All Chapters of The Billionaire’s Vengeful Bride: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The next morning came quietly, like the world was holding its breath.For a second, I forgot who I was—forgot the chaos, the betrayal, the name that no longer belonged to me. I just saw soft light leaking through the heavy curtains and heard the faint hum of the city waking up below.Then I rolled over, and it all came back.Miles was gone. His laptop was still open on the coffee table, screensaver pulsing in and out like a heartbeat. A half-empty mug of coffee sat beside it, still faintly warm. That’s Miles—always leaving traces but never explanations.I sat up slowly, clutching the blanket around me. My body felt heavy, like grief had fused with my bones. I checked my phone—no new messages. No missed calls. Just silence.I padded barefoot across the carpet, tugged open the curtains. The city outside looked ordinary—people heading to work, taxis honking, sunlight bouncing off glass towers. How strange it was, how cruel, that the world could look so normal while mine was still burning

For a heartbeat, no one breathed.The hallway was drowned in that eerie red glow from the emergency lights, flickering just enough to make it feel unreal—like I was trapped in someone else’s nightmare.Miles’s gun was steady, aimed straight at me. Cole froze, still between us, his jaw locked tight.“Miles,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “What are you doing?”He didn’t answer. His eyes were calm—too calm. The same look he used when things were about to go wrong but he already had a plan.“Miles,” Cole said carefully, taking a small step forward, “put it down. We can walk out of this alive. Don’t do something you can’t take back.”Miles’s eyes flicked toward him. “You always think you’re the savior, don’t you, Blackwood? Always swooping in to fix other people’s messes. But you don’t get it. This isn’t your story.”Cole’s voice hardened. “Then whose is it?”Miles’s gaze slid back to me. “Hers,” he said. “It’s always been hers.”The way he said it made something in my stomach twist.“Th

I stared at the screen until my eyes burned.The words didn’t change. They just sat there, cold and certain:Daughter of Vanessa Quinn. Presumed deceased.It didn’t make sense. It couldn’t. I was Scarlett Evans. I had my father’s eyes. My mother’s smile—or at least, the mother I thought I had. So how could I belong to someone else?I leaned back in the passenger seat, every muscle stiff. “This is fake,” I whispered. “It has to be.”Cole didn’t respond right away. He was scrolling through the files, expression tight. The rain had stopped outside, but the car was still fogged up from our breath and nerves. The world felt small—like we were sitting inside a snow globe that had just been shaken too hard.“There’s more,” he said finally, his tone low. “Look—these aren’t just documents. There are logs. Experiments. Notes from doctors, not lawyers.”“Experiments?” My voice cracked on the word.He clicked into another folder. A scanned report appeared—clinical, sterile, full of numbers and ja

I don’t breathe at first. Not because I’m scared—well, okay, a little—but mostly because everything inside me jerks to a stop. Like my mind, my heartbeat, even my legs just decide to disconnect from reality for a second.Because the man stepping out of my father’s office isn’t some stranger.He isn’t a ghost.He isn’t even someone I expected to ever see again.It’s Daniel Hart.My father’s old lawyer. My father’s old shadow. My father’s old… problem solver.And the moment his eyes meet mine, I swear something invisible snaps tight between us.He looks older—gray at the temples, sharper around the jaw, a little more worn—but his expression is exactly the same as the last time I saw him five years ago: unreadable, polite, and quietly dangerous.“Scarlett.” His voice is calm. Too calm.I don’t know whether to turn around and run, or step forward and scream at him, or pretend I’m hallucinating, because honestly, that might be easier to accept.But my voice decides for me.It jumps out bef

For a few heartbeats, nobody speaks.The words your father feared you echo through the room like they have their own pulse, bouncing off the walls until they lodge under my skin and stay there. My mother stands completely still, her posture soft but immovable, like marble sculpted into grace.Daniel looks furious, his jaw locked tight.Miles looks like someone unplugged his emotions and replaced them with pure alarm.And me… I feel weightless. Hollow. But also painfully aware of every breath I pull in.“What do you mean he feared me?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady. It trembles anyway.My mother doesn’t answer immediately. Instead, she takes off her gloves one finger at a time, revealing small, faint scars on her palm—scars I’ve never seen before. She smooths the gloves, folds them neatly, sets them on my father’s desk.It’s such a gentle motion that it unnerves me more than anything else.“Scarlett,” she begins, “your father… he wasn’t only powerful. He was dangerous. And his