บททั้งหมดของ His Bride By Contract: บทที่ 61 - บทที่ 70

Mia’s POV~I sat at the dining table, the surface buried beneath scattered papers. Scribbled recipes filled one page after another, chocolate tarts, lemon drizzle cakes, rustic sourdoughs. Beside them were rough sketches of logos I had attempted in the margins, lopsided drawings of cupcakes and swirling fonts that never looked quite right. Next to that, clumsy lists of costs stared back at me with unforgiving numbers. Flour, sugar, butter, rent, equipment, the sums never seemed to balance. My fingers drummed against the wood in a restless rhythm, as though the tapping might summon answers I couldn’t find. The door creaked open, and Sophie’s familiar footsteps carried her inside. She was balancing two paper cups, the comforting scent of coffee trailing in with her. She stopped short when her eyes landed on the chaotic sprawl before me. “You look like a mad scientist,” she said, lifting one

Mia’s POVThe headline burned on the screen like a wound I couldn’t look away from: “From Courtroom Drama to Cupcakes: Mia Blake’s Attempt at Reinvention.” The words were sharp, merciless, as though they had been carved specifically to mock me. My throat went dry, and my hands trembled around the phone. They’d taken the one fragile dream I was clinging to and turned it into a punchline. My bakery, my chance at something new, had become fodder for strangers who had no idea what it cost me to even breathe some mornings. I blinked rapidly, but the letters on the screen stayed, glaring, almost alive in their cruelty. My chest ached as if the phone itself was pressing down on me. Before I could fully process it, Sophie stormed in, her footsteps sharp against the floor. She was already waving her tablet in the air like a weapon. 

Xander’s POV Eric’s voice came through the line, low but tense, the kind of tone that made my stomach knot before I even heard the words. “Sir, I’ve cross-referenced the photo Mia provided. The resolution is poor, grainy at best, but the stance, the build—it matches someone in the records.” I stopped pacing, my entire body stilling in the middle of the study. The phone felt heavier in my hand, my grip tightening until the edges pressed painfully into my palm. “Who?” I demanded, my voice clipped. There was a pause, longer than it should have been. I could hear Eric’s breath through the line, the weight of what he was about to say hanging between us. Finally, he spoke. “Preliminary analysis points to Liam.” The name slammed into me like a blow. For a heartbeat, everything inside me went still, as if

Xander’s POVThe first light of morning bled through the curtains, pale and unwelcome, casting a thin wash of gray over the room. It crept across the walls, touched the scattered glasses on the table, and finally stretched to the couch where Mia lay. She was still asleep, curled into herself like a child seeking shelter, one arm tucked under her head, the other clenched around the thin blanket. Her breathing was uneven, catching now and then as if even in sleep she couldn’t quite escape the weight pressing down on her.I stood by the window, unmoving, jaw locked tight. My reflection stared back at me in the glass, hollow-eyed and restless. Her words from last night replayed again, soft but sharp enough to carve through me.“Then don’t let me drown.”I had promised her. Against every instinct to keep my distance, I had sworn I wouldn’t let her sink beneath this storm. Now the promise hung like an anchor around my chest, heavy, demanding, unrelenting.A knock broke the fragile silence.

MIA’S POV I sat curled on the edge of the bed, knees drawn tight against my chest, arms wrapped around them like a shield I couldn’t lower. The sheets beneath me were rumpled, but I hadn’t been able to lie down, not with the restless storm inside me. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking, no matter how hard I pressed them against my legs. Every tremor felt like a betrayal, proof of how fragile I really was. The door clicked softly behind him. Even that quiet sound made me flinch. Xander didn’t storm in, he never did when I was like this. He closed the door with deliberate care, as though he were sealing us in a fragile bubble that couldn’t handle sharp edges. “Mia,” he said gently, his voice steady in a way mine could never be. “Talk to me.” I couldn’t lift my head. My throat ached too much, my chest heavy with words I didn&r