Semua Bab RUTHLESS TEMPTATION : Bab 111 - Bab 120

Jace could not breathe.Not properly, not fully.Not since the moment the office door swung open and he saw Elias pinned between the desk and Leon’s mouth.Those two seconds replayed in his head like an endless loop, each repeat slicing deeper.Elias’s hand on the desk.Leon leaning in.Their lips touching and Elias blaming him for all that had been happening to them.Jace could not even remember how he got downstairs. Did not remember passing the receptionist. Or remember the elevator ride or the numb steps that carried him out of Crane Corp’s front entrance.His vision was blurry, his heartbeat was uneven, his breath unsteady.When he finally reached the car, his chest felt too tight to expand.He opened the door, got in, and shut it harder than he meant to.Ben immediately looked at him through the rearview mirror, concern tightening the driver’s eyes. “Is everything okay, sir?”Jace did not answer.His throat had closed up, and all he could see was Elias’s silhouette leaning over

The next few days crawled forward with a heaviness that Jace felt in his bones. He tried, really really really tried to pretend things were normal. Pretend his life had not been shattered twice in the span of a week. Pretend his marriage was not breaking apart. Pretend he was not living every minute with the fear that his son was dead. But reality clung to him like frost. Avoiding Morgan was almost impossible. The man practically lived in the house now, always somewhere checking security cameras or escorting Mila around the gardens or watching the doors and windows like a hawk. And the worst part? Mila adored him now. Every day she grew closer to him, and because of that, Jace had to be around him too. But every time they crossed paths… A pause. A stiff inhale. A half-second of eye contact before they both looked away. Awkward. Tense. And so Wrong. Jace could not even bring himself to speak to him properly. Even when Morgan gave him those quiet, lingering looks, looks that

The car finally pulled up to the school entrance. Mila unbuckled with the slow movements of a child who did not want to leave the car, and Jace leaned over to help her straighten her bag. “Have a good day, sweetheart,” he said gently, brushing a curl from her forehead. She nodded and gave him a small kiss on the cheek, but even that felt softer, sadder and hollow somehow. Jace’s chest tightened as he watched her walk toward the school building with tiny steps, her backpack too big for her shoulders. He was about to tell Ben to drive off when he heard someone call his name. “Mr. Crane?” Jace turned. Mila’s teacher Miss Adeline Hart, was walking toward him with a polite smile, masking something more serious. She was a calm woman in her forties, always gentle and always patient. But today, her eyes held worry. “Can we talk for a moment?” she asked. Jace’s stomach dropped. This was not good. Teachers do not ask for private talks to deliver good news. “Yes, of course,

Jace tried...desperately to bury himself in work. His office was silent except for the faint ticking of the clock and the soft, rhythmic tapping of his keyboard. Documents piled up across his desk, contracts half-read, spreadsheets half-finished. He forced himself to stare at them, to pretend they mattered, to pretend he still had control over something...anything. But he did not Not over his life....not over his emotions....not over the guilt ripping him apart day after day. Elias had been calling him for days now and every time the phone lit up with Elias’s name, Jace felt his stomach twist so violently he thought he might throw up. He ignored each call, sending them to voicemail until the guilt felt like a hand tightening around his throat. He could not face Elias. Not after what he had done. Not after Morgan. The memory clawed its way back...the heat of Morgan’s hands, the haze of alcohol, the kiss Jace initiated and the blurred moments leading to a mistake he could not t

Elias ended the call on Jace. Jace let the phone slip from his fingers. It clattered against the glass desk like a gunshot in the silent office. Elias’s voice still rang in his ears.“Goodbye, Jace.”Three syllables and Five years of marriage collapsed into rubble. Jace stared at the darkened screen until the numbers blurred. His chest felt caved in, ribs cracked open, heart exposed and bleeding on the carpet. He tried to breathe and could not. The city lights beyond the window looked suddenly artificial, like someone had switched off the world and left only a cheap diorama behind.He stood so fast the chair rolled back and slammed into the credenza. Keys, wallet phone—he grabbed them without thinking, without feeling his fingers. The elevator was going to take too long so he took the stairs instead, ten flights down, lungs burning by the time he hit the street. The November air slapped him hard, but it was not enough. Nothing would ever be enough again.He walked until he found a bar