Semua Bab The CEO’s Vengeful Bride: Bab 241 - Bab 250

The silence after a storm is always the loudest. I stood at the top of the ruined Montrose estate tower, once a symbol of our dominance, now cracked and splintered like the legacy we fought to uphold. Smoke from the recent siege still curled into the sky like the breath of a dying beast, its scent soaked into the shattered marble and bloodied stone. Below me, our people toiled to repair the walls. Men and women I once commanded with fierce authority now glanced up at me with haunted eyes, as if unsure whether I was still the queen they had believed in or just another fallen tyrant in a ruined throne. Damien was somewhere beneath, helping the wounded. I hadn’t seen him in hours. Part of me was glad. The other part ached with the silence between us.Luca’s betrayal hadn’t just fractured our empire. It had pierced through the fragile foundation Damien and I had barely begun to rebuild. Everything about Luca’s manipulation had been precise, surgical — turning allies into spies, decisio

The silence between us was louder than any battlefield. I stared at Damien across the war room table, heart pounding like a drum of betrayal. The server room still smelled of smoke, and the sting of Rhea’s confession hadn’t faded. If anything, it clung to me—like ashes in my lungs. She knew things only I had told Damien. Not just schedules or plans. Personal things. Private things. The kind of secrets no one should’ve known — unless they were close enough to whisper them in the dark. Unless they were trusted. Unless they were loved. “Tell me she’s lying,” I said quietly, barely able to recognize my voice. Damien didn’t flinch. Just folded his arms across his chest and looked at the floor like it held the answers I was begging for. “She isn’t,” I whispered. “I didn’t tell her anything,” he said finally. “Not directly.” I inhaled sharply. “What the hell does not directly mean?” He looked up then, face carved from stone. “It means Luca had people everywhere. It means I slipp

The Montrose empire—my empire was supposed to be my legacy. Every corner of this towering building, every polished surface, every intricately designed wall spoke of the power and dominance I had fought for. But as I sat alone in my office, surrounded by the cold, sterile environment I had crafted with my own hands, I could feel it — an emptiness. The empire, once a symbol of strength, had become my prison.The glass windows of my office offered a stunning view of the city below, the lights of the skyline flickering like stars in the dark. But tonight, the view didn’t feel like triumph. It felt like the remnants of something I had built at the cost of my own happiness, and possibly my soul. I couldn’t escape the suffocating weight of it all.Damien.His absence was like a wound that refused to heal. I had made the choice — power over love. I had thought that securing the empire would validate me, and make me whole, but in the end, it had only made me more alone.I thought I could stand

I had always believed power was forged in fire. But as the first explosions lit the sky over the southern ridge, I realized something else — power wasn’t just built in flames. It was reborn from ashes.And I had plenty of those.The final assault began just before dawn. A gray haze clung to the hills as if the world itself was holding its breath. I stood on the command line in body armor, not behind a desk, not hidden behind walls — but in the thick of it. At the front. Where I should’ve been all along.“Zone Three cleared,” came the voice over the comm. “Luca’s men are retreating toward the eastern trench. No civilians in the perimeter.”“Advance, but spare anyone who surrenders,” I replied coldly. “We end this clean.”My fingers tightened on the earpiece as I surveyed the chaos unfolding below the hill. Mortars rained smoke. Gunfire cracked through the trees. The sounds should have frightened me.Instead, they brought clarity.Luca’s forces were folding faster than expected. I had ex

The silence in the Montrose estate was a hollow thing, vast and echoing. Once, the halls had been filled with the sound of rapid strategy meetings, whispered alliances, and the rhythm of a war machine in motion. Now, only Elena remained, and the weight of her empire rested solely on her shoulders. She stood at the window of her father’s old office; the Montrose crest gilded on the wall behind her, and felt none of the triumph that was supposed to come with victory.She had won. Luca was gone. The empire was hers.But what was an empire without the man she loved?Elena turned away from the window, gripping the back of the leather chair. Her reflection in the glass showed a woman hardened by fire and betrayal, her sharp cheekbones a little more defined, her eyes dulled by everything she’d sacrificed. She’d thought she could have both: the legacy and the love. She’d been wrong.The letter from Damien sat on the desk. She’d read it a dozen times. Each word had carved through her carefully