All Chapters of No Way to Win Me Back: Chapter 441 - Chapter 450

595 Chapters

Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-One

Celeste’s POVThe room felt smaller after the headline broke, like the walls had leaned in to listen.Ryan stayed close while I paced the length of the living room, my phone clutched in my hand, my pulse still refusing to slow.I stopped once, braced my palms against the window, and forced myself to breathe. In. Out. I had survived worse than public scrutiny.I had survived men who wanted to erase me. This was noise. Dangerous noise, but still noise.Ryan didn’t rush me. He never did. He waited until my shoulders dropped, just slightly, until the tremor in my hands eased.“Call her,” he said gently.I nodded and tapped Jenny’s name.She answered on the second ring, breathless. “Celeste.”That single word told me everything.“I’m so sorry,” she said immediately. “I wanted to tell you sooner, but it’s chaos here. Absolute chaos.”“I know,” I said, keeping my voice steady through sheer will. “Tell me what they’re saying.”Jenny exhaled sharply. “They’re spinning it fast. They’re saying yo

Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Two

Celeste’s POVThe plan looked flawless on paper.That was the first mistake, believing paper had ever protected anyone from people who wanted blood.By the time I stepped out of the car in front of Rosemary Atelier, the street was already barricaded. Cameras clustered like vultures. Microphones bobbed above heads. Someone shouted my name before my heels even touched the pavement.“Celeste Sinclair!”“Is it true your father bought your career?”“Did Nicholas Grant rig the competition for you?”Ryan’s hand brushed my elbow, subtle but steady. Jenny was already ahead of us, arguing with security, her voice sharp and uncharacteristically cold.“She’ll make a statement and that’s it,” Jenny snapped. “No questions beyond what’s approved.”They didn’t listen.They never do.Inside the lobby, the air buzzed with tension. Employees lined the upper floors, faces pressed to glass, looking at the mess outside.I adjusted my blazer, lifted my chin, and stepped toward the podium.Ryan leaned in, his

Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Three

Celeste’s POVI asked Ryan to pick Molly up from school because I couldn’t trust my hands to stay steady on the steering wheel.Rosemary Atelier had been scrubbed clean of reporters by the time they arrived. Security had finally done what I couldn’t, drawn a line and enforced it. The building felt quieter than usual, like it was holding its breath.Molly burst through the doors first, her backpack bouncing against her shoulders.“Mama Celeste!” she called, barreling toward me.I dropped to my knees without thinking, catching her just in time. Her arms wrapped tight around my neck, warm and solid and real. For a moment, the world narrowed to the smell of her shampoo and the soft press of her cheek against mine.“You okay?” she asked in that too-old way she had when she sensed something was wrong.I forced a smile into my voice. “I’m better now.”Ryan stood a few steps back, watching us with an expression I’d come to recognize, quiet vigilance. He looked tired too. Not physically. Emoti

Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Four

Celeste’s POVDinner felt quieter than it should have.Not awkward, just careful. Like we were both navigating a room full of fragile things, afraid that one wrong movement would shatter something we couldn’t put back together.My mother set the table with the same precision she always had. Plates warmed. Cutlery aligned. A simple meal of roasted vegetables, rice, the lentils she’d perfected over decades of cooking for one. It smelled like childhood and restraint and the kind of love that never demanded applause.We sat across from each other, the space between us filled with things we hadn’t finished saying.For a few minutes, we talked about nothing. The weather. Molly. The roses in the garden that had finally bloomed the way my mother wanted them to. I let her do it, let her ease into the evening the way she always had when conversations were about to turn difficult.Eventually, she was the one who broke.“He didn’t stay long,” she said softly, eyes fixed on her plate.I didn’t pret

Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Five

Ryan’s POVI was glad to have Molly for dinner.The past few weeks had turned into late nights at the office and eating dinner alone so this was a good change of pace, even though the world around me was going to shit.I made pasta. Nothing fancy. Butter, cheese, a little pepper. She approved, which felt like a higher honor than any Michelin star.I hoped Celeste was here to make the moment even more perfect.“You’re smiling,” she accused, narrowing her eyes at me as she twirled noodles with intense concentration.“Am I?” I asked.“Yes,” she said. “That means you’re thinking about my mama Celeste.”I choked on my water.Molly beamed, pleased with herself. “See? I knew it.”Before I could recover, or defend myself, the doorbell rang.The sound cut through the room like a wrong note.I frowned, glancing at the clock. It was late. Too late for staff, too late for friends. The only people who rang my doorbell at this hour were people who didn’t text first.And there was only one man arroga

Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Six

Celeste’s POVBy the time I reached Ryan’s penthouse, my body felt like it was moving on muscle memory alone.Dinner with my mother had taken more out of me than I’d expected. Not because we argued, because we didn’t, but because understanding someone’s pain without sharing their choices is its own kind of exhaustion. I was still replaying her words in my head when the elevator doors slid open.And I walked straight into him.Maximilian Edwards stood near the door, coat already on, his posture immaculate as always, like a man who believed gravity itself bent slightly in his favor. For half a second, none of us moved.My spine stiffened instantly.I hadn’t seen him since the day he’d looked me in the eye and threatened to destroy me with something I had only known for a little while. Since he’d implied that my relationship with his son was a liability, not a choice.He glanced at me, something unreadable flickering across his face. Not surprise. Calculation.“Celeste,” he said politely,

Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Seven

Ryan’s POVI woke before everyone else.That wasn’t unusual for me, years of conditioning had trained my body to function before the sun, but this morning felt different. Heavier. Like my chest had been loaded with decisions I hadn’t yet agreed to carry.Celeste slept beside me, curled toward the warmth, one hand resting near my shoulder as if even in sleep she needed to anchor herself to something real.The faint crease between her brows hadn’t smoothed out, not even in rest. The world had been cruel to her lately.I stayed still for a long moment, just watching her breathe.Then, quietly, I slipped out of bed.I pulled on a shirt, moved through the penthouse without turning on unnecessary lights, and paused outside Molly’s room.Her door was slightly open, the soft glow of a night lamp spilling onto the floor. She slept sprawled diagonally across the bed, hair fanned out, one arm flung over a stuffed rabbit like she was guarding it.Safe.That word mattered more than anything right n

Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Eight

Celeste’s POVI woke to cold sheets and the unmistakable absence of Ryan.For one panicked second, my chest tightened, but then I heard the faint hum of voices from down the hall. His home office. I sat up, rubbing my eyes, the events of the past few days crashing back into me like a wave that never receded.I got up and followed the sound.Ryan was standing by his desk, jacket already on, phone in his hand. He turned the moment he saw me, his expression smoothing into something calm and familiar, but I knew him too well now.There was tension in his shoulders that hadn’t been there last night. Something unresolved, sitting heavy.“Hey,” I said softly.“Morning,” he replied, smiling easily. Too easy.“Are you okay?”“Yes.”The answer came too fast.I studied him for a second longer than necessary. His jaw was tight, eyes alert in that way they only got when he was thinking five moves ahead and none of them were good. Whatever was going on, he wasn’t ready to share it.And I didn’t push

Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Nine

Damien’s POVI signed my name at the bottom of the statement and felt something hollow out in my chest as the pen left the paper.That was it. Everything I knew, everything I had pretended not to know, was now inked into an official record. They had asked about Vanessa’s routine. Her calls. Her absences. Her moods. Whether she had ever mentioned Celeste Sinclair in passing, or with intent.She had.God help me, she had.I admitted it with shame. Vanessa had alluded to having someone “inside” Rosemary Atelier. A spy. She had said it lightly, as though it were nothing more than business strategy. I told them I never asked for details. That I never pressed. That I didn’t want to know.All of it was true. And none of it absolved me.I had been willfully ignorant, and now that ignorance had consequences far beyond me.When the officer told me I was done, I stood slowly, my legs heavy, my mind louder than the sterile room I’d just left. I stepped into the corridor, and saw her.Celeste.The

Chapter Four Hundred and Fifty

Celeste’s POVI buried myself in work to make sure I remained distracted from everything else.I was letting Jenny handle the media online for now. The new strategy was to let the hype die down before addressing the situation calmly and in front of only select media representatives that wouldn’t be unprofessional.If I kept my mind occupied with emails, sketches, production timelines.The headlines blurred into background static. The whispers in the hallways of Rosemary Atelier dulled into something manageable. I had already survived worse than public opinion. I told myself that over and over like a mantra.Still, the day had a way of refusing to let me hide.Grace knocked lightly on my office door just after noon, her expression hesitant. “You have a visitor.”I didn’t look up. “If it’s press, tell them—”“It’s not,” she said. “He says you’ve met once.”That made me pause.“Who?”She stepped aside.Leander Voss walked in like he owned the space.Tall. Immaculate. Dark suit cut to perf

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