Lahat ng Kabanata ng Married to the billionaire by contract : Kabanata 81 - Kabanata 90

Chapter 82 — The Sound of EverythingThey sat like a small, ragged family around the glowing screens. The penthouse felt oddly public now — lights and cameras and the thrum of legal engines — but they had made a little island of privacy inside it. Elena’s fingers found Damian’s without thinking, and he squeezed once, twice, a steady pressure that anchored her.“Are you sure you want to watch?” Beatrice asked. Her voice was small, brittle. She looked like she’d been pulled through a storm and kept on pulling.Elena swallowed. “I have to,” she said. “If they say they have an authenticated audio, I need to hear it. I need to know what’s being said about me.”Damian’s jaw tightened. “We’ll be right here,” he said. “We’ll be loud.”Victoria had been on the phone all afternoon with forensic teams. She put the handset down and folded her hands, the businesslike face she wore in court returning to her. “I spoke to Dr. Liao,” she said. “She expects to have a preliminary waveform analysis withi

The room goes very quiet the moment the network declares it will play the full unsealed recording. Elena feels the silence like a physical thing pressing down on her, heavier than the weight of the night outside their glass windows. Damian’s fingers are curled around hers; his hand is steady and warm and real. She clings to that steadiness like a lifeline.Beatrice is standing, braided hair swinging, eyes blown wide. She looks like someone who has spent the evening trying not to combust. “This is theatre,” she whispers. “They’re making theatre out of your life.”“It’s what they do,” Jonah says, voice clipped and calm. He is the quiet one who arranges facts into order; he is always practical. His hands never stop moving — cursor clicks, message sends, documents attached. He keeps the room from sliding into panic.Victoria is already tapping at her screen. Her lawyer’s face has that set expression — focused, unblinking. “We saved the feed,” she says. “We archived their stream. Everythin

Everyone in the kitchen heard the little buzz the man’s phone made like it was a second heartbeat in the room, and for a second the sound felt enormous — loud enough to break china. The single, simple line on the screen had tightened the air around them; it had made the night thinner, sharper.Beatrice moved first, folding into the small space beside the man, her presence a blunt, practical kind of comfort. “Give me your phone,” she said, because she had that way of taking charge that made people stop thinking and start doing.He handed it over with hands that trembled a fraction. “I didn’t want to look after the message,” he admitted. “I thought if I didn’t see it, maybe—maybe they wouldn’t know I’d given this up.”“You did the brave thing coming here,” Beatrice said. “You did the right thing. That’s more than most people manage.” Her voice was sharp, then softer. “We’ll handle it. We’ll make sure you’re safe.”Victoria took the phone and read the message again. She turned it over in

“Elena, do not touch that link,” Victoria said before Elena could think to tap it. Her voice was the kind that made people stop and listen — precise, cold, professional. She already had one hand on the woman’s phone, palms steady as a surgeon.Elena pulled back like someone who’d been warned about hot water. “I didn’t— I just… it popped up,” she stammered. Her fingers hovered over the screen as if the link might burn. The kitchen smelled of coffee gone cold and worry. The morning’s light slanted in thin and pale across the counter.Damian moved behind Elena and leaned his weight into her back. He kept his voice low. “Give it me,” he said. “Let me see.”“No,” she said, soft but firm. “Victoria’s right. We shouldn’t—”“Let me,” Damian repeated. He didn’t ask like a man pleading. He said it like a command to a room he was willing to own. He reached around Elena and took the phone in both hands. His thumbs flicked over the screen with practiced movements. For a second the room watched him

The kitchen felt too bright and too small and the phone in the intruder’s hand felt like a detonator. Elena could hear her pulse in her ears as if someone had turned up the volume on her body.“Let’s tell the truth, Elena Carter—about what Kingstone really bought,” the intruder said into the phone, and the live feed spread that sentence out into the world like oil on water.Damian’s hands tightened on the counter. He didn’t move with the theatricality of a protector; he moved with precise, measured steps. “Who are you?” he demanded, voice low and tight. “What do you want?”The man smiled in a way that made Elena taste metal. “What do I want?” he answered. “I want the world to see what happened. I want to make sure people know you weren’t the only one who paid. You made a choice, Elena, and some choices have a paper trail.”Victoria, who had been beside Elena like a legal blade, stepped forward with paper in her hands. “You have no right to broadcast anything defamatory,” she said. “Tu