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chapter 413
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2026-10-04 01:00:35
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The Billionaire's Secret Bride chapter 420
Point of View: Alexander“Daddy, Rabbit says you found it. Rabbit says now you can stop crying in the car. Is that true, or is Rabbit only trying to be kind?”Claire stood at the foot of my study chair at dusk, in her pajamas, holding her old stuffed rabbit by one floppy ear. Her hair stuck up on one side. Her feet were bare on the cold floor. She looked at me with the grave, patient eyes of a very small judge.I laughed. It came out cracked. “Rabbit is very wise.”“He is seven.”“I remember.”“So did you find it?”I lifted her onto my lap. She weighed almost nothing. She smelled of soap and warm cotton. I felt the whole long day, the library, the ledger, Eleanor’s letter, press down on my chest like a stone. And then I felt it lift, just a little, because of her.“We found something,” I said. “A book. It tells a true story, and some of it is not nice.”“Is the true story a lamp?”“Yes, my love.”“Did you put it on a table?”“We are going to,” I said. “Soon. We are going to let everyb
The Billionaire's Secret Bride chapter 419
Point of View: Elena“So we are both owed, Elena. You got a husband and a mansion. My grandmother got a funeral and a lie. Tell me honestly, do you think that is fair?”Iris’s words cut like cold wire. It was noon the next day, and we sat around the long table in the Sterling library, with rain streaking the tall windows and the green ledger open between us. I had not slept. My eyes felt full of sand.“No,” I said. “I do not think it is fair.”“Then what will you do about it?”“Iris,” Alexander began.“Let her answer.” I lifted my hand. My voice shook, but I made it steady. “I will not pretend that I understand your pain. I have not lost what you lost. But I will tell you what I will not do. I will not hide this book to save my own comfort. I will not let anyone, not even the man I love, tell me to look away.”Iris studied me for a long time. The fire crackled. Naomi’s pen stopped moving.“Good,” Iris said at last, quietly. “That is all I wanted to hear.”“And I will not pretend you a
The Billionaire's Secret Bride chapter 418
Point of View: Alexander“If he took it, Alexander, then I handed it to him. I chose him. If we lose it, the fault is mine, and I will carry it alone.”Elena sat in the back seat of the car with her wet hair stuck to her cheeks and her hands clenched in her lap. The windshield wipers beat slowly. Outside, the night rain smeared the streetlights into long gold streaks.“It is not your fault,” I said.“Then whose is it?”“Pruitt’s.”“And Marcus’s?”I did not answer. I gripped the wheel until my knuckles ached. In the mirror, Iris and Oscar sat very still, like two people watching a house burn.I wanted to say, Marcus would never do that. I wanted to say it with all my heart. But a small, cold voice in my head whispered, he was the man who sold secrets once. The man who stood in my office and lied. The man who looked me in the eye and said, trust me.And then I remembered his hand on my arm that morning. The plain shame in his voice. I hate that I even had to remind myself.“I do not bel
The Billionaire's Secret Bride chapter 417
Point of View: Elena“Do not turn off the light, Alexander. Please. Not yet. If this place goes dark, I will hear that voice again, and I do not think I can bear it twice.”My whisper bounced off the empty seats. It was ten o’clock that night, and the Delancey Theater felt like a held breath. The ghost light burned alone at the edge of the stage, a small yellow sun in a sea of black. Dust floated in its glow. The air tasted of old velvet and cold iron.“We will keep it on,” Alexander said. “For now.”“You promise?”“I promise.”There were five of us. Alexander and I. Marcus, with a flashlight in his teeth. Iris Marsh, silent and pale, her long coat brushing the floor. And Oscar, trembling, his hands wrapped around his own elbows. He had told us everything in the car. Pruitt had found out about the song from an old letter in the Sterling archives. The words seven steps were all he knew. He did not know where the steps were. Oscar did.“He gave me until midnight,” Oscar had said. “To sh
The Billionaire's Secret Bride chapter 416
Point of View: Alexander“Say it, Alexander. Say you do not trust me. I would rather hear the words than watch you pretend for another day, with that look on your face.”Marcus stood in the doorway of my study at six on Monday morning, wearing yesterday’s shirt. He had not slept. Neither had I. The house had been locked tight since Saturday, with new guards at the gates and a stranger parked outside our walls in a gray car that vanished whenever we looked at it.“I trust you,” I said.“Do not lie to me.”“I am not lying. I am trying.” I rubbed my eyes. “That is the honest answer. I want to trust you. I am working on it. Some days it is harder than others.”“Because of the photograph.”“Because of everything.” I leaned back in my chair. “You kept watching Oscar for months and told no one. You showed me a cropped picture and let me think the worst. You could have come to me weeks ago.”“I could have.”“Why did you not?”Marcus came in and sat on the edge of the sofa like a man waiting t
The Billionaire's Secret Bride chapter 415
Point of View: Elena“You signed my contract six years ago, Mrs. Sterling. You said, Write it honestly, even if it hurts. Do you still mean that? Because it is about to hurt very much.”Naomi Reyes stood in our front hall with rain on her shoulders and a brown envelope pressed to her chest. She was a small woman with sharp eyes, a messy braid, and the kind of calm that comes from asking hard questions for a living. Priya Shah had sent her to us. Priya said Naomi was fair. I hoped Priya was right.“I meant it,” I said. “Come into the kitchen. Teresa will bring tea.”“I do not need tea.”“You are shaking.”“I am cold.” She glanced at Alexander, then at Iris, who stood behind us in her long dark coat. Naomi’s eyes widened, just a little. “And I think I have just met the woman from the portrait.”“Iris Marsh,” Iris said quietly.“Naomi Reyes.” They shook hands. Neither of them smiled.We sat around the big oak table, the four of us, with Marcus hovering by the door and the rain tapping th
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