Bibliothek
Suchen
Startseite / Romance / Signed, Sealed, Sinful / CHAPTER 19: The Morning After

Teilen

CHAPTER 19: The Morning After

Pointone
last update Veröffentlichungsdatum: 11.09.2026 15:09:04

Lara's POV*

I told myself it was the atmosphere.

On the drive back from the gallery, I sat against the far window of the car and watched the streets and told myself that candlelight and slow music and two months of proximity could make anything feel significant, and that the warmth in my chest was circumstantial rather than real.

Xander sat on his side of the seat and said nothing; which I appreciated and resented in equal measure.

When the car stopped outside my building, I got out without cer
Lies dieses Buch weiterhin kostenlos
Code scannen, um die App herunterzuladen
Vorheriges Kapitel Nächstes Kapitel
Gesperrtes Kapitel

Aktuellstes Kapitel

  • Signed, Sealed, Sinful    CHAPTER 37 : Xander's POV — "What She Took"

    I sent Lara back to her desk and told her I'd be five minutes.It was closer to twenty.Benjamin was in my office inside three minutes, laptop open, security feed up on the screen. The footage from the twenty-third floor showed a woman in a dark coat moving through the space with her head slightly down, but the angle was clear enough at one point, the jawline, the hair, the way she walked.Casandra."How did she get a visitor badge?" I asked Benjamin."She used the account of Kellner Interiors," Benjamin said. "A supplier we've used for two projects. She must have had someone on the inside create the booking. The front desk didn't look twice because the name matched a legitimate vendor account.""She was up here for eleven minutes," I said, watching the footage."Yes. And she didn't just post the comment." Benjamin clicked through to another screen. "She accessed the company file server using Tonia's credentials. She was in the archived records for nine of those eleven minutes.""What

  • Signed, Sealed, Sinful    CHAPTER 36 : Lara's POV — "The Article"

    Mirabel was the one who showed me.She came to my desk at ten forty-five with her phone face-up, set it in front of me without saying anything, and took two steps back.The article had a photo of me at the charity gala standing near Albert Crawford, taken from an angle that made us look like we were having a warm, friendly conversation. The headline called me a "calculated social climber" and the first paragraph described my marriage to Xander as a "known arrangement" designed to redirect Williams Group resources toward my personal benefit.Tonia's statement was quoted in full.I read it once, all the way through, and then I set the phone down and turned back to my screen."Lara," Mirabel said softly."I'm fine," I said."The comments section has your Brooklyn address in it."That made me stop.I picked up Mirabel's phone again and scrolled to the comments. Six lines down, someone had typed out my full apartment address and asked, in a tone that didn't feel like curiosity, whether any

  • Signed, Sealed, Sinful    CHAPTER 35 : Xander's POV — "Two Sisters"

    I saw Lara end the call at ten past ten.She sat at her desk for a full minute without moving, both hands flat on the surface in front of her, and I watched through the glass because I couldn't do anything else.Then she stood, picked up her notebook, and knocked on my office door."Come in," I said.She opened the door, closed it behind her, and sat in the chair across from my desk. She put her notebook down and looked at me, and her face was very calm, the kind of calm that comes after something large has already happened and the shock hasn't fully converted into feeling yet."She knew," Lara said."What did Evelyn tell you?" I asked.She went through it in order, clearly and without extra words, the way she always organized information, her mother's sister Ruth, Daniel Okafor, the fire, the child, the papers Evelyn signed, the monthly payments, and then the name at the end.When she said my father's name, I didn't flinch, because I'd already read it in the folder. But watching her

  • Signed, Sealed, Sinful    CHAPTER 34: Lara's POV — "What Gran Said"

    Evelyn picked up on the third ring, and her voice had that morning texture to it, a little slow, a little careful, the way it got when the weather was cold and her chest was tight."Lara. It's early for a call.""I know, Gran. I'm sorry." I kept my voice low and turned my chair away from the glass wall. "I need to ask you something.""Go ahead.""I've been working through a list of families connected to the Ashby Street building fire," I said. "Four families. I've spoken to three of them this morning.""Lord." Evelyn's voice went soft. "How did that go?""Hard but okay," I said. "But Gran, the fourth name on the list is Okafor. I left a voicemail and they haven't called back. The name is bothering me." I looked at the notebook. "Okafor. Do you know that name?"The line went quiet.Not the quiet of someone thinking. The quiet of someone who has been waiting for a question and is now deciding how much truth to put into the answer."Gran," I said."Yes," Evelyn said. Her voice was differ

  • Signed, Sealed, Sinful    CHAPTER 33

    Xander's POVFranklin was on my screen at ten.He brought the full copy of Albert's court motion and walked me through it section by section, and by page four, I'd stopped reading and was just listening because the faster I absorbed it, the faster I could move.Albert had been thorough. He'd built his case around Tonia's statement, around the timeline of Lara's hiring versus our marriage date, and around a theory that a planned arrangement had been deliberately hidden behind the appearance of a genuine union."How strong is Tonia's statement?" I asked."On its own, weak," Franklin said. "Hearsay. Single source. No documentation." He leaned forward. "But if Albert gets a judge to order depositions, we're in discovery. That costs us time we don't have before the trust deadline.""He's not trying to win the motion," I said. "He's trying to eat the clock.""Correct.""Counter-file today," I said. "Full legal response. I want it submitted before close of business.""Already drafting." Fran

  • Signed, Sealed, Sinful    CHAPTER 32 Lara's POV — "The First Call"

    The name at the top of Franklin's list was Grace Patterson.Her husband Marcus had been thirty-four years old when the fire took him. He'd worked nights at the Ashby Street building as a security guard, and he'd left behind a wife and a daughter named Nia, who was seven years old at the time and was now fifteen.I sat at my desk at seven-twenty in the morning, before anyone else arrived on the floor, with Franklin's contact sheet face-up in front of me and my phone in my right hand.I dialed.Grace answered on the second ring. "Hello?""Good morning, Mrs. Patterson." My voice came out steady, and I was glad for that. "My name is Lara Emmanuel. I'm calling from Williams Group, but not as a company representative."A short pause. "Then why are you calling?""Because I found out the truth about your husband's building, and I think you deserve to hear from a real person, not a lawyer." I stopped for one breath. "And because I lost people in that building too."Another pause, longer this t

Weitere Kapitel

Das könnte dir auch gefallen

Entdecke und lies gute Romane kostenlos
Kostenloser Zugriff auf zahlreiche Romane in der GoodNovel-App. Lade deine Lieblingsbücher herunter und lies jederzeit und überall.
Bücher in der App kostenlos lesen
CODE SCANNEN, UM IN DER APP ZU LESEN
DMCA.com Protection Status