Lahat ng Kabanata ng TAMING THE BILLIONAIRE; My Brother's Best Friend : Kabanata 201 - Kabanata 210

Aaron's povWilliams and I walked out of the house I didn’t even get a real goodbye in, because of the rush. Mom stood at the door with Amelia on her hip. Amelia waved at me and said, “Bobby bye!” in her tiny voice. It almost made me stop.I hated how much that hurt.I entered the car and shut the door. I tried not to look back, but I did anyway. I don’t know why. Maybe I wanted to remember it for when I got locked up. I mentally slapped myself for thinking that. It was stupid.I got into the car. Williams started driving right away.The silence was heavy. It made my stomach twist.“So,” Williams said, eyes still on the road. “How are you holding up?”I let out a breath. “I don’t know. I feel like an idiot. I shouldn’t have come home.”Williams glanced at me. “Why?”“Because I probably got their hopes up,” I said. My voice sounded small. “My mom was… she wanted to talk to me and be with me. She hasn’t even spoken to me willingly since I came to texas. Anf I have a baby sister now

Mandy's pov My eyes wouldn’t close. No matter how many times I rolled from one side to the other, nothing helped. The bed was comfortable, the pillows were soft, the room smelled faintly of lavender… but sleep refused to come.I let out a long, annoyed sigh and stared at the ceiling.I travelled from New York to Texas for God sake,my body was exhausted, but my mind? My mind was acting like it had zero interest in resting.And of course, it was Connor’s fault.The way he looked at dinner… the way he chewed, slow and thoughtful, his jaw flexing with every bite… God. My thighs pressed together on instinct. I hated how automatic that reaction was.“Seriously?” I muttered to myself.My own body was betraying me. Like I’d been suddenly dumped back into the hormonal teenage version of myself. Every time I closed my eyes, Connor’s face appeared behind my eyelids, and not the innocent version either. The messy, sinful version.Then came the mental image of him shirtless.Which—great—was somet

Ethan’s POVThe moment Mandy walked into my room, I swear my chest lifted like someone had taken a cinder block off it.She didn’t even say anything at first—she just rushed over and hugged me so tight it pushed a small laugh out of me.“Ethan,” she breathed, pulling back to look at my face, “are you okay? You look… pale. Are you eating? Are you sleeping? Are you—”“Mandy,” I cut in with a small smile, “I’m fine. Seriously.”She gave me a suspicious squint. “You don’t look fine.”“I just had surgery a few days ago. I’m supposed to look like this.” I said, rolling my eyes.Her face softened, but she still wouldn’t stop staring at me like I was made out of glass. She sat down carefully on the chair beside my bed, hands folded, eyes roaming my face like she was checking for cracks.“I was so worried about you,” she said quietly. “Connor told me everything.”“Well,” I sighed, “I’ve been worried about you too. With… everything happening with Warner Industries. Are you okay? What’s going on

Gil’s POVHope is a dangerous thing.I’d held on to it for a week—clutching it so tightly that it bruised the inside of my palms. Aaron’s trial was coming, and even though I tried not to let myself spiral, the reality settled in my chest like cement. He obstructed justice. Self-defense or not, he hid what he did. And because of that, no lawyer—not even the good ones—could fully argue his case the way it needed to be argued.I should have been prepared. I should have known this was coming. But I wasn’t—because a part of me still believed that maybe, just maybe, he deserved a softer consequence after all the hell he’d already lived through.After the hearing, he called me. Told me everything. Every detail. Every likely outcome.And now Amelia wouldn’t stop saying his name around the house.“Bobby? Bobby coming? Bobby home soon?”She had been running around in circles for the past twenty minutes, her curls bouncing, her voice bright and unbothered—like she wasn’t teetering on the edge of

Connor’s POVI had planned this for weeks.Weeks.Every detail. Every word I’d say.The roses, the lake, the timing, the drive, the stupid swans that cost me way more than they should’ve.It was supposed to be perfect.Because she was perfect.And now that she was coming to Texas for the weekend, everything lined up. I’d make the proposal as romantic as physically possible, and she—she wouldn’t walk away from me.The way I’d failed to walk away from her.It all made sense.She didn’t have a job in New York anymore—Aaron told us that himself.She didn’t have family there.She didn’t have roots keeping her chained to that city.I could give her a job.I could give her a life.I could keep her safe.But as she turned around, she looked me dead in the eyes, I swear I felt something inside me split.She stormed off the moment the words left my mouth, and now she was standing on the outskirts of the garden, shaking, furious, breathing like I’d done something unforgivable.“Mandy—wait.” I