All Chapters of The Phoenix Bride Rises: Trust Was Her First Mistake : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

113 Chapters

Return To The Den Of Wolves

Seth's black sedan stopped in front of the Santon estate’s iron gates. Even the gates seemed cold, towering, and indifferent. Just like the people behind them. Inside the back seat, Arla-Rosa stared through the window, her knuckles white around the handle of her suitcase. Her body ached from fatigue, her lower abdomen sensitive from tension and strain, but she made no complaint. None would be heard. Not by the man beside her, and certainly not by the people behind those wrought-iron gates. The burly driver barely spared her a glance as he stepped out and opened the door. “We’re here. Get out.” Her legs trembled as she stood. The estate hadn’t changed, it still exuded an aristocratic coldness that smothered all warmth. Marble statues glared down from their high pedestals like silent judges. The stone path curved through manicured hedges that had never welcomed her. This was not a home. It was a sentence. She stepped forward slowly, one hand cradling her belly. It had been just o

Last Updated : 2025-05-24

Bruises And Spreadsheets

The days blurred together after that. Morning began with insults. Lunch came only if the cook took pity. Nights ended with bruises, sometimes words, sometimes worse. The Santon estate had always been a battlefield for Arla-Rosa, but this time, she wasn’t just surviving for herself. She was surviving for the fragile lives growing inside her. The doctor had told her that she had detected two heartbeats. Arla-Rosa was most likely carrying twins.Even now, cradling her sore ribs, she typed furiously on her old laptop in the flickering light of the storage room. Her breath was shallow; Almay Santon had thrown a heavy porcelain tray earlier that evening. It had missed her head by inches but clipped her side hard enough to leave a purple welt. Arla didn’t cry. Crying was a luxury. Crying made her weak.The spreadsheet stared back at her with endless rows of numbers, quarterly growth targets, supplier inconsistencies, client projections. She adjusted them line by line, formulas flowing from h

Last Updated : 2025-05-24

Prison of Blood and Profit

Three nights later, Arla-Rosa sat quietly on the edge of the rusting metal bed in her small room. Her knees were curled to her chest. Her face looked pale beneath the soft glow of the cracked wall lighting fixture. Her entire body ached, not from the spreadsheet revisions Seth demanded last-minute, but from something deeper, sharper and more insistent. Abdominal cramping.The faint cramps had started earlier in the day while she was on a business call. She had ignored them, thinking they were just signs of fatigue, stress, or hunger. But by nightfall, the discomfort bloomed into something darker, sending streaks of pain through her lower back. She couldn’t take any risks. Not now.Maeve helped her arrange a check-up at the discreet clinic in the southern district, the same one that had refused to proceed with Seth’s abortion order weeks ago. They couldn’t risk the Santons finding out, especially Gerard, who still watched her like a hawk.The next morning, she sat quietly in the clinic

Last Updated : 2025-05-24

Arrested

The next morning brought no reprieve for Arla-Rosa Hernandez. A grey fog clung to the Santon estate, draping the air in a suffocating stillness. Arla-Rosa moved through the house like a ghost. She was silent, her eyes were hollow, and her every step was calculated. She kept her head down, avoiding Gerard’s gaze, which lingered too long when she entered the room.Breakfast was a muted affair. Almay Santon barked orders at the maid. Gerard read the financial reports Arla had worked on through the night, tapping the table with his pen in irritation. And Seth? He hadn’t returned to the estate, nor called since the aborted clinic visit. Not even a message to check on her, save for the demands.Good, Arla thought bitterly. Stay away. But even with his absence, the noose around her throat tightened. Every document she signed. Every figure she analyzed. It all led back to Seth’s company, and her forced role in holding it together.She spent the early hours managing supplier calls, negotiating

Last Updated : 2025-05-25

The Cold Walls Of Judgement

The police car was cold. Arla-Rosa sat stiffly in the back seat, her wrists aching from the metal cuffs. The uniformed officer driving said nothing, while his partner typed something rapidly into a tablet. Outside, the world passed in a blur of steel-grey clouds and rain-kissed streets. Inside, her thoughts spiraled.Poison? She barely had enough strength to keep herself alive, let alone plot murder. And Grandpa Robinson... he had been the only person in her cursed existence who ever spoke to her with kindness, who treated her as someone worth listening to. Why would she hurt him? Because they need a scapegoat, she thought bitterly. Because Seth is cleaning house, and I’m the first to burn.The precinct building was grim and boxy, its cement walls stained with decades of weather and wear. They walked her through the main lobby, heads turning as they passed. Some whispered. A few glanced at her swollen belly. She was brought to an interview room, small, windowless, a single camera in

Last Updated : 2025-05-25

It's Not The End

Arla-Rosa moved like a shadow through the house now.Days blurred into each other, tight-lipped maids, cold dinners, Seth’s looming presence, and the ever-silent phone. She was still forbidden to leave the Santon estate without permission. But her mind hadn’t gone quiet.Grandpa Robinson was still unconscious. Seth was rising like a phoenix in the business world, using her work, her strategies, her analysis. Yet she had no rights. No voice. No protection. And he was no longer hiding his relationship with Aretha, making Arla-Rosa wonder just how long the deception had stretched. Seth had moved in to the Santon family home since grandpa Robinson fell ill. The first reason was to watch Arla-Rosa closely. The second and most probably the most important reason was the lovebirds could not get enough of each other. That would be Seth Robinson and Aretha Santon. It was truly laughable how they were willing to exploit her and act as if their moral compass was top notch. If I don’t act now, I’

Last Updated : 2025-05-25

A Criminal

A suffocating silence graced the morning as Arla-Rosa was forced out of the cold servant quarters of the Santon estate. Her hands, though not shackled, felt heavy with dread. Two unfamiliar men in sleek black suits flanked her on either side, their expressions unreadable, their pace unforgiving. Gerard had barely given her a second glance when they came for her, simply waving them in with a smirk and muttering, "Take her. It’s time this nuisance is put in her place."Arla did not ask questions. She could not. Her lips were cracked from dehydration, and her body ached from days of beatings and starvation. But worse than the physical pain was the cold, coiled fear in her chest. The fear that something irreversible was about to happen.The vehicle waiting for her was a dark luxury sedan with tinted windows, the kind she had once ridden in proudly while assisting Seth at company functions. Now, it felt like a hearse. The drive was long. Through the city, past the hospital, past familiar s

Last Updated : 2025-05-26

The Hollow Cage

As Seth's words cut through her like a knife, Arla-Rosa's world crumbled. The man she thought she loved, the man she was going to marry, was a monster. She felt like she was drowning in a sea of despair, unable to find a lifeline to cling to."Seth, please," she begged, her voice shaking with desperation. "You're going against the law. You can't just imprison me like this. Think about our relationship, about our engagement. We were going to build a life together."Seth's laughter was like a slap in the face. "Our engagement was a farce, Arla. I never loved you. I used you for your business acumen, and you delivered. But you were always just a means to an end." Arla-Rosa's eyes widened in horror as Seth's words ripped away the last shreds of her dignity. "You're lying," she whispered, but the doubt had already taken root."I'm not lying," Seth sneered. "I've been with your sister Aretha all along. And as for the babies you're carrying... let's just say that's a little 'gift' from the m

Last Updated : 2025-05-26

The Lovers’ Gloat

The sound of footsteps echoed in the warehouse, sharp and deliberate. Arla-Rosa barely moved, her head resting against the cold concrete wall, her eyes barely open. Every inch of her body screamed in protest, aching from hunger, bruises, and the brutal beating she had endured. The door creaked open, the sharp clang of metal hinges slicing through the silence, followed by the unmistakable sound of Seth’s voice."Well, well. Still alive, I see," Seth’s voice dripped with mock amusement, his footsteps drawing closer. His shadow stretched across the floor, falling over her like a dark omen. She did not respond, did not even look up. She had no strength left to give him the satisfaction of a reaction.A softer, more familiar voice followed his, one that she had never thought she would hear again in this way. Aretha. Arla-Rosa’s insides twisted, her heart clenching painfully at the sound of her voice, so sickly sweet and taunting. "You’ve been holding up well, I suppose," Aretha cooed. "Sur

Last Updated : 2025-05-26

Shackled Hope

The cold, harsh concrete floor beneath Arla-Rosa’s back was unforgiving, but she had long stopped caring about discomfort. Her body, battered and bruised, was nothing more than a shell. It was a cage she could not escape, a prison holding her within its walls. Her skin felt taut, every movement sending jolts of pain through her veins. She had given up on trying to sleep, her eyes flickering open at the slightest noise, her breath coming in shallow gasps. The warehouse was silent except for the occasional creak of metal and the distant hum of the city beyond.Her belly, once a symbol of promise and hope, now seemed heavy with a burden she could not bear. Each shift of her body felt like a reminder of what she had lost. What she was being forced to endure.But the twins in her womb were no longer a burden, at least not entirely. Something had changed in the days of silence and pain, a subtle shift deep within her. The agony, the constant suffering, had somehow led her to a new understa

Last Updated : 2025-05-30

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