Share

chapter 94

Penulis: muse
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-05-22 15:58:43

Damien pov

The penthouse was too quiet.

No ticking clock. No footsteps. No rustling paper. Only the hum of the refrigerator and the weight of everything I thought I knew shattering into silence.

I hadn’t spoken since i left my mother’s estate.

She’d sat across from me in that sterile drawing room with her back straight, her eyes heavy with the kind of pain I’d never seen in her. Not even when Angie died.

And then she told me the truth.

That my father—my real father—was a monster. A criminal. That she’d once loved him blindly. That he’d beaten her senseless when she was five months pregnant with me. That she’d run, bruised and bleeding, barefoot in the night, found a phone booth, and called Alexander Blackstone, the man who’d loved her despite the lie, despite the bloodline, despite everything.

Alexander had come. He’d saved her. He’d taken me as his own.

But now… now that I knew, I didn’t know who I was.

I sat on the floor of my penthouse, back against the cold glass window that overl
Lanjutkan membaca buku ini secara gratis
Pindai kode untuk mengunduh Aplikasi
Bab Terkunci

Bab terbaru

  • The chef and The charmer   chapter 130

    Evelyn’s POVI woke up before the sun.The vineyard was still sleeping, wrapped in dew and birdsong. For a moment, I sat in bed, staring at the folds of the silk canopy above me and listening to the gentle ticking of the clock on the wall. Outside, the sky held its breath, painted in the soft grays and lavenders of an awakening world. The faint scent of wildflowers and distant soil wafted through the open window.This was it.Today, I would become Evelyn Blackstone.Not just the private chef who once served panna cotta to New York’s most elusive billionaire.Not just the woman who agreed to a fake engagement for a man who wanted to fool his family.But now am the real fiancée. The real bride.And—maybe, impossibly—the real love of his life.I slid my feet onto the cool wooden floor and stood, spine tall, heart steady. There was a sense of gravity in the room, like the walls themselves knew something monumental was about to unfold. I padded across the room to the dressing chamber, wher

  • The chef and The charmer   chapter 129

    Evelyn’s POVNight had crept in like fog—quiet but present.I couldn’t sleep. Damian hadn’t returned to our room.I padded through the hallway in slippers and silk, following the faint murmur of voices. The study door was cracked open, golden light leaking out like spilled secrets.I heard Morgan first.“…even in death, that man manages to haunt this family.”Her voice was softer than I’d ever heard it. Not cold, not cruel—just tired.A pause.Damian said, “You pushed me away when I needed you most. Don’t make that mistake with Celeste.”“She’s not you,” Morgan snapped.“She’s someone’s daughter,” he replied. “Maybe his. Maybe not. But she doesn’t need to become another casualty of Blackstone pride.”The silence that followed stung. Like two people realizing they’d both failed each other in different ways.Morgan stood at the decanter, swirling whiskey but not sipping it.“She’s lying,” she muttered. “Lawrence was careful, yes, but never paternal. Never the type to raise anything but

  • The chef and The charmer   chapter 128

    Evelyn’s POVThe name came through late that morning.Celeste Wren.I stared at the email like it had been typed in acid.We’d never heard of her.“She’s not in any Blackstone records,” our lawyer said, his voice clipped, professional, and suspiciously too calm. “But she claims to be Lawrence’s daughter.”The words echoed off the walls of Damian’s study. The air seemed to still. I blinked, slowly, as if the syllables would rearrange themselves into something less absurd.“A daughter?” I repeated, half-choking on my coffee.“Allegedly,” the lawyer confirmed. “She’s petitioning the court for access to a share of his estate—and any trusts connected to Blackstone holdings.”The timing. The confidence. The audacity.It reeked of manipulation.Damian’s jaw flexed in quiet fury. He stood by the window, watching the vineyards shimmer under the late morning sun. From the outside, he looked tranquil—linen shirt loose, coffee cup untouched—but I knew the storm behind his eyes. A storm named lega

  • The chef and The charmer   chapter 127

    Evelyn’s POVThe vineyard was exactly as Morgan had promised—secluded, sun-kissed, and stunning. Rows of lavender stretched beside the vines, their fragrance mingling with the sweetness of ripening grapes. Butterflies floated like quiet confetti over wildflowers that bordered every path. It felt… sacred. Sacred in the way ancient churches feel when you’re the only one inside them. Sacred in the way childhood dreams resurface in your sleep.I walked the grounds with a notebook and a head full of color palettes, seating charts, and tentative guest lists. Damian followed behind me, hands tucked in his pockets, watching me with a half-smile that made the weight of decisions feel lighter.“It’s a wedding, Evelyn,” he teased when I squinted too hard at a flowerbed. “Not a Michelin plate.”“Wrong,” I said without missing a beat. “It’s both.”We stayed in the old stone cottage near the edge of the estate. Its shutters were the color of aged copper, and ivy clung to the walls like it had been

  • The chef and The charmer   chapter 126

    Evelyn’s POVWe didn’t make a grand post or dramatic reveal.No sweeping declarations on social media. No press releases or curated couple photoshoots. No one-liner PR statements from Damian’s office or gossip blogs hinting at an engagement.Instead, we kept it quiet—intimate.We invited everyone—Chris, Morgan, Damian’s extended family including uncle Anthony Miranda and her mother aunt Claire, and a few close friends—to the penthouse under the pretense of a dinner celebration for the mentorship launch. No one questioned it. The timing was perfect: I had just finished presenting my mentorship program, Something of My Own, at a charity gala last weekend, and the buzz was still fresh. If people assumed this dinner was just a wrap-up event to celebrate, that was fine.The penthouse buzzed with warmth. Champagne flutes clinked, the scent of rosemary lamb lingered in the air, and soft jazz curled through the room like perfume. The glass wall gave us a panoramic view of the city—lights twink

  • The chef and The charmer   chapter 125

    Evelyn’s POVThe lights weren’t harsh, but my palms still sweated under their glow.They illuminated the soft golden drapes that hung from the high ceilings, catching in the folds like sunlight clinging to late autumn leaves. The air was thick with the scent of jasmine candles and aged wine. Around me, laughter drifted in delicate waves, punctuated by the clink of crystal glasses and the smooth hum of a live string quartet tucked into the corner.A charity event—intimate, sophisticated, curated to feel effortless. The kind of evening Morgan Blackstone might’ve once orchestrated not out of compassion, but for power. For influence. For optics.But tonight wasn’t about appearances. It was about something else. Something deeper. Something mine.My program: Something of My Own. A mentorship initiative for girls who’d been told their dreams had ceilings. Girls who had only ever been taught to survive, not thrive. Girls who’d learned that the world didn’t bend for them, didn’t yield, didn’t

Bab Lainnya
Jelajahi dan baca novel bagus secara gratis
Akses gratis ke berbagai novel bagus di aplikasi GoodNovel. Unduh buku yang kamu suka dan baca di mana saja & kapan saja.
Baca buku gratis di Aplikasi
Pindai kode untuk membaca di Aplikasi
DMCA.com Protection Status