All Chapters of The Unmasked Heiress: Isabella Hartman is back: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Bella’s POVI collapsed on the chill leather couch, gazing through another tabloid headline spread across the coffee table. “Blackvale in Ashes, Ashcroft’s Heiress Rises.” My name. Again. I was exhausted by it — tired of reading lies, tired of someone else making me the center of their story.The place was too quiet. Too hollow. It had been hours since Elijah had come down, and the last time I saw him he’d been standing on the balcony upstairs, his shoulders sagging. I got up and walked barefoot across the cool tiles to the kitchen. “Screw it,” I said to myself and pulled open a cabinet and grabbed one of the several unopened bottles of whiskey I had seen earlier. If the fucking world was going to end, at least I deserved a drink before it did.Elijah was up high, shirtless now, and leaned over a broken top banister with a water bottle in his hand. His body stiffened when his gaze met mine.“You still up?” I asked.He half-smiled, the kind that didn’t reach his eyes. “Couldn’t sleep.

Bella’s POV“What the fuck is this, Vivianne?” I snapped, the name sour in my mouth.Raising a perfect arching brow, she held up surprised hands as though I had no right to be upset. “Darling, language. And do you always have to be filled with hatred?”“Don’t you ‘darling’ me,” I spat, moving closer. “You faked your death. You watched my life burn. You convinced me I had no one and now you want a reunion? A hug and a glass of champagne?”Vivianne sighed, walking slowly to the window with her robe flowing in the wind. “I did what I had to. For us. For you.”“No,” I spat. “You did what you had to do. You joined a cult in secret, ran an empire of lies, and then cast me aside like a failed experiment.”“I came back, didn’t I?” she said gently. “I’m here now, Bella. Can’t you see? I’ve only ever tried to keep you safe.”I laughed shortly, without humor. “Protect me? You mean manipulate me. You send cryptic messages, you threaten the man I love, you play puppet master in the shadows. And no

Elijah’s POVWhen Lena fell into my arms, I felt confused. She was trembling. Her skin was cold, her lips were bruised, and her face was covered with bruises and small cuts — too many to count. Her pulse was weak under my fingers as I picked her up and took her inside, her weight frighteningly light. As if she hadn’t eaten for days.“Get a towel,” I said too fast. “And water.”Bella didn’t say anything. She merely nodded and disappeared down the hall.I Lena her to the couch and eased her down, stroking her hair away from her face. Her wrists were raw. Her ankles—scraped and swollen. What did they do to her?When Bella came back, she went to her knees on the opposite side and gave me the wet cloth. I held it to Lena’s forehead to cool the heat beginning to rise beneath her skin. Fever.“She’s burning up,” I muttered.Bella nodded. “We should call a doctor.”“No. Not yet. We are safe when we know what she’s got with her — or who might have followed.”The words sounded sour to me. I hat

Bella’s POVWe never should have come down in Tangier.I muttered that as Elijah and I were ushered down the ancient halls of something they called a “diplomatic suite” like honored guests - no, like prisoners. The guards rarely spoke at all, and their accent was too polished to be coincidental. The suite was beautiful, though in a haunted sort of way. But none of it felt right.The air was thick—too still. As if we had walked into a part of history that wasn’t a part of this time. A place purposefully hidden from view.“This doesn’t seem like a mishap in our flight path,” I muttered, standing at the window and staring down at the city growing.“No,” Elijah said behind me. “It’s like we were always meant to land here.”The suite had a strange buzz to it. Not mechanical. Not electric. Older than that. It hummed at the back of my mind like an incomplete dream. As Elijah spoke, he had our satellite phone out and was trying to speak to someone who could get us cleared for departure — I de

Bella’s POVCassandra Lin.The name was seared into my brain like a hot stamp.It wasn’t just the betrayal. It was the enormity of the manipulation—how low Vivianne had sunk, how many layers she’d constructed around me.And Cassandra had been at her side the whole time.Lena tossed the Ashcroft folder onto the command table of the vault. There was a huff of dust when it hit the ground.Elijah flipped it open instantly. Underneath it were, crumpled past announcements, obsolete code, torn paper, initials, coded collaborator IDs… and here, a printed invite — neat, recent, almost too pristine for a file of its own.You’re posing as “Dr. Kaiya Zhen.” Lena said to me.Keynoting a private AI summit in Tokyo, Japan, 48 hours from now.The Oracle was moving fast.And she was still protected.“We will never get close to her through the front door,” Elijah said as he scanned the credentials Lena handed to me.“I bet they’re expecting high level investors and tech donors,” Lena muttered, leaning