Semua Bab Bought by the Billionaire +18: Bab 21 - Bab 30

Chapter Twenty-Two: What Silence BreaksArdyn's Pov The cold hit harder than I expected.Not the temperature, but the kind that seeps into your chest when you realize you've got nowhere to go and no one waiting for you. The kind of cold that wraps itself around your ribs and squeezes until you're numb.I kept walking. Past streetlights that flickered, past people who didn’t look twice. My dress was torn at the hem, I could feel a scrape burning on my knee, and my chest was tight with everything I hadn’t said. Everything I couldn’t take back.He let me walk away.I don’t know what I wanted him to do. Maybe stop me. Maybe fight for me. Or maybe I just wanted to prove that I could still leave—that I wasn’t completely trapped in him.But every step I took away from him felt like tearing skin from bone.I didn’t have a plan. My phone was dead. My legs ached. And the streets got darker the farther I moved from the main road. I passed a shuttered bar with broken glass on the sidewalk and a

Chapter Twenty-four: Her Perfume Still LingersArdyn's Pov I should’ve known peace was temporary.It was too quiet. Too soft. Too fragile.The kind of quiet that comes before the storm, before everything gets ripped open again. And sure enough, the storm showed up wearing red lipstick and thousand-dollar heels.Zephyra Calla Deveroux.The name alone sounds like a threat, doesn’t it?She arrived just before sunset, stepping out of a sleek black car like the mansion was still hers. Like she belonged here more than I ever would. The way she looked at the front door—calm, smug, hungry—made my chest twist.I was in the hallway when I heard Lucien open the door.He said her name like it hurt to say. “Zephyra.”And her laugh—Jesus. Like champagne fizzing over ice. Sweet and poisonous.“Still know how to pronounce it. I’m impressed.”I don’t know why I didn’t walk away. I should’ve. I should’ve run back to Caelum’s room, buried myself in his damn blankets, and pretended the world didn’t exis

Chapter Twenty-Six: Pretty Lies and Public ThreatsArdyn's Pov The quiet before the storm is always worse than the chaos itself.I felt it in my chest. That low, simmering panic. Like I was sitting on a time bomb and every tick was dragging us closer to impact.Caelum hadn’t come back to bed.He never did that before. No matter how bad it got between us, he always came back. Claimed me. Made me forget everything but his hands and his mouth and the way he held me like he couldn’t bear not to.But this morning, I woke up alone. The space beside me was cold.I pulled on a robe and padded out of the room, past the long silent halls that once felt like cages and now felt like a fortress. Except the enemy wasn’t outside. She was in here, sipping coffee and smirking in designer silk.Zephyra was sitting at the breakfast table in one of Caelum’s shirts.Not a coincidence.Not subtle.She raised an eyebrow at me, like she was daring me to break the porcelain cup in her hand. "Sleep well, litt

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Torn Between GhostsArdynIt had been five days since Caelum touched me.Not even a kiss.No midnight crawling into bed. No hand wrapped around my throat. No commands whispered into my ear, not even a look that said I belonged to him. He was... distant. Detached. Like he was shrinking away from me in real time.And I was starving.Every time I brushed against him, every time I tried to kneel or crawl or even just be, he pulled away. The man who used to take me over every surface in this house now gave me soft smiles and said he was "busy."I wasn’t stupid.Something had shifted.And it was tearing me apart.I stood by the bathroom mirror, naked except for one of his shirts. I touched my neck where his collar used to sit, now empty, like something sacred had been removed. Like I was unfinished.He walked in behind me, eyes tired."I have to go out for a bit," he said. "Business."I turned."Will you fuck me before you go?"His jaw tightened. "Not now, Ardyn.""Ple

Chapter Thirty: What We BreakArdyn's Pov I didn’t cry.Not at first.I sat there on the cold tiles of the corridor outside his office, frozen in the silence that followed the sound of Caelum’s moan. Mirelle's name had tasted like acid on his tongue ever since she appeared in that photograph—but now, it was something worse. Now it was real. Breathing. Moaning. Sinking her teeth back into what was mine.And he let her.He begged for her.I should have run. Should have picked up what little self-worth I had left and walked the hell out of this house. But I didn't. I sat there in that corridor, shaking, as the truth sank in like rusted nails to the chest. I had been used. Replaced. Like a doll taken off a shelf to warm a bed until the old one returned.I didn’t confront him that night.I couldn’t. My legs refused to move. My mouth wouldn’t form words. And when the doorknob turned and Lucien stepped out, he paused mid-step. Our eyes met. He knew.He didn’t say anything. He just looked do