Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Arrogant Billionaire's Redemption: Kabanata 131 - Kabanata 140

The next morning made it almost impossible to drag ourselves out of bed. We lingered there, clinging to the warmth of each other, our foreheads brushing as we cradled each other’s faces like we were making sure the whispered promises of last night hadn’t been some shared dream. “Good morning,” Simon murmured, tapping my nose with his finger. “So we’re getting married or something,” I shot back, poking his nose in the same way. My lips curved in a mischievous grin, the memory of him calling me Valentina Valero still giving me that giddy flutter in my stomach. “Baby,” he said, his voice low, steady—like he was telling me the most obvious truth in the world—“we’re already married.” The word baby sent a shiver down my spine, but confusion quickly jostled against the thrill, tilting my smile lopsided. “Yeah, and then we got a divorce,” I reminded him, searching his face. But that infuriatingly smug smile lingered, like he knew something I didn’t. “Don’t be too sure about that,” he tea

The closest hospital was only fifteen minutes away, but the drive had felt longer, stretched taut by the silence that filled the car. My fingers dug into the armrest, holding myself steady as pain pulsed up my injured leg, but it was nothing compared to the heaviness in my chest. Simon sat beside me, jaw locked tight, his black eye shadowing the sharpness of his features. Ajax’s laughter still echoed faintly in my ears from earlier that morning, and it made the quiet almost unbearable. When we finally arrived, the glass doors parted automatically, spilling bright hospital light over us. The smell of antiseptic hit instantly—sharp, clean, suffocating. Everything seemed to echo: the squeak of nurses’ shoes, the distant hum of machines, the clipped voices carrying bad news down sterile corridors. Minutes later, I found myself in the doctor’s office, sitting stiff in a chair too rigid to offer comfort. Papers shuffled, a pen clicked, and the low hum of the fluorescent light above mad

“Simon!” I flared the next second, my voice cutting through the air like a whip. “I had it under control!” The words exploded out of me, a raw burst of fury. My chest heaved, my whole body trembling as though my anger had taken physical form. “You had to go and ruin it!” The shout broke in my throat, crumbling into something weaker, a whimper disguised as rage. My hand fell, limp, as my voice did the same. Anger died in me as suddenly as it had come, leaving only hollowness in its wake. Around me, the air thickened with tension. Every officer, every guard, even Sandra, the usually unflappable detective, exchanged uneasy looks. The silence in the room was weighted, brittle, like one wrong sound could shatter it. “I’m sorry.” Simon’s voice came quiet, subdued. He sounded beaten down, his tone laced with remorse. But my heart was too battered to process apology, too raw to let it touch me. I didn’t respond. Instead, I stretched my hand out, slow and mechanical, palm open. He placed m

The room carried that still heaviness hospitals always seemed to breed, a mix of sterile air and the faint hum of machines that had become background noise. I sat propped against the raised head of my bed, watching Alicia as she moved with purpose, her words deliberate, her tone softened but insistent. “With what?” I asked finally, after letting her silence draw itself out. “I need to reconcile with him,” she said. I stared at her, blank at first, my mind slow to catch up. She looked back at me, eyes unflinching. “I need to fix my faulty relationship with Simon.” Understanding bloomed slowly, followed just as quickly by confusion. My role in this was unclear, blurry. “I don’t see how I can help,” I admitted, my voice dipping with hesitation. “I mean…” she trailed, looking away, hesitation flickering across her face. Then her gaze locked back onto mine, sharp, almost scheming. “You’re the only one capable of getting into his head.” “Whaaat!!” The word dragged from me, my surprise

Morning crept in with a gentleness that felt undeserved. I woke to the absence of Simon’s warmth beside me, my hand instinctively searching for him only to meet cold sheets. His side of the bed held nothing but a hollow trace, as though he had vanished long before dawn. I pushed myself upright, sunlight spilling through the blinds and cutting across my vision in sharp, golden streaks. The brightness hurt, not just my eyes but the reminder of how fleeting peace could be. “Good morning.” The voice drew me from my thoughts. Turning, I found Alicia sitting nearby, her face lit by a warm smile. “Good morning,” I echoed, stretching weakly before returning her smile. It was difficult—nearly impossible—to picture that smile as anything but good. Hard to reconcile it with Simon’s bitter recollections of manipulation and deceit. To me, her expression radiated only kindness, not the cruelty he claimed lurked behind it. But my gaze drifted again to the empty space at my side, and the dull ac