Semua Bab Three Hot Billionaires Brothers wants Me : Bab 151 - Bab 160

The Festival MorningThe town woke up in color.Banners waved from balconies, laughter rippled across cobblestone streets, and the air smelled of sugar, cinnamon, and something beautifully new. The annual festival had come again, bright, loud, alive, and right at its heart stood Alden’s Bakehouse, glowing like the sweetest secret of them all.By sunrise, the doors were flung open, and the street outside was already stirring. Vendors set up stalls with baskets of fruit and handmade trinkets. Children chased one another with ribbons streaming behind them. Somewhere down the road, a band began tuning instruments, a cheerful fiddle here, a gentle drumbeat there.Inside the bakery, everything shimmered under the morning light. Tables were draped with soft pastel cloths, trays lined with golden croissants, sugar-dusted éclairs, tarts glistening like jewels, and cakes stacked proudly beneath glass domes. The air was thick with warmth and vanilla.I stood behind the counter, adjusting the di

After the local festival, something changed.The bakery didn’t just smell of sugar and cinnamon anymore, it pulsed with life. Every morning felt like stepping into a sunrise made of butter and hope. People poured in like golden light through the open doors, laughing, chatting, waving at us through the fogged-up windows. Some carried baskets from the farmer’s market, others still wore festival ribbons in their hair, and all of them had that same hungry sparkle in their eyes.The counters overflowed with trays of pastries, golden croissants, glistening fruit tarts, and delicate éclairs filled with cream so soft it melted on your tongue. The air was thick with the scent of roasted almonds and freshly brewed coffee. Every corner buzzed with motion and warmth, the sound of happiness kneaded right into the dough.Orders flew in faster than we could write them down. “Two boxes of the honey rolls!” someone shouted from the front. “Four éclairs and a strawberry tart for Mrs. Halley, she says

“Zane,” I breathed, my heart hammering so hard it hurt. “Is it really you?”There was silence on the other end, the kind that fills a room and steals your breath. Then his voice came again, low, raw, and trembling with something between anger and relief.“Where the hell have you been, Lena?”The sound of my name from his lips made my chest tighten. It had been months since I’d heard that voice, the same one that used to calm me, haunt me, and break me all at once.I swallowed hard, gripping the phone. “You shouldn’t be calling me, Zane. Not after everything that happened.”He let out a shaky breath that sounded like a bitter laugh. “You think I care about that right now? Everything’s falling apart. Liam’s gone off the rails, Kai’s shutting everyone out, and the media won’t stop tearing us to shreds. I can’t fix this without you.”My throat went dry. *Without me.* Those words dragged me straight back to the mansion — to marble halls, broken promises, and the night I ran from the chaos

The air turned razor-sharp the moment her voice filled the hall.Mrs. Hills stood framed in the doorway, the morning light catching on her pearl necklace and the diamond brooch pinned at her collar. Every inch of her gleamed, polished, practiced, poisonous.“Well, well,” she said again, her lips curving into a smirk that didn’t reach her eyes. “The runaway girl returns. And here I thought you’d finally learned your place.”No one moved.The silence inside the mansion stretched long and taut, broken only by the ticking clock and the faint rustle of her heels on marble as she walked in, slow and deliberate, like a queen entering her throne room.“Mrs. Hills,” Kai murmured, his tone dry, laced with sarcasm. “You always did know how to make an entrance.”She gave a light laugh, that kind of laugh that sounded like sugar but burned like acid. “Oh, Kai, still hiding your insecurity behind cheap wit, I see.” Her gaze slid past him, landing squarely on me. “And you, Miss Lena… or should I sa

The Marvells didn’t waste time.By morning, my name was everywhere again, bold, ruthless headlines twisting the truth into a weapon.“Carter Empire Under Fire Again: Insider Fraud or Staged Redemption?”“Lena Grey, Savior or Snake?”“The Woman Who Brought the Carters to Their Knees... Twice.”Every channel, every news site, every whisper on social media had my name in it.It was like being dragged back into a nightmare I’d already escaped once.They made it sound like I’d planned everything, that I’d wormed my way back into the Carters’ lives to destroy them from the inside out. That the entire scandal was nothing but my revenge.My stomach twisted as I scrolled through the endless flood of comments.Some called me brilliant.Most called me worse.Liam slammed his phone onto the glass conference table so hard that even Kai jumped. The sound cut through the silence like a gunshot.“They’re turning the narrative against us already,” he snapped, his voice low and sharp. “They’re saying