Semua Bab Hired To Tame The Billionaire: Bab 1 - Bab 10

“Your voice is dry, Celeste. You sound like you’ve been eating sandpaper for breakfast. We’re doing a romantic lead, not a heavy smoker in a tragedy. Get out of the booth.”The director’s voice crackled through my headset, cold and sharp enough to draw blood. I stood behind the heavy glass of the recording studio, my fingers gripping the edge of the music stand so hard my knuckles were white. I could feel the sweat pooling at the small of my back, my throat tight with a thirst that went deeper than water.“Please, Mr. Vargas,” I whispered, my voice cracking the moment I leaned into the microphone. “Just one more take. I haven’t slept much, I just need a minute to—”“We don’t have minutes. We have a schedule. You’ve wasted an hour of studio time because you can’t hit a simple high note. You’re done. Send the next girl in.”The light in the booth turned from red to a cold, dead white. The silence that followed was deafening.I stepped out into the hallway, my legs feeling like lead weigh

“You’re pathetic, Vivian. Even your voice sounds like it’s been dragged through the mud.”Lucian’s words hit me like a physical strike. I stood there in the center of that dark, suffocating library, my heart hammering so hard I thought my ribs might snap. The smell of scotch and old leather was overwhelming. I had just delivered my first line—the line that cost me my soul—and his response was pure, unadulterated venom.“I… I told you, Lucian. I haven’t been well,” I said, forcing that breathy, aristocratic lilt back into my throat. My voice was trembling, but I had to make him think it was guilt, not terror. “I came back because I couldn’t breathe without knowing you were okay.”“Liar!” he roared, standing up so abruptly his chair hit the floor with a deafening thud. He navigated the shadows with a terrifying, predatory grace, stopping just inches from me. He didn’t have to see me to make me feel small. “You came back because the money in Paris ran out? Or did your new lover realize wh

“You forgot to put on Vivian’s signature ring.”The voice didn’t come from the shadows of a predator, but from the cool, clinical space of a man who had seen too much. I gasped, my hand flying to my bare throat, my back hitting the cold stone of the hallway.Standing there was Marcus Langley. He wasn’t the head of security, but he was something far more dangerous: Lucian’s personal assistant, the man who managed the billionaire’s life with the precision of a Swiss watch. He was holding a leather-bound planner in one hand and a tablet in the other.His eyes, shielded by thin, silver-rimmed glasses, weren’t looking at my face. They were locked onto my right hand—the hand that was currently shaking and devoid of the five-carat canary diamond Vivian Lancaster never went a day without.My breath hitched. I tried to curl my fingers into a fist, hiding the evidence of my fraud, but it was too late. The hallway, which had felt like a refuge seconds ago, suddenly felt like a trap.“I… I must h

“What’s up, lonely people? The prince is here!”The voice exploded through the foyer like a firecracker in a tomb. It was high, energetic, and carried an obnoxious layer of self-importance that grated against the heavy silence of the Aldridge Estate. I nearly dropped the tray I was holding.Coming through the grand double doors was a man who looked like he’d been plucked from a luxury streetwear catalogue. Sandro Aldridge. Lucian’s younger cousin—the family’s resident playboy and, according to Emelia’s crash course, the only person in the world who didn’t treat Lucian like a ticking time bomb.Sandro didn’t stop to wait for a greeting. He strode in, sunglasses perched on his head, a smirk plastered on his face. Then, his eyes landed on me.I froze. My thumb was still bandaged from the glass cut, and I was wearing a dress that was slightly too tight, clutching a tray of cold coffee. I expected him to stop, to squint, to point a finger and scream Imposter! Instead, his smirk widened int

“Where is it? It was right here. Third shelf, fourth section from the left. I know it was here!”The crash of a heavy mahogany ladder against the floorboards made me jump so hard I nearly dropped the vase I was refilling. I didn’t wait to think. I dropped the flowers and ran toward the sound, my heels skidding on the polished wood of the library entrance.The room was a cavern of shadows, lit only by the dying embers in the fireplace. In the center of the wreckage sat Lucian. He was on the floor, tangled in a heap of leather-bound books that had cascaded down like a landslide. The rolling ladder was tilted precariously against a shelf, and Lucian was clutching his shoulder, his face contorted in a mask of agonizing frustration.“Lucian! Don’t move!” I cried out, my real voice—the one that belonged to Celeste—slipping out in the panic.I rushed to his side, my hands reaching out to check for injuries. I could see a thin line of red blooming on his forehead where he’d clipped the edge o