All Chapters of No Way to Win Me Back: Chapter 491 - Chapter 500

Celeste’s POVThe courthouse steps were already crowded when I arrived, cameras angling like curious insects, their lenses humming with anticipation. Vanessa Abrams’ trial had finally begun, and with it, the unspoken understanding that my name would be dragged into rooms I hadn’t consented to enter. I kept my head high anyway. There was no other option. Rosemary Atelier had taught me that, how to walk into scrutiny like it was just another fitting, another mirror reflecting angles I couldn’t change.Inside, the air was stale with old wood and newer tension. Vanessa sat several rows ahead, immaculate as always, her posture serene in a way that felt rehearsed. She didn’t look back. I was grateful for that. I wasn’t sure what I would have done if she had, if she’d offered me that familiar, poisonous half-smile.I took my seat and folded my hands together, nails pressing crescents into my palms. I told myself to focus on facts. On process. On the clean, impersonal machinery of justice grin

Celeste’s POVI pulled back first.It wasn’t abrupt, not really. Just a small retreat, a fraction of space reclaimed between our bodies. My hands slipped from his shoulders, my cheek no longer resting against his chest. The room felt colder immediately, like warmth had been borrowed and then returned too quickly.Ryan noticed. Of course he did.“What did you call me here for?” I asked quietly.The words felt heavier than they should have. Maybe because asking them meant acknowledging that this wasn’t just a stolen night. There was a reason. There was always a reason with Ryan, even when he wished there wasn’t.He didn’t answer right away. His hands stayed on my waist, but they loosened, fingers no longer gripping as if afraid I’d disappear. He inhaled slowly, the way he did when bracing himself.“My father,” he said finally.My stomach sank.“Maximilian wants to make a public announcement,” Ryan continued. “A statement. He wants me to say I’m no longer dating you. Publicly. Explicitly.

Ryan’s POVI met Vivian at Aurora’s main office on a gray afternoon that made the glass walls look colder than they were. The building still smelled new, polished stone, fresh wood, ambition layered thick in the air. It had always been Steven’s taste more than mine, all clean lines and quiet dominance, but I’d signed off on it anyway. Now it felt like standing inside a decision I couldn’t undo.Vivian was already there when I arrived, sleeves rolled up, hair pulled back with a severity I rarely saw on her.Her tablet was propped against a stack of folders, and she was speaking in quick, efficient bursts to two department heads who looked like they hadn’t slept.When she noticed me, she lifted a hand without breaking stride, finished her sentence, and dismissed them with a nod.“Give me ten,” she said, already scrolling.I waited. I always did with Vivian. She had a way of commanding space without ever raising her voice. When she finally set the tablet down, she leaned back in her chair

Celeste’s POVI had gone to bed that night with a strange, unfamiliar steadiness in my chest.The conversation with Vivian lingered like a quiet victory, not triumphant, not clean, but earned. She had apologized. Really apologized.Not the brittle kind that came wrapped in justification, but the sort that left her eyes wet and her shoulders slumped, like she had finally set something heavy down. We had spoken about jealousy, about fear, about how love could twist into something sharp when it felt threatened.And in the end, we had agreed on something fragile and important: Molly would not be pulled apart to soothe adult insecurities. Vivian would build her own relationship with her daughter, brick by careful brick, instead of trying to step into the life Molly already trusted.It didn’t solve everything. But it was a start.That sense of forward motion stayed with me the next evening, even as exhaustion settled deep into my bones.Molly fell asleep quickly, curled on her side with her

Ryan’s POVI had Mr. Davis bring Maximilian up the moment his meeting wrapped. I didn’t trust the window between decisions and announcements, not with my father.If something was going to be said to the board, to the press, to the world, it would be said with me standing in front of him, not as an afterthought he could spin into obedience.When Maximilian entered my office, he looked the same as always: immaculate suit, measured expression, control stitched into every line of his posture. He didn’t sit until I gestured to the chair across from my desk. Even then, it felt like a courtesy he indulged rather than accepted.“You asked for me,” he said. No question. Just fact.“I did,” I replied, folding my hands together to stop them from shaking. “I wanted to remind you of something.”His eyebrow lifted a fraction. “This should be interesting.”“I already told you I wouldn’t publicly deny my feelings for Celeste Sinclair,” I said. “I won’t stand in front of cameras and pretend I didn’t lo