Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Arrogant Billionaire's Redemption: Kabanata 141 - Kabanata 150

The moment she walked away, I drained the last of my coffee in one sharp gulp, forcing the bitter liquid down my throat. The two pills followed immediately after, clinking against my teeth before I swallowed them dry, letting the heat carry them into my stomach. A reckless act, maybe, but there was no room left for hesitation. My ankle throbbed beneath its layers of gauze, and I knew I couldn’t afford to limp into what was ahead. By the time I reached a secluded corner of the park, the trees casting their narrow shadows across empty benches, I was trembling—not from fear, but from the anticipation that always came when I forced myself past the point of reason. I lowered myself into the chair, reached for the edge of the bandage, and began cutting through it. The fibers resisted at first, clinging stubbornly, then gave way in jagged tears until pale skin showed through. The cool air stung as it touched the raw flesh underneath. The coffee was supposed to keep me awake, sharp; the pi

Adam’s body twitched once, then again, before the last flicker of resistance faded from his limbs. His face contorted into a grotesque shade of purple, lips slackening as Vik pulled the cord tighter, and then looser, testing, like a boy strangling a toy rather than a man murdering another. Adam’s eyes bulged, then rolled back until all that remained were the whites. With one last gasp that sounded more like a gargle than a breath, his organs gave in, shutting down one by one, until his body sagged completely. Vik let the line slip from his hands and shoved Adam to the floor with the heel of his boot. His weight hit the tiles with a thud that echoed around the windowless walls. The punk lifted his face toward Sarah and grinned, a jagged, gap-toothed expression of pride. He looked like a dog waiting to be praised, and Sarah, ever the mistress of theatrics, raised her hand and flashed him a thumbs up. He lit up as though he had just earned himself a medal. “He was getting annoying,

He giggled like someone embarrassed by a clumsy joke. “Oh sorry,” he said, as if the scalpel in his palm were an accidental discovery rather than a weapon he'd wielded without hesitation. My lungs felt carved out by the memory of what had just happened, but every muscle in me was alert. He cocked his head, studying the blade as if it were a stranger. “My mistake,” he murmured, and then, with a casualness that made my skin crawl, he let it fall. It hit the floor with a dull, insignificant clack and he gave it a lazy kick. The metal skittered and came to rest by the chair where Ajax had been sitting. He shrugged when it landed, as if the entire room and everything in it were props for his convenience. Then he settled back onto the couch, the motion practiced and easy, like a man resuming a movie he'd paused five minutes ago. He wiped his blood-stained hands across the upholstery, painting a smear of red across baby-blue fabric. At that instant Ajax reached his number. The count had be

I had no time to make sense of it before I was staring straight at the face of her captor on the monitor. Adam’s mouth moved, but my brain shorted out. I would have reached into the screen and ripped his head off if I could have. Instead I watched him clamp his hands around the necklace and tear it from her neck. The connection died with that one brutal motion. The little dot that had been Tina flickered and then went dark. For a moment there was nothing but dead silence through the earpiece, and that silence felt like being dropped off a cliff. I pushed to my feet so fast my chair screeched back. Helplessness exploded inside me. We had lost our only live line to her. “What happened?” Ralph asked, eyes still on his drone controls. He sounded less like an operative and more like someone waking to bad news. “She was found out,” I said before I could stop myself. My voice came out flat. My fingers ran through my hair the way some people pace. The jeweler’s warning fell into place in m

His eyes darted wildly, wide and frantic, until they landed on us. In that instant the fear drained, replaced with recognition, and he bolted upright. “Mum!” Ajax threw himself at me, arms wrapping around my neck so tightly it almost choked me. His little body shook against mine, his tears soaking through the thin hospital gown. “I was so scared,” he whispered, his voice cracking, breaking me all over again. I held him tighter, pulling him flush against me, kissing his hair as if to convince myself he was real. “You were so brave, Ajax. I love you so much.” His head turned then, spotting Simon. “Dad.” Simon leaned in, enveloping us both, his voice steady though I could hear the strain underneath. “You saved your mother, Ajax. I’m so proud of you.” For a fleeting, fragile moment, everything was perfect. The three of us tangled in a desperate hug, a knot of warmth and safety that made the rest of the world irrelevant. For the first time in days, it felt like nothing could t