All Chapters of Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Aiden's POV: The water was still. Too still.I stood at the edge of the cliff, soaked to the skin, shoes abandoned, fingers trembling in fists I couldn't unclench. My breath came slow and shallow, like my lungs refused to take in air she wasn't breathing.Caitlin.Gone.She didn't scream when she jumped. She didn't flinch. She just looked at me with eyes full of everything I couldn't give her, and let go.Like she knew it would destroy me. And maybe that was the point.I never cried. Not even when my mother died… Not when my father left. Not when the board tried to burn down my empire from inside out.But as I stood there dripping, the scent of her still clinging to my skin like a curse, my chest fractured in quiet, invisible ways. My vision blurred. I tasted salt, and I didn't know if it came from the rain or me. Was I crying? Aiden Gallagher crying? Tf!I dried the droplets of water falling from my eyes right away.. they obviously weren't tears, but water. Why should I cry

The air was thick, heavy with the weight of memories I could never shake, and it clung to me, suffocating me with every step I took.I didn't know how I had gotten here, standing in front of her grave.I didn't know why I thought this would bring me any kind of closure. Maybe I had come for absolution, hoping that standing here, at the final resting place of the woman I had loved and lost, would somehow make it all stop.But it didn't.The pain only deepened, cutting into me like a jagged knife. I could barely breathe. My chest was tight, constricted by grief and the crushing weight of my own guilt. Caitlin's name was carved into the cold, unforgiving stone before me, and for a moment, I forgot how to exist. I couldn't even move.She's gone.The words bounced around in my mind, echoing like a cruel mantra. I had told myself this truth a thousand times. But standing here, inches away from the grave that held her, it felt like the ground beneath me was falling away. There was nothing st

The envelope felt heavier than it should.Like it carried more than paper. Like it carried memory, power, threat.I turned it over in my hand, fingers brushing the wax seal. The color was wrong for comfort. Blood red, deep as dried rust. My thumb hovered for a second too long, like part of me believed that if I opened it, I’d be letting something in.But it was already in.Had been, ever since Caitlin disappeared.I cracked the seal. It snapped with a dry, delicate sound, like old bone breaking. Inside, a single piece of ivory cardstock, thick and unblemished. Not handwritten, no signature, just six words, printed in clean, precise type.“You’ve forgotten the rules.Come home.”No address, no date, just the silence behind the message and the cold certainty that it wasn’t a suggestion.It was a summons.My breath left me slow, like I’d been holding it this whole time without noticing. I sat down hard on the edge of the couch. The paper fluttered slightly in my hand, and I felt the pas

I didn’t sleep.Sleep was for men with peace, and I’d traded that a long time ago for power and silence.The city looked soft from the penthouse windows. Fragile. Like if I breathed too hard, it would crack.The glass in my hand was sweating. Scotch untouched.I watched the streets for hours, waiting for the ache in my chest to harden into something I could use. Rage. Strategy. Anything but longing.But it didn’t.It just sat there. Thick and heavy.And beneath it, something quieter. Something older.Shame.*Flashback – Nine Years AgoMontauk, before Emily died.The house was louder back then.Laughter spilled through the walls like water. Dylan was drunk, slurring theories about the future, biotech empires, programmable memories, synthetic limbs. Emily was wearing red, barefoot on the marble, dancing like no one was watching.But I was watching.Dylan didn’t notice. He never noticed when she needed him. Not the way I did.Later that night, we stood outside, just Dylan and me. Cold a

I should’ve known it was coming. The way she leaned in a little closer. The way she watched me like I was a puzzle she thought she could solve. Sophia was never a fool, but neither was I.I let the silence linger, thick and suffocating, as her eyes stayed locked on mine. There was something else there, something more than the usual curiosity.Sophia had always been good at reading people. Better than most. And it was clear now.she wasn’t asking about Caitlin because she cared. She was asking because she needed something. Needed to be close to me. And the way she said my name...low, almost intimate, brought it all rushing back.That night. That damn night.Sophia was still standing in front of me, her presence suffocating, her eyes demanding answers. She knew I remembered that night, just as clearly as I could recall the way Caitlin's fingers used to trace patterns across my skin. It was a hard memory to bury, but it was one I had to lock away when Caitlin came into my life.She ha