บททั้งหมดของ HEIRESS REBORN: บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

Alina's Pov The moment I'd stepped away, I thought I could breathe. That the worst was over. That I could walk back into the restaurant, eat, maybe pretend my day wasn’t already swirling down the drain.But life wasn’t done laughing at me.There she was. Standing by the host’s podium with her signature leather gloves and that sickeningly calm poise that made my skin crawl. Elena Cross. The matriarch of the devil's bloodline. My ex mother-in-law.The woman who made my life a living hell.It was like staring at a demon wrapped in silk and pearls. She hadn’t changed. Just more fillers, more Botox, more money bleeding through her skin like she bled malice. I didn’t even notice my fingers had curled into fists until I felt my nails dig into my palm. So many memories. So much cruelty masked in etiquette and wealth.She was the one who made me feel like a stray picked off the street. Like marrying Nathaniel was a gift I didn't deserve. The woman who used to make me stand at the far corner d

Nathaniel's Pov I should've been satisfied. I had Sasha in my bed, naked and panting beneath me just minutes ago, her hands still lazily stroking my chest like she was trying to stake her claim. The room smelled of sex and expensive perfume, the kind she made me buy in Milan because, and I quote, "rich girls don’t smell like citrus body spray."And yet, Kaia was the only thing on my mind.It was maddening.I shut my eyes, trying to erase the image of her smile, the curve of her lips around every coy word, the way her eyes burned brighter than any woman I’d met in years. The way she walked out of the restaurant like she owned the world still burned in my memory, her hips swaying, leaving a perfume trail of intrigue and something darker. She didn’t even glance back. Didn’t need to.She knew I’d be thinking about her. Hell, she wanted me to.And it worked.“You're quiet," Sasha murmured beside me, her voice sugary and expectant. "Was I that good, or are you just thinking about somethin

Alina's Pov Vivian glanced at me briefly from the driver’s seat. “You okay?”I didn’t look at her. My gaze was fixed on the gray blur of buildings and cars outside the tinted windows. “Yeah.”A short silence. Then she reached beside her and handed me a tablet. “Board meeting’s in two hours. I already updated the agenda, but I need you to go through it.”I took it with one hand, thumbed through the lock screen, and started scrolling."Everything in place?" I asked flatly."Yes," Vivian said. Her tone was calm, but I caught the flicker of tension in her voice. I knew she was watching me, even if I didn’t meet her eyes. "I also made sure the investor deck reflects the revised numbers you approved.""Good."I scrolled through the highlighted talking points, making a few annotations. I adjusted a bullet on projected quarterly returns and flagged a note about the legal team’s update on the Singapore asset freeze. My head hurt, but it wasn’t the numbers.It was the silence. The weight of Da

Alina's Pov “Aunt Lily?"The name left my lips in a whisper so soft it trembled. My purse fell from my fingers to the floor with a dull thud I barely heard. For a moment, I thought I was dreaming, that the grief and memories had finally taken a toll on my mind.But she was real. Standing. Breathing. Blinking rapidly like she, too, couldn’t believe what she was seeing."Alina?"And just like that, we moved.I didn’t know who reached out first. Maybe it didn’t matter. I was in her arms, and she was in mine, and for the first time in a long while, I felt... safe. Tears slid down my cheeks before I could stop them. Aunt Lily sobbed into my shoulder, her hands trembling as they held onto me like she might lose me again.We stood there in the quiet of the restaurant’s private room, wrapped in each other’s grief and disbelief.She was older now, a few more wrinkles around her eyes, her once dark curls now streaked with gray. But her scent was the same. Jasmine and vanilla. I’d buried my fac

Nathaniel's Pov It had been six days. One hundred and forty-four agonizing hours since I slipped her my card.Kaia.Or whoever the hell she really was.I had gone over the moment in my head so many times the scene was starting to blur. Her face, her eyes, the tone of her voice—sweet and amused, like she was in on a joke I wasn’t privy to. I told myself she would call. I kept the volume on my phone up even in meetings, against my usual preference for silence.Nothing.By day three, I started checking my call history in case I missed something. Day five? I was going through spam folders, email inboxes, anything. It was pathetic. And it wasn’t just business curiosity anymore.It was something else.I couldn’t stop thinking about her.Sasha had noticed my distraction. She had made snide comments at dinner. Asked me if I was still living in our reality or someone else's fantasy. I lied. Said work was piling up. That I was strategizing for the board meeting. She didn’t believe me, but than