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Chapter 185: The Trace
publish date:
2026-05-12 13:34:01
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The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride Chapter 185: The Trace
Caleb POV The drone footage arrived at 5:40 AM, grainy and grey in the early morning light. Lena showed us the video frame by frame. The building was a large, dark rectangle in the industrial district. It had metal walls and a rusty entrance. The second-floor windows were covered with cardboard. The heat scan showed someone in the corner room on the second floor—likely Tom and a guard—and another heat signature near the stairs. "A guard on the stairs," Reyes said. "And at least one person in the room with Tom." "That's at least two people," Lena added. "Maybe three if there is a guard on the ground floor watching the doors." I studied the building layout again. The guard at the stairs was a problem because he could see anyone coming from the elevator or the main entrance. Coming in through the front would be too slow and loud. If we used the back freight entrance, we would still have to get up those stairs without being seen. "There is a fire escape on the west wall," Diana said
The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride Chapter 184: Bella's Breaking Point2
Bella POV"Why won't they use the elevator?" I asked.Diana glanced at me. "Positioning," she said. "The moment those doors open, they are exposed to both sets of stairs at the same time. Plus, an elevator announces itself. Between the mechanical noise and the wait time, it's too risky. No one trying to hold a position uses an elevator if they have stairs.""Agreed," Caleb said."We have to go up both sets of stairs at the same time," I said. "One team for each. If we only use one and they hear us, they will take him down the other way.""That takes perfect timing," Reyes said. "My team can do it.""Lena’s team takes the second stairs," Caleb said. Reyes paused for a second then continued. "My agent will take the second stairs," she said. "Lena’s team will stay outside and block the exits."Caleb thought about it and decided it was okay. "Fine," he said."The rooms," I said, looking at the map again. "There are three possible rooms on the second floor. We can't check them one by one.
The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride Chapter 183: Bella's Breaking Point
Bella POV I had been powerless before. I knew exactly how it felt—the way it stays in your bones and tells you that nothing you do matters. I felt it on my wedding night when my family told me to disappear, I felt it when I was working odd jobs just to survive and I promised myself back then that I would never feel that way again. But here it was. The room was quiet at 4 AM. Reyes’s team spoke in low voices. Diana was on the phone in the hall. Caleb sat two feet away. That small distance was the only thing keeping me from falling apart. I watched the second video again. Tom had his hand flat on the floor. He did that whenever he was thinking hard, like he was trying to steady himself. He was scared but trying not to show it. Seeing a five-year-old try that hard to be brave broke my heart every time. I had taught him to be brave, but I never wanted him to need it for this. "Bella." Maya was suddenly beside me, her voice quiet and steady. It was the tone she used when she was be
The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride Chapter 182: The Hunt Begins2
Caleb pov "Functioning," I said. "Which is all she'll allow herself to be until he's back." Diana nodded once, slowly, like that was something she understood completely. At 2 AM, Reyes's analyst found something. The background audio from the video—the mechanical cycling sound—matched a specific type of industrial HVAC unit used in warehousing complexes built between 2008 and 2015. There were fourteen such complexes in the city. Lena's team was already cross-referencing those against the partial plate's travel radius from the school. "We're narrowing it to four sites," Lena said, spreading satellite imagery across the table. "Here, here, here, and here. All within the plausible travel window from the school. All partially or fully vacant." "The HVAC unit narrows it further," Diana said, leaning over the imagery. "That specific model runs louder in units over fifteen thousand square feet. It's not the sound of a small warehouse." Lena pointed at two of the four sites. "These two
The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride Chapter 181: The Hunt Begins
Caleb POVI had run boardroom coups, I had dismantled hostile takeovers in forty-eight hours. I had stood in my father's office at thirteen while he told me that crying was a disease, and I had believed him for years.None of it had prepared me for watching Bella watch that video.I’d seen every side of Bella—her strength in boardrooms, her resilience in the hospital, and her quiet empathy for others. But I’d never seen the look that hit her face when Tom said, “Come find me.”In that moment, the fear she’d been holding back finally surfaced. I held her upright, my mind flashing to Tom on that concrete floor with his dinosaur backpack. He was five years old and alone, yet he’d stopped crying to be brave—using the exact words Bella had taught him.A cold, absolute rage settled in my chest. I grew up knowing what it felt like to be afraid, and I had promised myself Tom never would. Whoever put him on that floor was going to be systematically dismantled.Bella pulled herself together fir
The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride Chapter 180: The Panic
Bella pov "Jade Hart," I said immediately. "My sister. She's been building toward something for months. She has a history of paid operatives and the capacity to fund a short-term operation." I paused. "Victoria Lane is a possibility but she's under a plea deal. Diana Black's name came up in a threat network we dismantled last year, but she's been cleared and is currently in family therapy with us."Reyes nodded, writing. "Anyone else?"Caleb spoke. "My uncle, Cole Black. He was arrested months ago but he referenced there were 'more people like him but we never fully mapped his network."Reyes looked up at that. "We'll pull his associate list tonight.""How incomplete is the network map?" Reyes asked, looking at Caleb directly."Incomplete enough that we don't know what we don't know," he said. "Cole had been operating inside Black Enterprises for years before we found him. Shell companies, third-party contractors, at least two people we identified who we believe were feeding him info
The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride Chapter 24: Maya Advice
Bella pov I tucked Tom into bed and sat beside him, smoothing his dark hair back from his forehead. "I love you, Tom. More than anything in the whole world.""Love you too, Mommy." His eyes opened slightly, that grey gaze so like his father's that it hurt. "Mommy? Why do I look different from you?
Last Updated : 2026-03-19The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride Chapter 22: Return to Hell
Bella POVI made it back to the penthouse before I fell apart completely. The elevator doors had barely closed before the first sob broke free, raw and ugly and years overdue. I pressed my back against the wall and slid down until I was sitting on the floor, my expensive suit wrinkling, my carefull
Last Updated : 2026-03-19The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride Chapter 21: Breaking into her walls
Bella pov Just my name, spoken in that voice I'd tried so hard to forget. I stopped walking, my entire body going rigid. Turn around, I told myself. Face him. Show him you're not afraid.But I was afraid. Terrified, actually. Because hearing his voice again made me feel like that girl standing in
Last Updated : 2026-03-19The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride Chapter 15: Haunted
Caleb POVThe clock on my nightstand read 3:47 AM, and I was staring at the ceiling again, counting the minutes until I could pretend sleep was even an option. Bella's eyes haunted me every time I closed mine.I'd tried everything: sleeping pills that left me groggy and useless, whiskey that only m
Last Updated : 2026-03-18
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