جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

THE HOSPITAL CRUELTY ~CLAIRE'S POV~ Beep. Beep. Beep. The steady beeping of the monitors brought me back to consciousness. Each electronic sound reminded me that I was still alive, even though I felt empty inside. I felt sharp pain in my side, but it was nothing compared to the pressure on my chest. Tubes connected to my arm delivered clear liquid that dripped steadily. But none of that came close to seeing Richard in the chair beside my bed. He looked like he was at a business meeting. He wore a perfectly pressed Armani suit and shiny Italian leather shoes. His fingers tapped impatiently on his knee. When he noticed I was awake, he checked his fucking Rolex. "Finally." The word hit me like a slap across the face. Finally. Like I had been unconscious just to bother him. My throat felt raw. "What happened?" "Appendicitis. Emergency surgery." His voice was as dull as a company earnings report. "The doctor said if I had waited another hour to bring you in, you could have died."

THE TRANSFORMATION ~CLAIRE'S POV~ Three days. Three days of wedding videos and photo albums scattered across my bedroom floor like broken dreams. Three days of Richard's cologne still clinging to his abandoned shirts, three days of drowning in wine and self-pity. My phone buzzed on the nightstand. Thirty-seven messages. All from me to Richard. "Why did you do this to me?" "Did you ever love me?" "Please, just talk to me." The latter ones were different. Ugly words I had never imagined saying, curses that tasted like poison on my tongue. All unanswered. All pathetic. Eleanor's name flashed on the screen. I let it go to voicemail like all the others. On the fifth day, I woke up squeezing Richard's shirt to my chest, the fabric damp with tears. I stared at it for a long moment before hurling it across the room. ‘Enough.’ I stumbled to the bathroom, catching my reflection in the mirror. Hollow cheeks. Dead eyes. Broken woman. I was about to cry again when something inside

THE PERFECT STORM ~CLAIRE'S POV~ "Claire, darling, I would like you to meet Alexander Hayes." Eleanor's voice carried across the marble foyer like a bell, but I barely heard her. I was still staring at the man whose hands had just been on my waist, whose business card was burning a hole in my purse. "We've already met," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. Eleanor's perfectly sculpted eyebrows shot up. "Have you now? How delightfully... unexpected." Alexander's laugh was rich and warm, the sound making my skin tingle. "Eleanor, you're always trying to play matchmaker. Though I have to admit, your instincts are impeccable." My eyes widened. "Matchmaker?" Eleanor patted Alexander's cheek with the closeness of an old friend. "Well, if you did not go around Manhattan breaking girls' hearts, I wouldn't be forced to intervene, would I?" The simple closeness between them sent warning bells through my head. "I don't understand what's…." "Eleanor!" A voice called from across the roo

THE ALEXANDER ALLIANCE ~ALEXANDER'S POV~ The ring box felt like a loaded gun in my pocket. I stood outside ‘Dahlia’, watching through the window as Claire's driver dropped her off. She moved with the confidence I had helped her build. She was nothing like the broken woman who had cried in my arms a year ago. Everything about her screamed success, power, control. Everything except her eyes. Those still held shadows of Richard fucking Blackwood. My phone buzzed. A text from my private investigator: ‘Blackwood Industries stock down 15% this week. Financial audit scheduled. Perfect timing.’ Perfect timing for what? Destroying my half-brother's empire? Or watching the woman I had stupidly fallen for run straight back to him? I was uneasy about proposing. God knows I fought against it for months. Claire had been firm about our business arrangement from the beginning. No complications, no emotions, just mutual benefit. I had tried so damn hard to keep it that way—tried to maint

THE RECKONING ~RICHARD'S POV~ The whiskey burned, but not enough to dull what I was feeling. I sat in my home office at 2 AM, surrounded by financial reports that painted the same harsh picture no matter how many times I reviewed them. Blackwood Industries…my father's legacy, my life's work…was bleeding money faster than I could stop it. But it wasn't the company's impending collapse keeping me awake. It was the magazine lying open on my desk, its glossy pages catching the lamplight. Claire's face stared back at me from the cover, radiant in a way I had never seen during our marriage. Her smile was convinced, victorious. The sapphire engagement ring on her finger caught the camera flash like a weapon. "FROM ASHES TO EMPIRE: Claire Winfred's Billion-Dollar Love Story" Hayes Corporation. Alexander fucking Hayes. The same company I had been asking for partnership deals for over a year. The same Alexander Hayes who had ignored every proposal, every meeting request, every oli