All Chapters of Married To The Cruel Billionaire : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

THIRD PERSON The house felt too quiet for a Saturday.That was the first problem.Selene noticed it the moment she woke up. Like the walls knew Adrien was home and were determined to make sure she knew it too.It had been a few days since… that.She didn’t name it in her head. Naming it made it real, and real things needed to be handled, talked about, looked at straight on. She wasn’t doing that. She had decided, very carefully, that the best response was avoidance and to forget they literally had sex.Not reflection, Not talking just Avoidance.It felt mature when she framed it right.She stayed in bed longer than usual, scrolling through her phone without actually reading anything, just to delay the moment she’d have to step into the shared space. When she finally got up, she moved quietly, like he might hear her thoughts through the walls.She told herself she was calm.She stepped into the bathroom, brushed her teeth, washed her face, stared at her reflection longer than needed.

Third personThe executive conference room sat high above the city, all glass and clean lines, built to remind anyone inside who held the power. Late afternoon light filtered through the windows, dull and pale, stretching across the long table like it belonged there.Mr. Harris Voss sat at the head of the table, jacket off, sleeves rolled once, posture relaxed in a way that only came from decades of control. Beside him sat Marielle Voss, composed as ever, legs crossed neatly, tablet resting on the table in front of her. She hadn’t touched it yet. She didn’t need to.They didn’t look at each other much. They didn’t have to.Around the table sat the company’s top executives. Finance. PR. Operations. Legal. Each of them sat straight, folders open, pens aligned, eyes alert. No one spoke out of turn. No one leaned back too far. This wasn’t one of those meetings where ideas bounced around freely.This was direction.Harris tapped his fingers once against the table. The room quieted instantl

SELENEMorning slipped into the house without asking me how I felt about it.I woke up already alert, already tense, like my body knew before my mind did that today needed control. Not calm. Control. Calm felt risky. Calm left room for thoughts to wander, and wandering was how I ended up remembering things I had no plan to deal with.So I got up.I didn’t linger in bed. Didn’t stare at the ceiling. Didn’t let myself replay anything. I swung my legs over the side, stood, and moved straight into the bathroom without looking at my reflection.That was the first rule of the day.No mirrors.I brushed my teeth while staring at the wall. Washed my face with my eyes half shut. I tied my hair back without checking how it looked. Appearance wasn’t the point. Distance was.I left the bedroom quickly, like the room itself might reach out and pull me back into something I didn’t want to sit with. The hallway felt quiet. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that made sounds feel louder than they should be

SELENETime passed, but the anger didn’t.It just sat there with me, heavy and sharp, like something lodged under my ribs that wouldn’t shift no matter how I breathed. Evening crept in slow, the light changing through the windows without asking my permission. The house followed it. Lamps came on. Shadows stretched. The air cooled.I tried to distract myself.I really did.I wiped down the kitchen counter even though it was already clean. I lined up the mugs by size, then by color, then undid it because it felt wrong. I rinsed a glass I hadn’t used. I folded a throw blanket on the couch, unfolded it, folded it again.Nothing worked.The house felt too quiet. Not peaceful. Quiet like it was listening. Like it was waiting for me to catch up to something I was avoiding.Everything Adrien said kept replaying.The committee.The way he said it like it was already set in stone. Limited role. Supervised. Non negotiable. The calm in his voice that made it worse. The way he didn’t argue it beca

SELENEI was seated between women who didn’t feel like family.That was the first thing I registered.Mireille sat across from me, back straight, legs crossed, hands folded neatly on her lap. Aunt Celeste leaned against the armrest beside her, posture relaxed in a way that felt practiced, not casual. They looked like they belonged here. Like the room had been shaped around them over years.I felt placed.Not invited. Placed.A tea tray sat untouched on the table between us. Steam curled up slowly. No one reached for a cup.Mireille smiled at me. It was polite. Controlled. The kind of smile that didn’t move the eyes.“We’ve been going over the final structure for the Christmas event,” she said. Her voice was calm, smooth. “Given the timeline, it makes more sense for you to stay here.”The word landed wrong.Stay.I blinked once. “Stay… here?”“Yes,” she said easily. “At the mansion.”She said it like she was telling me the weather. Like this was the obvious next step.“It will simplify