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Chapter 12: First Kiss
publish date:
2025-11-02 04:59:10
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The Billionaire's Dirty Secrets CHAPTER 83
CHAPTER 83Calla's POVThe night was a blur of terror and relief.Eleanor's "problem" turned out to be a minor respiratory scare common in preemies, quickly stabilized, nothing like the catastrophe my mind had conjured. By dawn, she was breathing on her own again, her tiny chest rising and falling with the rhythm of life.I stayed at her side through it all, holding her hand through the incubator's opening, whispering promises I prayed I could keep. Ronan stayed too the first time he'd been present for more than minutes since her birth. But we didn't speak. Didn't touch. The rooftop hung between us like a ghost.When the crisis passed, when the doctors assured us she was stable, we returned to the penthouse in separate cars. Separate lives. Separate everything.And this morning, Ronan called the meeting.I wasn't invited.I found out through Anya, who found out through Beck, who was currently in Ronan's study with Dorian and the head of security. The door was closed, the voices muffle
The Billionaire's Dirty Secrets CHAPTER 82
CHAPTER 82Calla's POVTwo weeks.Fourteen days of Ronan's absence, physical and emotional. He came home late, left early, buried himself in work and searches for Viktor's remaining network. He visited Eleanor once, for exactly eleven minutes, holding her like she might break before handing her back to the nurse with visible relief.I stopped counting the minutes he didn't spend with us.I stopped waiting for him to see me.And Dorian... Dorian was always there.Not intrusive. Never pushy. Just present in doorways, on night rounds, in the kitchen at 2 AM when sleep wouldn't come. We talked about everything and nothing. His childhood in Romania. My disastrous attempt at becoming an art curator. The way Isobel had started calling me "Mama" without prompting, the word still making my heart ache.He listened. Really listened. His green eyes held mine like I was the only person in the world worth hearing.And slowly, without meaning to, I started to unfurl.It happened on a Thursday.Isobe
The Billionaire's Dirty Secrets CHAPTER 81
CHAPTER 81Calla's POVHis name echoed in my head for the rest of the day.Dorian Black.Even his name was dangerous, smooth and dark, like expensive whiskey. I caught myself whispering it under my breath while folding Isobel's laundry, then froze, horrified at what I was doing.Stop it, I told myself firmly. You're exhausted. Hormonal. Lonely. That's all this is.But my skin still tingled where his eyes had touched me. And no amount of self-talk could erase the memory of that moment, the world falling away, the electric charge, the sense of being seen for the first time in months.I tried to focus on other things.Isobel needed help with her astronomy project. Eleanor's NICU nurse called with an update: another ounce gained, another small victory. Anya needed decisions about meals, about schedules, about the thousand small details that kept a household running.But through it all, Dorian's face hovered at the edges of my consciousness. Those green eyes. That voice. The way he'd said
The Billionaire's Dirty Secrets CHAPTER 80
CHAPTER 80Calla's POVThe penthouse was alive again.After all that silence and shadows, laughter echoed off the walls. Isobel's laughter—high and bright and so impossibly precious after days of wondering if I'd ever hear it again. She sat on the living room floor surrounded by gifts, Neil the astronaut propped beside her, a new stuffed elephant named "Ella" (after Eleanor, obviously) tucked under her arm."It's too much," Ronan said, but he was smiling—actually smiling—as he watched his daughter tear through another wrapped package."It's never too much." Lilian's voice cut through the warmth like a blade. "The child has been through trauma. She deserves to be spoiled."Lilian was here. Because of course she was. She'd inserted herself into the celebration under the guise of "family unity," and Ronan—exhausted, grateful, desperate for any sense of normalcy—had let her. Seraphina hovered at her mother's elbow, looking uncomfortable, her eyes darting toward me occasionally with someth
The Billionaire's Dirty Secrets CHAPTER 79
CHAPTER 79Calla's POVThree days.Three days since Eleanor arrived in the world, small and fighting, her tiny fingers wrapped around mine as if she knew I needed something to hold onto. Three days of shuffling between my hospital room and the NICU, my body healing, my heart splintering. Three days of Ronan's visits—brief, exhausted, always pulled away by another call, another lead, another dead end in the search for Isobel.I didn't blame him for leaving. I couldn't. His daughter was out there somewhere, and every moment he spent with me was a moment not spent finding her.But I felt the absence anyway. Felt it in the way he kissed my forehead instead of my lips. In the way his eyes skated past mine, always looking toward the door, toward the next crisis. In the way we'd stopped talking about anything except logistics—Isobel, Eleanor, the investigation, the next step.The love was still there. I knew it, deep down, in the place where certainty lived. But it was buried under so much e
The Billionaire's Dirty Secrets CHAPTER 78
CHAPTER 78Calla's POVThe contractions started at 3:47 AM.I know because I'd been staring at the clock again—the same clock I'd been staring at for five days, watching the numbers change, measuring time in the space between heartbeats. Five days since Isobel disappeared. Five days of searching, waiting, hoping. Five days of Ronan's calls growing shorter, his answers more clipped, the distance between us expanding like the universe after the Big Bang.At first, I thought it was false labor. Braxton Hicks, Dr. Vance had called it. Practice contractions. My body rehearsing for the main event.But by 4 AM, I knew this was no rehearsal.The pain started low in my back, then radiated around to my belly, tightening like a fist. I timed them—fifteen minutes apart, then twelve, then ten. Too early. Too damn early. I was only thirty-two weeks. The baby wasn't supposed to come for another two months.I reached for my phone. Ronan's number was right there, first in my favorites, the familiar di
The Billionaire's Dirty Secrets CHAPTER 40 - TRUST
CHAPTER 40 - TRUSTRonan’s POVThe study door was a barrier I’d built myself. On one side, the carefully controlled world of strategy and threat assessments. On the other, a kitchen that felt like a warzone of flour and accusations.Project.The word echoed in the silent room, a branding iron on my
Last Updated : 2026-03-25The Billionaire's Dirty Secrets CHAPTER 35 - NEW ARRIVAL
CHAPTER 35 - NEW ARRIVAL Calla’s POV The peace was a soap bubble, and it burst with the sharp chime of the doorbell. Anya was in the city on an errand. Beck was running a security drill with the new perimeter team. Ronan was at the rebuilt Vexley Industries headquart
Last Updated : 2026-03-24The Billionaire's Dirty Secrets CHAPTER 38 - The Backtalk
CHAPTER 38 - The BacktalkCalla’s POVThe café was a symphony of normal sounds—the hiss of the espresso machine, the low murmur of conversations, the clatter of cups. For two hours, it was a sanctuary. Jade held my hands across the table as I told her everything. Everything. The poisoning
Last Updated : 2026-03-24The Billionaire's Dirty Secrets CHAPTER 41 - In A Room Together
CHAPTER 41 - In A Room Together Calla’s POV Dinner was a halting, awkward, and strangely beautiful mess. Jade, to her credit, didn't try too hard. She told loud, slightly embarrassing stories from our shared past that made me laugh until my sides hurt—stories about disastrous dates, about scrapi
Last Updated : 2026-03-25
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