All Chapters of Contract Marriage With My Billionaire Boss : Chapter 141 - Chapter 150

VENUSThe page trembled in my hands. Or maybe it was me trembling, and the paper just mirrored it back.Adoptive parents: Dain Astor / Martha Astor.The words sat on the page like a wound I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying all my life. I stared until the letters blurred, until even my own name looked foreign, like it belonged to someone else.I was adopted.No—not just adopted. Lied to.Every year, every memory, every “I love you, he loves you in his own way” from Martha… every time I’d tried to rationalize Dain’s cruelty… all of it cracked wide open. I wasn’t even their daughter.And Aaron knew.The date at the corner of the document—just one day before we got married in Rome—that’s what shattered me.Aaron had known. Not recently, not in the chaos of the last few months. He’d known before the wedding. Before every whispered promise that he’d protect me. Before he swore I was safe with him. Before he told me he’d keep nothing from me.And he’d said nothing.The papers slipped from m

VENUSAaron’s grip on my wrist was unrelenting. Not painful—never painful—but firm, like iron forged for the sole purpose of keeping me tethered to him. His eyes were wild, restless, like a caged animal faced with the choice of tearing down the bars or tearing himself apart.“You want the truth?” His voice was low, rough, gravel dragged across steel. “Fine. You’ll have it. But don’t think for a second I didn’t have reasons.”My chest heaved, breath jagged. “Reasons don’t erase lies, Aaron.”He exhaled sharply, jaw tightening. Slowly, almost reluctantly, he released my wrist, like letting go cost him something. His hands raked through his hair, then dragged down his face as if he couldn’t believe he was about to say this out loud.“I got the call from Connor,” he said at last, quieter now, though no less sharp. “The day we arrived in Rome. I caught you eavesdropping, I thought you heard the call, but you didn’t.” His throat worked. “He told me Martha and Dain weren’t your real parents.

VENUSThe smell of rosemary bread and freshly brewed coffee pulled me from sleep before sunlight did. For a moment—in that blur between dream and waking—I thought I was back at Gerald's cabin. Then the weight of an arm draped across my waist, heavy and certain, reminded me: I wasn’t there. I was in Aaron’s bed.His bed.The memory of last night washed over me in pieces. My confession. His silence. My tears staining his shirt. His words: Take your time. I’ll wait.The kind of patience that broke me more than any demand ever could.I shifted, turning carefully so I could look at him. He was still asleep, his lashes casting faint shadows on his cheeks, his jaw slack in that rare, vulnerable way. He looked younger like this, less like the merciless man who ruled boardrooms and backrooms alike, and more like someone who had been holding the world on his shoulders too long.Without thinking, I touched his hair, threading my fingers lightly through the strands. His breath deepened, and I tho

VENUSIt had been weeks since that first meeting with Colton. Weeks since the photo of a messy-haired little girl cracked something open inside me. I was still raw, still unsteady, but I wasn’t shattered anymore. The pieces were holding. Shakily, unevenly, but holding.Life had shifted into a strange rhythm. Aaron still wouldn’t let me move an inch without at least two guards within sight, sometimes four, if he was in one of his more paranoid moods. Gerald was still out there, a shadow in every quiet corner. It unsettled me, yes. But I couldn’t live in fear forever. I refused to.So I walked the gardens when the sun was soft. I went to therapy twice a week. And always—always—Aaron was there. Protective. Unyielding. Steady. My shadow, my anchor.Connor had been coming home more often lately. I suspected Aaron was laying the groundwork to take back the CEO seat. And that thought made me glad.Colton, meanwhile, had become… a presence. A steady drip of warmth I hadn’t expected to need. W

VENUSThe morning after the invitations went out, I found myself perched at the breakfast bar, staring at Aaron across the kitchen island while he stirred eggs in a skillet like a man preparing for battle.I loved watching him cook. It was such a contradiction to the man the world knew. Aaron Sinclair: ruthless, calculating, untouchable. Yet here he was in bare feet and a black t-shirt clinging to his shoulders, brow furrowed in concentration like the fate of nations depended on perfectly scrambled eggs.I rested my chin in my hand, letting the sight soak into me. These were the moments I hoarded in the back of my mind—the ones that made me feel safe. The ones that made me feel like maybe I was allowed to want this.When I cleared my throat, his eyes flicked up. “What?”“Nothing.” I grinned. “Just enjoying the view.”A muscle jumped in his jaw, but the corner of his mouth betrayed him, tugging upward just enough to make my stomach flip. He plated the eggs, sliding mine across the coun