All Chapters of The CEO's Stepdaughter: Chapter 121 - Chapter 130

139 Chapters

Chapter 121 - Niccola Fairchild

Niccola FairchildOne month. That’s how long it’s been since the world stopped feeling like it belonged to me, and how long I’ve been slowly, stubbornly taking pieces of it back.I stand in the bedroom with my coat half on, staring at my reflection like I’m meeting myself for the first time. I look… different. Not weaker. Not smaller. Just quieter around the edges, like my body learned a new language and hasn’t fully translated it yet.Behind me, Aiden gurgles softly from his carrier, blissfully unaware that today feels monumental. He’s bundled up, cheeks round and pink, eyes tracking the movement of the room like it’s all fascinating and harmless. I envy him.“You don’t have to do this today,” Cole says gently from the doorway.I turn to him, really look at him. He’s trying so hard not to hover. Not to control. Not to make this about his fear instead of my readiness. “I know,” I say. “But I want to.” I let out under my breath.

Chapter 122 - Niccola Fairchild

Niccola FairchildThree months is long enough for people on the outside to start saying things like she’s doing better, as if healing is a straight road with a clean end. Three months is long enough for me to recognize my own laugh again, sometimes. Long enough for my hands to stop shaking every time the doorbell rings, most of the time. Long enough for the word safe to feel less like a dare and more like something I’m allowed to borrow.It’s a Tuesday when it happens, the kind of ordinary day that should be forgettable. That’s what makes it terrifying. Not the drama of it. Not the spectacle. The fact that life is almost normal when she decides to remind me, it never truly is.I’m at the kitchen island with my laptop open, phone pressed between my shoulder and cheek, my planner splayed out like a battlefield map. Steph is on speaker, talking fast and sharp, the way she does when she’s in her zone.“Okay,” she says, “tell me you got the florist to agree to

Chapter 123 - Niccola Fairchild

Niccola FairchildThe sound reaches me before the lights do. Sirens, close enough to feel in my teeth, loud enough to slice straight through my chest. Aiden startles in my arms, his small body jerking, and instinct takes over before fear can bloom. I tuck him closer, murmuring nonsense into his hair, rocking until his breathing steadies again.“It’s okay,” I whisper. “It’s okay.” I’m not sure who I’m convincing.Through the front windows, red and blue wash over the walls in slow, relentless pulses. The press vans down the street shift, doors opening, people spilling out with cameras already lifted, already hungry.Monica is still at the gate. I don’t look. I refuse to give her that. Instead, I focus on the weight of my son, the warmth of him, the way his fingers curl into my sweater like he knows this is where he belongs.Elisabeth’s voice is calm beside me. “They’re here.&rdqu

Chapter 124 - Niccola Fairchild

Niccola FairchildI notice it in the quiet moments first. Not when we’re surrounded by people, or when Aiden is crying, or when the house is busy with movement and purpose. I notice it late at night, when the lights are low and the world has narrowed to just the two of us moving around each other carefully.Cole hasn’t touched me. Not really. He hugs me. Holds my hand. Presses kisses to my forehead, my hair, my temple. Protective touches. Careful ones. Like I might bruise if he lingers too long.At first, I was grateful. Then I was confused. But now… Now I’m aching.It’s been months since the last time he touched me the way lovers do. Months since his hands moved over me without hesitation, without fear of breaking something invisible. I know why. God, I know why. He watched me disappear. He almost lost me. He’s been carrying that terror in his body ever since.But so have I. And the thing is… being held

Chapter 125 - Niccola Fairchild

Niccola FairchildIt starts with the heels. That’s how I know I’m really back.The sound echoes down the hallway, sharp, familiar, decisive, and for the first time in months it doesn’t make my chest tighten. It makes me straighten my spine. It makes me remember who I was before my world narrowed to four walls and a baby monitor.I catch my reflection in the glass doors of the building as Steph and I step inside our office, and I almost don’t recognize her at first.Not because she’s different, but because I am.I look… capable. Tired, yes. Softer around the edges than I used to be. But there’s something steadier in my eyes now. Something that therapy has been quietly building week by week, groundedness, maybe. Or permission.“This feels illegal,” Steph mutters beside me, tugging her blazer straight. “Like we’re sneaking into someone else’s life.”I

Chapter 126 - Cole Sutcliffe

Cole SutcliffeThe suitcase has been sitting by the door since last night. That’s how I know I’ve been avoiding it. I tell myself I’m just being thorough, checking emails one last time, reviewing contracts, confirming meetings, but really, I’m circling the same thought over and over like it might change shape if I stare at it long enough.The last time I left, everything broke.Six months ago. That’s what the calendar says, anyway. Six months since Niccola disappeared from my world and took the ground with her. Six months since I learned how quickly a life can tilt off its axis when you’re not there to catch it.Now the house is quiet in the early morning light. Too quiet. Aiden is still asleep upstairs, and Niccola is in the kitchen, barefoot, wearing one of my shirts like she does when she’s feeling soft and brave at the same time. I watch her from the doorway for a second too long.She senses me, of cour

Chapter 127 - Cole Sutcliffe

Cole SutcliffeCalifornia feels loud.Not in the obvious ways, traffic, sirens, voices, but in the way it never pauses. Sunlight bleaches everything into sharp edges, meetings blur into one another, and time stretches thin when the person you want to talk to is three time zones away.I’m on my fourth meeting of the day, sitting in a glass-walled conference room that overlooks a city I don’t care about, nodding at numbers that should excite me more than they do. Sawyer is across the table, elbows on the armrests, charm deployed, explaining our expansion plans like he hasn’t already done it three times today.My phone buzzes in my pocket. I don’t look. That’s how I know I’m struggling.Sawyer catches it anyway. He always does. “You good?”“Fine,” I lie.He snorts. “You’re doing that thing where your soul leaves your body, and your mouth keeps agreeing to things.&rdq

Chapter 128 - Cole Sutcliffe

Cole SutcliffeI find out the same way everyone does now. Through my phone.I’m standing in the kitchen, still jet-lagged, still riding the quiet high of being home, watching Niccola move around the room with Aiden on her hip like she’s always belonged there. She’s humming, barely audible, but real, and that alone feels like a victory. My mother is at the table with a cup of tea, scrolling through her tablet, the morning light catching silver in her hair.Then my phone buzzes. Once. Twice. Three times in quick succession.Sawyer. Anne. A news alert. My stomach tightens before I even look.I step into the hallway and close the door softly behind me, like I’m bracing myself before opening something sharp. The headline loads slowly, cruelly.MONICA SUTCLIFFE CHARGED WITH CONTEMPT OF COURT, OBSTRUCTION, AND CONSPIRACY AS NEW EVIDENCE EMERGESFor a moment, I don’t breathe.Six months of waiting. Of watc

Chapter 129 - Niccola Fairchild

Niccola FairchildThe moment Cole tells me, I know two things. One: Sawyer is absolutely going to propose to Steph in the most chaotic, emotionally reckless way possible if left unsupervised. Two: There is no universe in which I let that happen.We’re in the kitchen, late afternoon light spilling across the counters, Aiden on a blanket at our feet attempting to eat a plush giraffe. Cole leans against the island with that look on his face, the one that means he’s trying to act casual about something he’s actually excited about.“So,” he says, failing spectacularly at nonchalance. “Hypothetically.”I narrow my eyes. “Nothing good has ever followed that word.”“Hear me out,” he continues. “Hypothetically, if someone, someone very handsome and extremely well-meaning, were to want help planning a proposal…”I grin. “Sawyer.”Cole sighs. “

Chapter 130 - Niccola Fairchild

Niccola FairchildThe first time Aiden laughs at the sight of the balloons, I almost cry into the frosting.It’s ridiculous, happy ridiculous, the kind of emotion that sneaks up on you and makes your throat sting before you can talk yourself out of it. He’s perched on Cole’s hip in the living room, cheeks flushed, eyes wide, making this delighted, breathy sound every time one of the yellow balloons bobs close enough to brush his fingers.“Look,” Cole murmurs to him, smiling in that soft way he only does when he thinks no one is watching. “It’s your kingdom.”Aiden responds by grabbing Cole’s tie and trying to eat it.I laugh, wiping my hands on my apron. “Your king is feral.”Cole looks at me like this is the greatest compliment he’s ever received. “That’s my boy.”The house is transformed. Steph and I went full Winnie the Pooh, not the creepy th

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