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Chapter 22
Tanggal publikasi:
2024-05-23 03:04:23
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The Billionaire's Unexpected Soulmate. Chapter 44
The coffee Zara made was the kind that required no apology, dark, strong, poured into mismatched ceramic mugs that had survived three studio moves and one minor flood. Her gallery occupied the first floor of a converted warehouse in the arts district, the kind of space that looked accidental but was actually the result of years of careful cultivation. Exposed brick. Industrial lighting softened by carefully placed lamps. The smell of good coffee and linseed oil and something that might have been ambition.Serena had always loved it here.She sat on a paint-splattered stool at Zara's worktable and told her everything. Not in the careful, edited way she'd been speaking to everyone else, not the managed version she'd given Godwin, or the controlled version she'd given Damian. All of it. The hospital. Owen's visit. The eviction notice. The document. The two men in her studio are treating her crisis like a chessboard.Zara listened without interrupting, which was one of the things Serena v
The Billionaire's Unexpected Soulmate. Chapter 43
The footsteps were too measured to be accidental.Serena didn't look up from her sketchbook. She'd learned, in the years she'd spent in this studio, that the kind of person who climbed three flights of stairs to find someone wasn't the kind of person who got deterred by being ignored. So she kept her pencil moving, kept her eyes on the page, and waited.Owen appeared in the doorway like he'd been placed there by a director with a flair for timing.He was dressed down today, no cologne she could detect from this distance, no carefully pressed blazer. Dark trousers, a simple shirt, sleeves rolled to the elbow. It was a costume, too, she recognized that. The casual version of Owen was just as constructed as the polished one. Today, he wanted to look approachable. Unthreatening.She wondered what he wanted."Your building manager told me you were here," he said, stepping inside without being invited. His eyes moved across the studio, the canvases stacked against the wall, the worktables t
The Billionaire's Unexpected Soulmate. Chapter 42
The morning came in gray and unannounced, the way bad news always does.Serena had slept in fragments, an hour here, forty minutes there, her mind refusing to surrender to unconsciousness fully. The sketchbook sat on the table beside her, closed, but she was aware of it the way you're always aware of things you've revealed too much of yourself in.She was trying to decide whether to open it again when Godwin walked through the door.She recognized him from before, the kind of man who took up space without apology, broad-shouldered and careful-eyed. He'd visited twice already, always brief, always watching the door like he expected company. Damian's man. She'd never said it aloud, but she'd always known."Morning," he said, his voice low, respectful. He set a takeaway coffee on her table, the good kind, from the place near her studio. "How are you feeling?""Like someone's been keeping things from me." She looked at him directly. "Like everyone in my life has decided I'm too fragile to
The Billionaire's Unexpected Soulmate. Chapter 41
Serena couldn't sleep. She'd tried, counted backwards from one hundred, focused on her breathing, practiced every relaxation technique the hospital's therapist had mentioned, but her mind wouldn't settle. It kept circling back to Damian's kiss on her forehead. The tenderness of it. The desperation underneath.And Owen's warning.She was still awake when Owen appeared in her doorway at nearly midnight, looking disheveled in a way that seemed calculated to appear genuine."I know it's late," he said quietly, slipping into the room and closing the door behind him. "But I needed to see you. To make sure you were safe.""The nurses probably wouldn't approve of visitors at this hour," Serena said, but she didn't call for help. Part of her was curious. Part of her was exhausted enough not to care.Owen pulled the chair close, closer than Damian had kept it, and sat down. "I've been thinking about what I told you earlier. About Mara. And I realized I wasn't being fair to you. I was giving you
The Billionaire's Unexpected Soulmate. Chapter 40
The consulting firm's offices occupied the entire thirty-second floor of a gleaming tower in the financial district. Damian sat across from the CEO of Meridian Corp, watching the older man's expression shift from skeptical to intrigued as he laid out his strategy proposal."You're talking about restructuring their entire operational framework," the CEO said, tapping his pen against the mahogany desk. "That's ambitious.""It's necessary," Damian replied, his voice steady despite the exhaustion pulling at his bones. He'd been awake for thirty-six hours, first at the bank, discovering that yes, his grandfather's portfolio existed, and yes, it contained enough seed capital to launch something real. Then, organizing the paperwork. Then, prepare for this meeting.The money wasn't anywhere near what he'd had access to before. But it was his. Legitimately, irrevocably his."Walk me through the timeline," the CEO said.Damian did. He'd spent the last decade watching his father operate, learnin
The Billionaire's Unexpected Soulmate. Chapter 39
The hospital room smelled like antiseptic and dying flowers. Serena lay in the narrow bed, staring at the ceiling tiles and counting the specks of dust that had somehow infiltrated this supposedly sterile environment. She'd been counting things a lot lately, heartbeats, breaths, the number of times nurses checked on her without actually looking at her.The doctors said she was physically fine. The blackout had been stress-induced, they explained gently, as if stress was something quaint and manageable, like a bad habit she could kick. They didn't understand that her body had simply decided it couldn't process any more information. So it had shut down. Mercy, disguised as unconsciousness.She heard footsteps before the knock came, expensive shoes on linoleum, the kind of walk that announced confidence before the person even entered the room.Owen.He stood in the doorway holding a bouquet of white roses, looking like he'd stepped out of a luxury catalogue. Expensive cologne preceded hi
The Billionaire's Unexpected Soulmate. Chapter 37
I rushed home, my mind still reeling from the events at the hospital. The drive felt endless, and by the time I pulled into the driveway, the weight of the night hung heavily on my shoulders. I needed to talk to my dad, to figure out what was going on with my frozen accounts and, more importantly, t
The Billionaire's Unexpected Soulmate. Chapter 36
Damian I had just settled into bed, the day's exhaustion finally catching up to me, when my phone rang. Glancing at the caller ID, I saw it was Godwin. We hadn't spoken in a while, and the urgency in his voice was palpable the moment I answered. "Damian, it's Serena. She's hurt. I'm rushing her to t
The Billionaire's Unexpected Soulmate. Chapter 35
I hesitated outside Damian’s door, holding his cardigan tightly. Sunlight streamed through the hallway windows, casting a warm glow. I wondered if I should leave the cardigan at his door or knock and give it back in person. There was clear tension between us, and Damian’s obvious dislike for me made
The Billionaire's Unexpected Soulmate. Chapter 34
I slipped out of bed, still clutching Damian's cardigan, and tiptoed to the door. Pressing my ear against it, I listened intently, my breath held tight. After a few tense moments, there was another creak, followed by a faint shuffling sound. Someone was definitely out there. My mind raced. Should I
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