All Chapters of The CEO’s Vengeful Bride: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The scent of antiseptic hung in the air, mingling with the metallic undertones of hospital equipment. I stood beside Maverick’s bed, watching as he slowly regained consciousness, his bruised face a silent testament to the hell he’d been through. He was scarred but alive, a reminder of how far we’d come and how much we still had left to fight for.His eyes fluttered open, and the first thing he did was glance around, his expression disoriented. But then, when his gaze locked onto mine, a faint but determined smile pulled at his lips.“You’re still here?” he rasped, his voice rough, the words barely escaping through his cracked throat. I nodded, my heart aching for him. Maverick had been through more than anyone should have to endure, and yet here he was, alive, despite everything.“I’m not going anywhere,” I said softly. “You’ve been through hell. But we’re not done yet”.He grunted softly, turning his head to look at the data pad lying on the table next to him. His hands twitched with

I could feel him slipping.Not in the obvious ways. Damien still answered my calls, stood beside me at strategy meetings, and still laced his fingers through mine at night.But the warmth behind his eyes? The quiet certainty I’d come to count on? It was vanishing like smoke through a broken window.And it killed me.I stood in the doorway of his study, watching as he sat motionless, staring at the monitor filled with satellite scans of the offshore facility Maverick had flagged. His jaw was rigid, his hands clenched so tightly I could see the whiteness of bone beneath his skin.I took a step inside. “You didn’t sleep”,His eyes flicked to me, then back to the screen. “Didn’t need to”,A lie, a beautiful, practiced Montrose lie.I crossed the room slowly, deliberately. “You’ve barely looked at me since we got back”,“I’ve been working”,“You’ve been avoiding”,His silence confirmed it.I sat across from him, letting the tension stretch. When he still didn’t speak, I said it for both of

Silence is louder than war.We didn’t speak as the jet soared away from the offshore hellhole. Maverick lay sedated in the back cabin, bandaged and breathing. Damien sat beside me – shoulders hunched, eyes forward, jaw tight.And I? I was unraveling quietly.The words wouldn’t stop echoing: “She’s one of them”.No context. No proof. Just madness and memory and something too fractured to name. But it wasn’t the accusation that broke me.It was Damien’s silence.He hadn’t defended me. Not really. Not in the way that mattered. Not when his brother, half-dead and haunted, looked into my face and saw the enemy.And Damien had looked at me… differently.Like he’d wondered if it could be true.That was what shattered everything.We landed in the Montrose estate just before dawn. Rain clung to the leaves like ghosts, and the mansion felt colder than I remembered –hollowed out by secrets.I walked straight upstairs. He didn’t follow.Not when I peeled off my torn jacket. Not when I sat on th

The elevator doors groaned open with a reluctant hiss, the kind that echoed down the deserted hallway like a warning from the bones of the building itself. The Montrose Residences had always been a quiet fortress high-security, high-priced, and haunted in its own sterile way. But tonight, even the silence felt wrong. Off-key. Thicker than usual, as if holding its breath.I stepped out into the cold corridor, the click of my heels unnaturally loud against the floor. Each step was a dare. A challenge.Let the shadows try me.It had been months since I’d last stood here. Months since I had walked away from the empire I helped save, the man I nearly destroyed, and the self I wasn’t sure I even recognized anymore. I didn’t know what I was here for. Closure? Sanctuary? A graveyard for old ghosts?All I knew was….. I needed a space where ‘he’ hadn’t touched the walls.Where Damien’s voice didn’t still echo in the silence between breaths.Somewhere to breathe without guilt crawling up my t

The storm outside mirrored the one raging within Damien Montrose. Thunder cracked like war drums above the Montrose estate, the windows rattling as torrential rain lashed against the glass. But Damien didn’t flinch. He stood at the center of his command room – no longer a CEO, no longer a son or lover. He was fury in human form.And Elena was gone.The lightning cast stark, jagged shadows across the walls as the storm’s violence pressed against the manor’s massive windows. But it was nothing compared to the storm in Damien’s chest. His thoughts churned, dark and twisted, each moment spent in helpless frustration. Elena’s face, haunted by the things left unsaid between them, lingered in his mind, a curse he could neither shake nor forget. Her absence was like a black hole, swallowing the light from his existence.Maverick limped into the room, his arm wrapped in bandages, face pale but determined. His eyes spoke of the battles they had already fought, both physical and psychological, i