All Chapters of Contract Marriage With My Billionaire Boss : Chapter 131 - Chapter 137

VENUSThe hospital discharge papers felt too light for the weight they carried.Two weeks. That’s how long I’d been here, existing in a place that smelled like antiseptic and false hope, the air too clean to be real. My body had healed enough to pass whatever checklist they had, but my head? That was another story.The nightmares still came, clawing at me the moment my eyes closed. The smell of damp earth, Gerald’s voice in my ear, the sound of soil sliding over wood. My therapist told me it would take time, that I had to let myself heal instead of trying to “push through it.” Easy for her to say, she hadn’t been buried alive by a man who claimed to love her.Still, I was walking out of here. Weak, yes. Shaken, definitely. But walking.Aaron had insisted on helping me pack what little I’d brought in—mostly the clothes Gianna and Sabine had brought after I was admitted. He was methodical about it, folding things with an efficiency that would’ve made a drill sergeant proud.And he’d bee

VENUS The ride home felt too quiet.Maybe because I was waiting for my chest to stop aching from everything Aaron had just said.Spoiler: it didn’t.The elevator ride up felt too quiet. The thing about hospitals is they have a way of keeping you in this half-suspended state, like you’re wrapped in gauze and muffled sound. Stepping into the penthouse was like the bandages came off all at once.The air was warmer here. Lived in.The faint scent of rosemary bread, coffee, and something sweet—vanilla maybe—wrapped around me before I even stepped forward. And then… the noise.Not the hospital’s low, sterile hum.Not the beeping of monitors or the squeak of nurses’ shoes.Laughter.Soft chatter.The shuffle of someone’s feet on polished wood.It was so normal that it knocked the breath out of me.I didn’t expect them all to be here. Honestly, I thought maybe Gianna would be waiting, maybe Connor, maybe one or two others if Aaron had warned them I was coming. But they were all here. All of

VENUS The penthouse didn’t go quiet all at once.It was a gradual dimming like the sun slipping below the horizon in increments so small you almost miss them.One by one, they said their goodbyes. Rosemary kissed my cheek again, her perfume lingering long after she’d stepped into the private elevator. Silas shook Aaron’s hand with that firm, wordless exchange men like them have mastered, then rested his palm briefly on my shoulder, like a quiet reassurance. Alana clung to me the longest, her small fingers tight around mine until Aaron gently pried them loose and promised she could see me tomorrow.Gianna and Lucien? left together, their voices low as they stepped into the hallway. Connor and Sabine stayed long enough to help clear a few mugs from the living room before muttering something about an early meeting. Jude also hitched a ride with them. The laughter and chatter that had filled the space just hours ago faded until the only sound left was the faint hum of the refrigerator a