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Chapter 53: NYFW Countdown
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-05-14 15:23:35
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The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 53: NYFW Countdown
Amelia's POV Six weeks felt like nothing.I knew that going in. I had done Fashion Week timelines before, in another life, in the years before everything fell apart, and even then with a full team and a proper studio and a budget that didn't require creative accounting, six weeks was tight. Six weeks as one person, working in a sealed east wing room before sunrise and after midnight, with a marriage to maintain and a board meeting to survive and a Meridian complaint sitting in a committee's inbox like a small ticking thing, was something else entirely.I broke it down the way I broke down every impossible thing.One day at a time. One task at a time. The collection first, everything else around it.I had twelve pieces in various stages. Four were close. Four needed significant work. Four existed only as drawings and needed to move from paper into something real, which meant fabric sourcing and pattern work and Giulia at Bianchi in Milan who had agreed, after a very direct phone call,
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 52: War Footing
Amelia's POV I was at my work table by five thirty.The east wing was silent at that hour. The whole house was. I had started to love the quiet mornings because they felt like the only part of the day that belonged completely to me. No footsteps in the hall. No staff moving through the kitchen downstairs. No meetings. No calls.Just the lamp beside me and pages spread across the table.I had been working on the Harlow pitch for almost an hour when my phone buzzed against the wood.Jade.That early meant something had happened.I answered immediately."Vanessa's complaint to the Meridian committee," she said before I could speak. "I got the comparison document she submitted."I leaned back in my chair. "And?""It's detailed. I'll give her that. But it's weak once you really look at it." Papers shifted on her end. "She's comparing colors, shapes, general styling. Surface stuff. She doesn't understand the structure behind the designs, and the committee will notice that if they're honest
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 51: The Bigger Game
Amelia's POV I didn't sleep.I lay in the dark and looked at the ceiling and let the full shape of it settle over me the way cold water settled, slowly and everywhere at once.Ethan Ward had never been after me.That was the thing I kept returning to. I had spent months believing I was the target. That the Aurora theft was about my work, my talent, the specific thing I had built that he had wanted badly enough to take. I had built an entire plan around that belief. Lia Hart, the evidence file, Diana's feature, the Harlow pitch. All of it constructed on the assumption that what Ethan had done to me was personal.It wasn't personal.I was a message.Aurora had been a demonstration to Alexander. Look what we can take. Look how close we can get. Look at the people around you, the ones you haven't met yet, the ones you will choose to trust, we can reach them before you do. We can damage them before they even know you exist.I was a warning delivered to a man who hadn't known yet that the
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 50: The Trusted Traitor
Amelia's POVThe name Alexander said was Henry Marsh. A Sterling Corp board member. One of the longest standing. A man who had been at Alexander's father's table before Alexander was old enough to sit at it himself. The room held the name for a moment and then I watched Alexander put it somewhere internal, somewhere deep and locked, and turn back to Ms. Holt with a face that was controlled again. Barely. But controlled."We'll come back to that," he said. His voice was very level. "Right now I want to understand your role in all of this. From the beginning."Ms. Holt nodded. Her hands were in her lap and she was looking at the desk between them, not at Alexander, not at me, at the neutral middle ground of someone gathering themselves for something they had been putting off for a long time."Leave us," Alexander said.I looked at him."Please," he said. To me. "Give me twenty minutes with her alone."I understood. There were things she might say to him that she would hold back with me
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 49: Leak
Amelia's POVAlexander took me into his study and closed the door.He didn't sit down. Neither did I. We stood on opposite sides of the desk and I told him everything Rodriguez had said, the payment timeline, the forty-eight hour window, the question about who had known the meeting location before this morning.He listened without interrupting.When I finished he was quiet for a moment. His hands were in his pockets and he was looking at the middle of the desk and his jaw was doing that tight, set thing."Jade," he said."No," I said.He looked up."I know her," I said. "Twelve years. She would not." I held his gaze. "I am certain of that the way I am certain of very few things right now. Take her off the list."He nodded once. Accepting it."Rena," he said."She knew the location. But she didn't know until yesterday evening when I confirmed the time with her directly." I paused. "The payment was made forty-eight hours ago. Which takes Rena off the list too."He walked around the desk
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 48: The Tail
Amelia's POVThe Harlow meeting lasted forty-two minutes.I know because I checked the clock on the wall when I sat down and checked it again when I stood up to leave and counted every minute in between while simultaneously presenting the most important pitch of Lia Hart's short existence with my phone vibrating in my bag and a dark car parked on the street outside and four Harlow executives looking at my drawings with the focused attention of people who were genuinely interested.I did not let any of those things show on my face.The lead executive, a tall woman named Patricia who wore reading glasses on a chain and asked very precise questions, held up the elevation drawing at the end and said:"This is the first pitch we've received that actually answered the brief instead of answering the brief they wished we'd given.""Thank you," I said."We'll be in touch by Friday," she said.I shook hands with all four of them, picked up my folder, and walked out of the meeting room at a pace
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 18: Safe House
Amelia's POVThe penthouse felt like a luxury prison.Forty floors above the city, floor-to-ceiling windows showing a view most people would die for, and I'd never felt more trapped.We'd been here for three days.Three days of Alexander working around the clock while I paced the apartment like a c
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2026-03-17The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 9: The Betrayal Within
Amelia's POVThe person in handcuffs wasn't a stranger.It was Marcus, one of Adrian's assistants. The quiet one who'd been helping with production schedules and factory coordination for weeks.I'd seen him dozens of times. Never thought twice about him.And now he was standing in Alexander's offic
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2026-03-17The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 11: Dangerous Truths
Amelia's POVI woke up in Alexander's bed.Morning light filtered through the curtains, soft and golden. For a moment, I just lay there, listening to him breathe beside me.Last night had changed everything.Not just physically, though that had been... incredible. But emotionally. The walls between
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2026-03-17The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 25: Going Public
Amelia's POVThe news broke at six AM."Breaking: Sterling Group Releases Evidence of Massive Fraud Network."Every major outlet picked it up within minutes.Alexander had released everything. The offshore accounts. The money trails. The connections between Ethan and his criminal partners. Document
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2026-03-17
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