Semua Bab The Billionaire’s Secret Heirs : Bab 211 - Bab 220

~CELINE’S POV~Paint clung to my fingernails as I stepped out of my art room. The smell of turpentine followed me into the hallway. My baggy jeans hung loose on my growing belly. Paint stains covered my old t-shirt like a rainbow explosion. Red. Blue. Yellow. Green.I touched my messy hair buns. Hunter always said I looked beautiful when I painted. Wild and free.The mansion felt too quiet. Caesar was upstairs with his nanny. The woman Hunter hired was strict but kind. She sang lullabies in French. Sally had left for the grocery store twenty minutes ago.That left me alone with Ana and the other staff.Ana. Just thinking her name made my jaw clench. She still acted like I didn't belong here. When I asked her to bring me tea, she would roll her eyes. When I requested fresh flowers for the dining room, she would mutter under her breath."She thinks she's the queen now," I'd heard her whisper to the gardener last week.I rubbed my belly. The baby kicked softly. Soon there would be two

~MIA'S POV~My hands wouldn't stop shaking. The apartment door slammed behind me. I pressed my back against it, chest heaving like I'd run a marathon. The quietness felt wrong. Too calm. Too still.I didn't push her.I didn't.The words played in my head like a broken song. Celine had slipped. She lost her balance. That's what happened. That's the only thing that happened.My phone buzzed in my purse.I jumped so hard I nearly dropped it. My fingers fumbled with the zipper. The screen lit up bright against my face.Eleanor Reid.I stared at the name. Why was she texting me now? After weeks of silence? After cutting me off like I meant nothing?I threw the phone onto the couch. Hard. It bounced once. I didn't want to deal with Eleanor. Not today. Not when my world was falling apart.My legs felt weak as I walked to the kitchen. The fridge door felt heavy in my hands. Wine. I needed wine—lots of it.The bottle was cold against my palms. I twisted the cork free and lifted it straight to

~CELINE'S POV~The first thing I felt when I woke was pain. Not sharp—no, it was heavier than that. A slow, dragging ache that sat deep inside me, like my body had been hollowed out and filled with lead. I floated in it, pinned down, trapped.The ceiling above me was white, too white. The kind of sterile brightness that made my eyes sting. Machines hummed around me, a steady rhythm, as if the world still had the nerve to keep moving when mine had stopped.My limbs didn't obey me. They felt drugged, sluggish, like I was trapped under water. A tube pressed against the back of my hand, taped in place.For a moment, my brain refused to catch up. I was just a woman in a hospital bed. Just tired.Then memory crashed through me. My hand went instinctively to my stomach.Flat.Empty. My fingers dug harder, searching, praying, begging for a shape, for life. Nothing. My throat squeezed tight. Air jammed in my chest.'No. No, no, no.'My baby. My little girl. Gone.The sound that ripped out o

~HUNTER POV~My phone would not stop ringing.I ignored it, staring at the glowing screen on my desk. Call after call...investors, reporters, old business partners.. all wanting to know the same thing. The story was everywhere now.'Hunter Reid's wife Celine rushed to the Hospital After a Mysterious Accident.'I gripped my pen so tightly that it snapped in my hand. I didn't even flinch at the ink staining my fingers.How had the media gotten this? Who dared leak it? It didn't matter. I wanted it gone."Make it disappear," I said flatly into the phone. Vincent was on the other end."I'm already working on it," he replied, calm as ever. "But it spread fast. Gossip sites, tabloids—half of them won't care about lawsuits. They'll want the clicks.""I don't care how much it costs." My voice was ice. "Take it down. Every single one. I don't want Celine seeing any of it. She doesn't need more poison in her life."There was silence for a moment. Then Vincent said, "There's more. Edward Blackwo

~CELINE POV~The room was too quiet.I lay on my side, staring at the pale wall. The machine near my bed beeped softly, steadily, reminding me that I was alive when I didn't want to be.My body felt heavy, like stone. My stomach hurt, but not as much as my chest. Not as much as the emptiness.I had thought I would still feel her moving. That maybe it was all a mistake, and the doctor was wrong. But there was nothing. Only silence inside me.My throat burned. I wanted to scream, but no sound came out. My voice had died the moment they told me I'd lost the baby.The door creaked. I didn't move.Hunter's footsteps came closer, slow and careful. He said my name softly, like he was afraid of breaking me. His voice used to bring warmth. Now it made me ache.The bed dipped when he sat beside me. I shut my eyes tighter. If I looked at him, I might hate him. I might forgive him. I didn't know which would hurt more."Celine," he whispered again. "Please eat something. Please talk to me."My li