MasukShare
CHAPTER 68: The Press Conference
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-10-04 04:23:10
Bab terbaru
The Billionaire Next door (Who I Hate) CHAPTER 70 : Justin's Choice
KATE'S POVI stared at Leon."Justin posted Carter's bail," I said.Not a question. Just saying it out loud because sometimes that was the only way to find out if something was as strange as it sounded inside your head.It was.Leon showed me the message. Carter's counsel. The name on the documentation clear and unambiguous. Justin Roberts. The same Justin who had stood at that microphone twenty minutes ago and said his mother's name with the specific quiet fury of someone who had been waiting his whole life to say it publicly.The same Justin who had looked Carter Romano in the eye last night and said I don't forgive you."Why," I said.Leon put the phone in his pocket. "I don't know."We both looked across the emptying conference room to where Justin was speaking to a journalist near the door, unhurried, finishing a conversation while the room cleared around him.He didn't look like someone who had just done something unexpected.He looked exactly the same as he had all morning.Whe
The Billionaire Next door (Who I Hate) CHAPTER 69 : Kate Speaks
LEON'S POVI wasn't expecting her to step forward.She hadn't said she would. On the way over she'd told Justin she'd stand beside him, be visible, let her presence say what presence said. That was the plan.But Kate had a way of deciding things in the moment that no prior conversation had accounted for, and watching her lean toward that microphone I understood that whatever she was about to say hadn't been prepared.Which meant it was going to be the truest thing said in this room all morning.The journalists leaned forward slightly. Collectively. The specific movement of a room recognising that something unrehearsed was happening.She didn't look at her hands. Didn't look at me. Looked straight at the room like she'd been doing it her whole life."My name is Kate," she said. "I grew up next door to the Romano estate. My mother worked there. My father drove for them before he was let go." A pause. Not for effect. Just breath. "I spent most of my childhood understanding very clearly w
The Billionaire Next door (Who I Hate) CHAPTER 68: The Press Conference
KATE'S POVI said yes before I'd fully thought it through.Not impulsively. Just — the answer was already there before the thinking caught up to it. Justin had asked for me specifically and that meant something. Not because of who I was biologically or legally or in any of the ways that had been debated and documented and argued over for the past week.Because of who I was to him.The person who had sat across from him in a small house in Pasadena and heard his mother's name said out loud for the first time in a room that had something like power in it.That was enough.Leon didn't say anything when I told Bryan yes. He just nodded once, that small economy of movement that I'd learned to read as acceptance rather than agreement. He didn't have to agree. He just had to not stand in front of it.He didn't.Bryan made calls. Things were arranged. The two hours became one and a half by the time we got moving.Justin had chosen a neutral venue.Not the Romano estate. Not anywhere connected
The Billionaire Next door (Who I Hate) CHAPTER 67 : After Everything
KATE'S POVI kept my eyes on Leon while she asked it.He didn't know what she'd said. He could see from my face that something was happening but he couldn't hear her, just the faint sound of her voice through the phone, thin and controlled even now.Will he be alright.Such a Stefena question. Even at the moment of her own unraveling, even with whatever was happening on her end of that call, the question was about him.Not quite what I'd expected.Not quite what I'd have predicted from the woman who had sat at the head of that dinner table and made me feel like something that didn't belong with a single measured glance.But then I'd been wrong about several people this week. In both directions."Yes," I said into the phone. "He'll be alright."A silence on her end. Brief."Good," she said quietly.Then the call ended.I put the phone in my pocket and looked at Leon."She's been arrested," I said.He nodded once."She asked if you'd be alright," I said.Something moved through his face
The Billionaire Next door (Who I Hate) CHAPTER 66 : Fiona's Message
KATE'S POVI watched Leon read it.His expression moved through two or three things before settling into something I didn't have a clean name for. Not shock. Something quieter and more permanent than shock.He handed the phone back.I read it again even though I'd already memorised it.Kate. I'm leaving today. I've arranged everything quietly and I won't be coming back, not to Los Angeles, not to the estate, not to any of it. I want you to know that what I did when you were born was the worst decision of my life. Not because it unraveled. Because of what it cost you specifically. Every year of distance. Every time I held back when I should have held on. I told myself I was protecting you from the truth but I think I was protecting myself from having to live inside it fully. You deserved better than the mother I was. I can't undo that. I can only stop adding to it. There is money in an account in your name. Not Romano money. Mine. Saved over thirty years of working in that house. It be
The Billionaire Next door (Who I Hate) CHAPTER 65 : Morning
LEON'S POVI didn't sleep.Not properly. I lay in the hotel room in the dark and watched the ceiling and listened to the city doing its slow transition from night into early morning, the particular shift in sound that happened around five when things that had been quiet started waking up and things that had been moving started slowing down.My mind wouldn't settle.Not because of the statements or the counsel or the legal machinery that was now moving with its own momentum regardless of what I did next. That stuff I could compartmentalise. Had been doing it my whole life. You put the things you couldn't control in a specific place inside yourself and you left them there and you dealt with what was in front of you.What was in front of me right now was a ceiling.And what was behind that was everything else.Carter walking into a station at midnight and saying his own words without arrangement. I kept coming back to that. Not because it fixed anything. It didn't fix anything. Justin ha
The Billionaire Next door (Who I Hate) CHAPTER SIX : Our Wedding Night
KATE “What kind of bride ditches her wedding reception before the toast?”I sighed in frustration. “An unhappy bride.”To save face I returned my attention to the wardrobe, desperate to put something on, but not before I saw his mouth twitch at my statement.Where were my clothes? They were here b
The Billionaire Next door (Who I Hate) CHAPTER FIVE : Forced Proximity
KATEThe cathedral bells bellowed ceremoniously.The wedding was finally over. Then came the marriage. The actual marriage.Mrs Romano's smile was ice as she held up my bulk wedding dress, just for the cameras of course, so I could slide into the white limousine. I let out a deep breath I didn't
The Billionaire Next door (Who I Hate) CHAPTER FOUR : Into The Lion's Den
KATEMrs Romano’s eyes met mine.And just like that, I knew I wasn’t welcome.The verdict didn’t need words.It was in the way her gaze lingered a second too long. In the slight tightening of her lips. In the silence that followed.I lowered my eyes and took my seat.The dining table was too long.
The Billionaire Next door (Who I Hate) CHAPTER THREE : The Unexpected Bride
KATE“With cooperation comes reward.”The man’s voice was calm, very calm.My father leaned forward like he was being offered the world.“And everything we discussed… still stands?”The man gave a small nod.“Of course.”My stomach turned. Everything we discussed?I stepped into the room.“What is
Anda juga akan menyukai
Divorced My Cheating Husband, Married A Billionaire
LiLhyz867.7K DibacaYour Uncle’s My Husband Now—Back Off, Ex!
June2.3M DibacaA Life Debt Repaid
Cheng Xiaocheng1.1M DibacaOne Night With Mr Billionaire
Sun girl812.9K DibacaThe Dare For The Curvy Girl
Esta124 DibacaDevoured by the Syndicate King [18+]
Calista Nyx100 DibacaFalling For The Ex Convict Brother
Sven85 DibacaThe Billionaire Secret Heir
Vic124 Dibaca
