All Chapters of BROKEN BILLIONAIRES: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

57 Chapters

31: OVER EVERYTHING ELSE

FIVE YEARS AGO.ADRIAN The words were delivered so calmly. So matter-of-factly. Like he was turning down a lunch invitation instead of condemning my father to death. “You’re joking.” I spat. “I assure you I’m not.” He picked up his pen again and went back to his paperwork. “Mabel wants to marry into your family. You want to save your father’s life. It seems like a mutually beneficial arrangement to me.” “Mabel is—” I stopped myself. Tried to find words that wouldn’t make this worse. “She’s not someone I could ever marry.” “Why not? She’s beautiful. Well-educated. From a good family.” “She’s cruel.” The word came out hard. “She treats Lolette like garbage. Your daughter goes out of her way to make Lolette's life miserable.” Something shifted in Theodore’s expression. “Ah yes. Lolette. My charitable project.” The way he said her name made my skin crawl. “She’s not a project. She’s a person.” “She’s an orphan I took in out of the goodness of my heart.” He set down his pen ag

32: LET'S DRINK TO IT

LOLETTE.I couldn't breathe in that office anymore.Alexander had three phones going at once, his voice clipped while he coordinated with security teams and tech specialists. Sebastian's fingers flew across his laptop keyboard as he pulled up encrypted channels and secure communication protocols.Adrian stood at the window with his back rigid, staring down at the reporters who were still camped outside the building.But I was still stuck in the moments where we'd learned about the people behind all this and how they'd been listening to everything.Every word. Every plan. Every moment I'd thought was private.The walls felt like they were caving in on me.My new phone—the secure one Alexander had given me with all my copied information—buzzed against my palm. I glanced down, seeing Evlor's name lit up the screen.I stood up without thinking about it. I answered the call without checking if anyone was listening this time because what was the point? They'd already heard everything that ma

33: SURVIVING THE LOSS OF HIM

LOLETTE.The tequila burned its way down my throat.We ordered two more shots after that.Then two more after those.Evlor tried her best to keep the conversation light and away from dangerous territory.She was a trustfund baby trying and suceeding at reinventing herself, the stories were relentless. She told me about her job at the gallery and about some artist who'd apparently thrown a complete tantrum over the lighting setup at his opening last week and trashed his whole section, deeming it an outright planned sabotage.She told me about her current roommate's terrible boyfriend who kept leaving the toilet seat up and his dirty dishes in the sink. She left pepper in his water bottle as retribution.I laughed in what I hoped were the right places. I nodded when it seemed appropriate. I let her words wash over me like background noise that kept my brain from going to the dark places it wanted to go.The alcohol was helping. It made everything feel further away from me somehow. Softe

34: THE MAN WHO I STILL LOVE

LOLETTE.Hours had passed with us suspended in this lingo of stupid and sometimes hurtful thoughts, but I wasn't ready to call it a night yet. "Okay." Evlor's voice cut through the thick fog that had settled over my brain. "I think we really need to get you back to your hotel now."I blinked at her. The bar had gone all soft and blurry around the edges. Everything was simultaneously too bright and too dark at the same time."I'm fine," I said, but the words came out thick and clumsy in my mouth."You're really not fine at all." She was already on her feet and pulling out her wallet. "Come on. Let me get you back to your room."She helped pull me up to my feet. The entire world tilted sideways. I grabbed onto her arm hard to keep myself steady."Lolette?"A man's voice. I recognized it but couldn't quite place it. I turned around too fast and nearly lost my balance completely.Who...?Oh.Tor Huntzburger was standing a few feet away from us with concern written all across his face."Ar

35: HOTEL CONFESSIONS

ADRIAN.She took my arm.Her fingers wrapped around my forearm and she leaned her weight against me like her legs might give out any second.The smell of tequila and wine came off her in waves.I should have seen this coming.I should have known she'd hit a breaking point eventually. The phone hack revelation had been the final straw and I'd just let her walk out and go drink herself into oblivion because I didn't know what else to do."Come on," I said quietly. "Let's get you upstairs."She nodded without looking at me. Her eyes were unfocused and glassy in a way that made my chest tighten with worry.I guided her toward the elevators, keeping my pace slow and steady so she could match it. She stumbled once and I caught her immediately, my other hand coming up to steady her waist."Sorry," she mumbled."Don't apologize. I've got you."The elevator doors opened and I helped her inside. She immediately slumped against the back wall, her head falling back against the mirrored surface wi

36: HOTEL CONFESSIONS (2)

ADRIAN.I held her and wished desperately that I could fix this. That I could promise her everything would be okay. That I could do anything except sit here while she fell apart."I should have told you about them," she said against my shirt. "When I found out I was pregnant. I should have tried harder to reach you."I smoothed her hair back, staring down at her and trying to bring her out of this. "You did try.""But I should have tried again." She pulled back enough to look up at me. Her face was blotchy and wet with tears. "Maybe if you'd known about them from the beginning, they'd be safe right now. Maybe if we'd been doing this together all along—""This isn't your fault.""But what if it is?" Her voice climbed higher. "What if I kept them from you and now someone's using them to get to you and it's all my fault because I was too stubborn and hurt and angry to—""Stop." I cupped her face in my hands, making her look at me. "This is not your fault. You were protecting them. Protect

37: I'M SORRY

LOLETTE.My head felt like someone had spent the entire night taking a sledgehammer to it.The pounding behind my temples registered first when consciousness started dragging me back toward the surface.Nausea rolled through my stomach in slow, sickening waves. My mouth tasted like something had crawled inside and died there.I kept my eyes shut tight and tried to piece together what had happened last night.The bar.Evlor sitting across from me.Tequila shots that had somehow turned into wine that had somehow turned into more shots after that.Everything that came after existed only as a blur in my memory.How'd I get back?I shifted slightly against the mattress and heard the hotel sheets rustle against my skin. Right. I was still at the hotel where Adrian's team had put me up.But something felt wrong about this.The bed felt too warm underneath me. Heat seemed to be radiating from somewhere close by. Something was weighing me down.My eyes snapped open.A silk, suit blazer lay spra

38: LOCKDOWN

ADRIAN. Three days had passed since Lolette had kicked me out of her hotel room. Seventy-two hours of absolutely nothing. No leads on the twins. No breakthroughs from the investigators. No calls from the kidnappers making new demands. Just silence stretching out in every direction while two four-year-old boys were missing somewhere and their mother refused to speak to me. I’d tried calling her fourteen times that first day. She’d answered exactly zero of those calls. The texts I sent went unanswered too. Read receipts showed me she was seeing every message I sent, but apparently reading them was as far as she planned to go. By day two, I’d stopped trying.I was only bothering her at that point. I understood why she didn’t trust me. I did. She’d been blackout drunk that night. Woke up in bed with my shirt unbuttoned and my arm around her waist and no memory of how any of it had happened.Given our history, given everything I’d done to her five years ago, her reaction made comple

39: CRIMINAL DEFENSE HELP

LOLETTE.The seatbelt had barely clicked into place before Adrian pulled the car away from the curb.He drove like the entire city was trying to stop us from getting there. His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles had turned completely white against the leather."I need you to tell me again, Adrian." I said as I settled into my seat, "Word for word.""Richard's team spotted the vehicle about twenty minutes ago on the Van Wyck," he said without looking at me. "It's heading toward JFK Terminal 4 right now. There are two children in the back seat. They match the twins' age and description."My heart slammed against my ribs hard enough to hurt."The SUV is black with tinted windows. New Jersey plates but the team couldn't get the full number yet." Adrian changed lanes without signaling and cut off a taxi that honked angrily somewhere behind us. "We've got maybe forty minutes before it reaches the terminal. Probably less than that.""Did they manage to lock down the

40: JUST WHEN YOU THINK

LOLETTE.We flew past other vehicles like they were standing completely still on the road.The airport exit sign appeared ahead of us in the distance.My hands were shaking in my lap. My breathing wouldn't even out no matter how hard I tried. Every single cell in my body felt like it was vibrating at a frequency that might actually tear me apart.Twenty-two minutes until we knew if those children were really mine.Twenty-two minutes until this nightmare either ended or kept going.I couldn't survive it keeping going. I absolutely couldn't take another false hope that shattered into absolutely nothing.Adrian's hand found mine again where it was resting on my thigh.He didn't say anything to me. He just held my hand while he drove us toward whatever was waiting at that airport.The airport came into view through the windshield ahead of us.Terminal 4 rose up in front of us like some kind of beacon.My chest went so tight I couldn't breathe properly anymore."We're here," Adrian said qui

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