جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 230

~HUNTER'S POV~The new staff stood in a line like recruits waiting for inspection. Their eyes shifted nervously, some gripping their folders so tightly their knuckles whitened. I sat across from them in my study, sleeves rolled up, jaw clenched. One week, three days. That's how long it had been since the hospital call that gutted me. Five days of balancing boardrooms and hospital rooms, revenge and regret.And now....this. A house that needed order.I leaned forward, steepling my fingers. "Let's get one thing clear," I said, voice low but harsh. "This house doesn't run on gossip. It doesn't run on secrets. It runs on discipline. You follow the rules. You give respect where it's due. The lady of the house....." I paused, letting their gazes follow the weight of those words. ".....is away recovering, but she'll be back soon. When she does, she is your boss. If I hear otherwise, if I hear even a whisper of disrespect toward her, I won't fire you." My mouth curled. "I'll erase you. Un

~HUNTER POV~The nurse had just finished signing off the discharge papers when I stood, flowers in hand, watching Celine gather herself slowly. She looked smaller somehow, like the hospital walls had pressed her into something fragile. Even now, as she pulled on her cardigan, I couldn't shake the image of her in that bed with monitors beeping around her."Ready?" I asked, my voice lower than I meant.She nodded without speaking. Caesar had fallen asleep on the couch in the room, his dinosaur toy tucked under his chin, his mouth open in the innocent way only a child's could be. I scooped him up carefully, settling him against my shoulder. He stirred but didn't wake.I carried my son with one arm and reached for the hospital bag with the other. Sally made a move to help, but I shook my head. I didn't want anyone else touching Celine's things. Not today. Not ever again if I could help it.Celine walked beside me slowly. I didn't offer to carry her—it would insult her—but I matched he

~CELINE POV~{ONE MONTH LATER}It has been one month.One month since that night. One month since the hospital, since the ache that nearly swallowed me whole. One month of clawing forward.Life hadn't magically healed, but somehow, in the quiet corners of our days, Hunter and I found ways to breathe again. To laugh again. To live.I sat on our bed that morning, sunlight pouring through the balcony doors like gold dust. I closed my eyes, letting it soak into my skin, imagining it seeping into the cracks of me that were still tender.When I finally pulled myself up, I slipped into my robe and padded downstairs. The house had been calmer lately, almost... content. The new staff Hunter hired were professional and efficient. Sally had retired at last, after decades of holding this house together, her wrinkled face glowing with joy when she told me her granddaughter had given birth. Hunter had been reluctant to let her go, but he'd sent her off with a hefty retirement package and a grand

~HUNTER POV~I had just put Caesar to bed. He snuggled into his blanket, breathing softly. I stood there for a moment, watching him, feeling calm. Lately, I have been staying away from meetings, not answering calls from investors or business partners, and delaying big deals.The world could wait. My family was more important.Things had been good. Stable. I still felt unsure about the calm times, but I learned to appreciate them. Celine was back at home, and I could hear Caesar laughing in the halls. The scary thoughts that used to keep me up at night were fading away.I had given her Blackwood Industries, shoved the empire I seized into her hands, though she had told me she didn't want it. I forced it on her anyway—because if anyone deserved to sit atop the ruins of those bastards, it was her. She'd eventually agreed, only after I said the shares would sit in a trust under her name, for Caesar, for whatever came after.Edward Blackwood was trying to stay important, but no one wan

~HUNTER POV~I was done. Completely done.Three weeks back in the CEO chair and I was already choking on boardroom air, fighting the urge to walk out of every damn meeting. I had spent the entire morning with men in expensive suits who thought they were smarter than me, tossing graphs across glossy tables as though I did not own the table itself.Vincent sat across from me, twirling a Montblanc pen and looking bored out of his mind. He did not even pretend to hide his yawns anymore."You know what I hate about Blake?" he blurted, in the middle of some financial advisor's dull monologue about quarterly growth.The room went silent. All eyes swiveled toward him.Vincent leaned back in his chair, completely unbothered. "She wakes me up at six. Six, Hunter. She says the world belongs to people who rise early." He pressed his palm to his chest like it was a personal tragedy. "I belong in bed. Preferably until ten. Why the hell did I agree to date her?"The advisors looked horrified. I ne