. It was clear, cutting through the recycled air of the courtroom like a bell.She looked out at the gallery.She saw her mother. Aurora was sitting on the edge of the bench, her hands clasped so tight her knuckles were white. She wore black. She looked like a queen in mourning.She

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 398: THE EVIDENCE SPEAKS

    The courtroom was a theater of silence.Aurora sat in the front row of the gallery, her hands clasped so tightly in her lap that her knuckles ached. Beside her, Liam was a statue of tension, his eyes fixed on the large projection screen set up near the jury box.On the screen, a photograph appeared.It was grainy, taken on an old iPhone. It showed a four-year-old girl in denim overalls, standing on a step stool to reach an easel. Her face was smeared with green paint. She was frowning in concentration, her tongue caught between her teeth.Behind her, pinned to the wall, was a drawing of a leaf. A green curve with veins scratched deep into the paper."Exhibit A," Arthur Vance said. His voice was calm, guiding the jury through the timeline like a curator in a museum. "Dated May 14, 2018. The artist is four years old."The jury looked. Aurora watched them looking. A woman in the back row smiled. A man in the front row adjusted his glasses.Vance clicked the remote.The image changed. A n

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 397: TRIAL OPENS

    The Federal Courthouse at 500 Pearl Street was a monolith of stone and authority, designed to make human beings feel small.Aurora Vale-Cross didn't feel small. She felt compressed. Dense. Like a diamond formed under the crushing weight of the earth.She stepped out of the black SUV. The sidewalk was a riot."MRS. CROSS! IS HOPE TESTIFYING?" "WHERE IS ISABELLA VOSS?" "IS IT TRUE SHE'S IN ZURICH?"The press pen was overflowing. Cameras with lenses like cannons were trained on the car door. The headline on the morning news ticker had been simple and brutal: BILLIONAIRE FAMILY VS. GHOST WOMAN.Liam got out first. He offered a hand to Hope.Hope took it. She was twelve years old, wearing a navy dress with a white collar—an outfit chosen by the legal consultants to look "innocent but composed." She held her head high, her chin jutting out in that stubborn Cross angle, but Aurora saw the way her fingers trembled against her father’s palm.Aurora followed. She flanked Hope on the other side.

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 396: PREPARING HOPE

    The therapist’s office on Park Avenue didn't have sand or toys. It had a view of a brick wall and two leather armchairs.Hope Vale-Cross sat in the left chair. She was twelve years old, but her feet barely touched the floor. She was wearing her painting hoodie—the gray one stained with Prussian Blue—because it felt like armor.Dr. Aris had referred them here. Trauma witness preparation, she had called it. A different kind of canvas.The specialist, Dr. Sterling (no relation, just another cosmic joke), was a woman with kind eyes and a notebook that looked like a legal brief."So, Hope," Dr. Sterling said. "We're going to talk about the courtroom.""I know what a courtroom is," Hope said. Her voice was quiet. "My dad was in one. My mom was in one. It's where you go when people try to break you.""It can feel that way," Dr. Sterling agreed. "But it is also where you go to tell the truth. Do you know what testimony means?""It means I have to sit in a chair and answer questions about my a

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 395: THE COPYRIGHT WAR

    The conference room table at Sterling, Vance & Associates was buried under a blizzard of white paper.To anyone else, it looked like a legal filing. To Aurora Vale-Cross, it looked like a demolition order.She sat at the head of the table, her hands clasped on top of the leather binder labeled PLAINTIFF: HOPE VALE-CROSS (MINOR). She wasn't wearing her usual silk. She wore a black wool blazer that scratched against her neck, a tactile reminder to stay sharp. To stay angry."It's filed," Arthur Vance said, closing his laptop with a definitive click. "Federal Court. Southern District. Copyright infringement, theft of intellectual property, wire fraud, and—thanks to the deepfake precedent—intentional infliction of emotional distress.""Good," Aurora said. Her voice was low, devoid of the relief she usually felt when a project was greenlit. This wasn't a project. It was a rescue mission.Liam sat to her right, his jaw set in a line of granite. Marcus paced by the window, staring out at the

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   CHAPTER 394: TRACING THE THEFT

    The security office in the basement of Vale-Cross Global was the only room in the building without a view. It was a windowless bunker of brushed steel and humming servers, lit by the blue glow of a dozen monitors.Marcus Cross sat in the main chair, his boots resting on the console. He wasn't wearing a suit. He had ripped off his tie hours ago, leaving the collar of his dress shirt open.On the screen in front of him, the website https://www.google.com/search?q=UrbanSoul.com was frozen.He stared at the image of the tote bag. The pixelated copy of Hope’s The Fortress."Garbage," Marcus whispered.It wasn't just the theft that made his blood run cold. It was the quality. Whoever had done this hadn't just stolen the art; they had degraded it. They had taken a twelve-year-old girl’s soul and turned it into landfill fodder."Status?" Marcus barked without turning around.Chen—the forensic analyst who had been on retainer since the deepfake incident nearly a decade ago—was typing furiously

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   61: Sophia's Friendship

    Sophia Tan was a professional listener. As the CEO of Tan Communications, she was paid to listen to crises, to spin them, and to bury them.But sitting in the back booth of a quiet, dimly lit bar in Tribeca, listening to the ghost of her best friend tell the story of the last five years, she felt l

    last update최신 업데이트 : 2026-03-21

  • 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 update최신 업데이트 : 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 update최신 업데이트 : 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 update최신 업데이트 : 2026-03-21
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