Billionaire Alpha のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 501 - チャプター 510

SophiaI took my time that morning getting ready and packing my bags. I didn’t want to risk finishing early and then coming into contact with Luke’s mother on my own again. It had been a grave mistake that affected the rest of the banquet for Luke and me. I couldn’t get out of my head, but I tried my hardest to appear like everything was okay between the two of us. I had no issue with Luke, other than his mother. I felt bad that he had to be related to someone like her, but I’d never tell him that.Avoiding her was my number one priority.After packing, I responded to the slew of texts from Matt and ignored the ones from the newspaper. I knew Mr. Fraser would want something soon, but after last night, I had no urge to interview Luke.Tricking Luke’s family had been bad enough. Now, I had to go on record and exploit him in front of the world. While I kept up my half of the bargain, I was hard-pressed to want anything else to do with it.The night before, Luke had said that he would com

LukeI noticed that Sophia was quieter than usual on the flight home. I asked her twice if she was all right before giving up. If she was in a mood about what Mother had said to her the night before, I didn’t want to make it worse.Once we got back to England, everything would go back to normal.Or would it?Sophia retired to her bedroom earlier than I anticipated. She claimed she didn’t get much sleep the night before, and again, Mother was to blame.With every mile behind us, I was confident that all would be okay soon enough.Once we weren’t forced to pretend to be together, the opportunity might come up for us to want to spend time together alone.Since there was no one to talk to and I wasn’t in the right head space to do work, I watched several movies before heading into my bedroom.By the time I came out, Sophia was already in her seat out in the common area.We didn’t have a lot of time to talk with the flight attendants always around, but I did want to follow through with my

LukeI hadn’t seen or heard from Sophia in two days, but when I walked into my favorite coffee place on Monday morning, a part of me still expected her to burst through the door behind me and beg me for an interview. She had done that when she first arrived in London. The American reporter had stalked me to my office and then to the one place I thought was special to me. If I had turned her down enough, she probably would have found a way to end up at my flat.In hindsight, maybe I should have done exactly that.Instead, I negotiated with her to pretend to be my girlfriend for a weekend so she could help get my mother off my back. That arrangement might have been my biggest mistake and the best thing that ever happened to me. Sophia was the most alluring and enigmatic woman I’d ever met.She had agreed to come with me to my family’s palace in Qatar. Having a “girlfriend”—even if she was American—would halt all efforts from my mother about setting me up with someone. While my mother wa

SophiaI had an awful, sour taste in my mouth. I wasn’t sure if it was caused by jet lag, lack of sleep, or a combination of both. I could barely drink my coffee that morning, knowing what was going to happen when I arrived at work with no article.Leaving Luke was the hardest thing I had ever done. I didn’t care that his mother hated me because I wasn’t a woman she had chosen for her son. But I did care that Luke’s father—Erol Shaman—was dying and he hadn’t told his family. It was only by mistake that I stumbled upon him and his doctor speaking in confidence about his terminal diagnosis. The king had asked me to keep his secret, putting me in an awful position with Luke.After arriving in Qatar, Luke and I had become much closer than I ever imagined. I knew I had feelings for him, but after his mother told me that Luke was in love with me and that she didn’t think I was in love with him, I had a lot to think about. Adding the secret of his father’s illness had sent me off the deep en

LukeBy the time midweek came around, my anxiety about Sophia had risen to an all-time high. Just like she had stalked me, I dedicated much of my free time doing the same to her. I started with a simple Google search for her first and last name.Americans seemed to write about every little thing when it came to their achievements. I found Sophia’s name in an article about her high school graduation, some early pieces of her work on an old blog website that hadn’t been updated in years, and a few awards at her university.Where I fell into utter oblivion was when I searched for her articles at the Dallas Post. She’d been there for six years, and I read every single article that she ever published for them. Many were pieces about businesses and people in the Dallas area, but with each word, I could hear her voice as if she were reading them aloud to me. Even some of the drier topics had been more amusing with her style and turns of phrase.I had thought she was an annoying woman who was