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Chapter 172: Blood Debt
Last Updated:
2025-07-02 23:08:12
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The CEO’s Temptation Chapter 219: The Quiet Between Us.
--- *****************************POV: Liz*************************** The hallway outside Claire’s room had become something of a ritual for me. I’d walk past. Then again. Then again. Each time pretending I had somewhere to be. A file to drop off. A phone call to take. My footsteps would slow near her door, and I’d stare at the hard mahogany wood like it might suddenly swing open, like maybe she’d feel me out there and invite me in. But she never did. Until today. I stood in front of it now, clutching my hands together so tightly my knuckles ached. My heart was hammering. You’d think I was about to step into a war zone, not into the room of the girl I used to call my best friend. I lifted my hand to knock. Stopped. Then, lifted it again, half hoping she wouldn’t answer. But her voice drifted through the door, soft and steady. “Come in.” I paused. Something about her tone—like she already knew I was there, like she’d been waiting—unraveled something tight inside me. I pushed
The CEO’s Temptation Chapter 218: The Silence After Storms.
*******************************POV: Claire************************ There were nights when I’d dream of the sea. Not the bright turquoise kind that framed the Montenegro villa, but the dark, churning kind—cold and endless, like memory. Like grief. Tonight, the dream hadn’t come. But the ache in my bones had. And the silence. That, too, had returned. The silence after storms was always the worst. I sat by the bedroom window in Mack’s estate, wrapped in a shawl I barely remembered pulling over my shoulders. It smelled like lavender and something clean. Probably Liz. She’d dropped by earlier, saying barely a word, just setting things down, straightening blankets, refilling water. Her presence had been loud in its quiet. I hadn’t cried. Not when I was rescued. Not when I saw Liam’s body on the ground. Not even when I woke in Mack’s arms, warm and safe and trembling so hard I thought I might break apart in his hands. I should’ve cried. Everyone expected it. But tears felt li
The CEO’s Temptation Chapter 217: Sons and Shadows.
**************************POV: Morgan******************** The house felt quieter than I remembered it. Not the kind of quiet that came from peace—but the stillness of aftermath, of something that had cracked and hadn’t been patched up yet. I didn’t knock. Henry’s staff let me in with silent nods, their eyes cast low like even they were mourning something bigger than a man. I knew that grief well. It had lived in the corners of my own house for years. Henry was where I expected—his study, the only place that ever truly belonged to him. He stood by the window, back straight, holding a glass he hadn’t touched. I didn’t say his name. Just walked in and closed the door behind me. He didn’t turn. “He used to stand here,” he said, voice low, roughened by hours of silence. “Same spot. Said it made him feel important. Tall. Like the world couldn’t touch him.” I stepped beside him, letting the quiet sit between us for a moment. Through the window, his garden lights burned faintly against
The CEO’s Temptation Chapter 216: A Name to Protect.
*******************************POV:Henry******************* I hadn’t cried. Not in the hours after the mission. Not when the call came in confirming what I already knew. Not even when Mack returned with blood on his hands and sorrow in his eyes. But when the door to my house clicked shut behind me—when silence finally settled over the polished floors and dimmed chandeliers, the kind of silence that crawled inside a man’s chest and made itself at home—something inside me cracked. I loosened my tie as I walked into the sitting room. It still smelled faintly of cigars and leather-bound history. The same room where I'd once held Liam as a baby. The same room where I'd told Mack, years ago, that business came first, always. I sat down slowly, every joint in my body aching with the weight of too many years and too many regrets. My hand brushed the velvet armrest of the antique chair, and for a brief moment, I imagined Liam there as a boy, kicking his feet, asking questions about pla
The CEO’s Temptation Chapter 215: Bloodlines and Ghosts.
********************************Mack’s POV*********************** --- The room was finally quiet. Claire had fallen asleep again, her breathing soft and slow, curled against the pillow like someone still unsure if the nightmare had really ended. Her hand, moments ago curled in mine, had relaxed. I didn’t let go. Not yet. The soft beep of the monitors filled the silence, but it didn’t bother me. It was steady. Reassuring. Proof of life. And I needed that. I hadn’t slept. I wasn’t sure I could. Not tonight. Not with the images still clawing behind my eyes—shattered glass, blood in the hallway, Liam’s body collapsing to the floor. That moment kept playing over and over in my head, like a reel. I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to. Rowe pulled the trigger. But it didn’t matter who did it. He was dead. Liam. My brother. --- Half-brother. That’s the phrase people liked to use when they wanted to soften things. To draw a line. To say he wasn’t really your family. As if adding a
The CEO’s Temptation Chapter 214: The Door We Didn’t Knock On.
********************************Rowe’s POV ********************** --- Claire was alive. That truth should’ve grounded me. It should’ve made everything clearer, easier—like all the weeks of chasing ghosts and blinking dots, and praying in silence had finally paid off. But as Liz and I walked the hallway toward her hospital room, it didn’t feel like the end of something. It felt like the beginning of a new weight I wasn’t sure I knew how to carry. Liz walked beside me, her arms wrapped tightly around herself like she was trying to hold something broken together. I wanted to reach for her—just to give her something solid to lean on—but the air between us was too thick. Too many unsaid things, too many emotions we hadn’t untangled. The closer we got to Claire’s room, the slower our steps became. I didn’t say anything when Liz stopped in front of the door. Her fingers hovered over the handle, trembling just slightly. From inside, there was no noise. Just a faint hum of medical equ
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