Alle Kapitel von The Heirmaker's Bride: Kapitel 201 – Kapitel 210

Hope now tasted bitter.He resumed walking, slower this time, his thoughts catching up with him whether he wanted them to or not.He had been there when she wanted to ran. When she chose to leave everything behind, including the man she had once sworn herself to.He had helped her disappear.Helped her build a new life.Helped her become someone untouchable.He had held her together when she almost fell apart.And Nikolai…A faint, softer expression crossed his face for a brief moment.Nikolai had been theirs. Not by blood but by everything that mattered.Late nights, laughter, quiet moments that felt like something close to a family neither of them ever named out loud.Adrik swallowed, the thought tightening something deep in his chest.He had stood in a place Damian had never earned.A place Damian had lost.And yet…The moment she stepped back into that world, the moment Damian reappeared... Adrik clenched his jaw.“It didn’t matter.”That realization cut deeper than he expected b

Sera didn’t move at first. Her body went stiff for a brief second, like she didn’t know how to respond as she let her mother cry.Let her hold her.Let her pour out six years of grief in one overwhelming moment.Her gaze remained distant at first, fixed somewhere over her mother’s shoulder, but the longer she stood there, the harder it became to keep that distance.Her throat tightened. Her chest burned. Her eyes closed briefly as she exhaled, steady but fragile.“I’m here…” she said softly, though the words felt heavier than they should have. “I’m here, Mom.”Behind them, Mr. Vale turned his face slightly, his jaw tightening as he tried to hold himself together, but the emotion was there, raw and undeniable.And across the room Damian sat still his hands gripped the edge of the couch just slightly, his knuckles whitening as he took in the sight in front of him. Because he didn’t know if he would be allowed any closer than this.“My daughter… my baby… where did you go… why did you lea

Sera’s heart clenched painfully. “That’s not...”“So I was the reason?” he pressed, looking between them now “That’s why you got married?”“No,” Damian said immediately. “That’s not why.”“But you said it!” Nikolai shot back, the confusion now mixing with something close to anger. “You said heir!”“I said I made her believe that,” Damian corrected, his voice softer now, “Because I thought pushing her away would protect her.”Nikolai stared at him. That didn’t make sense.“That’s stupid,” he said bluntly The honesty of it hung in the air.Damian didn’t argue because it was.“I know,” he admitted quietly.Nikolai shook his head again, running a hand through his hair in a gesture that was far too familiar, far too much like the man sitting in front of him.“But we talked,” he said, softer now, more confused. “We joked. You… you helped me with that puzzle and you said I was stubborn. You said I reminded you of someone.”Damian’s chest tightened painfully. “I did.”“You were talking about

Adrik did not move.He hadn’t moved for a long time.Not when Damian dropped to his knees.Not when Sera said she still loved him.Not even now, as the air in the room shifted into something softer between them, something that did not include him.He stood there, slightly behind it all, like a man watching his own place in someone’s life quietly dissolve.His face gave nothing away but inside, it felt like something had been pulled out of him slowly, carefully, until there was nothing left to hold onto.He had known.That was the worst part.None of this was a surprise.He had seen it in the way Sera looked at Damian when she thought no one noticed. In the way her voice changed just slightly when she spoke to him. In the way she had never truly closed that door, no matter how tightly she pretended to.Adrik had seen it. And still he had stayed. Still, he had hoped. A quiet dangerous hope that maybe time would do what love alone couldn’t.That maybe being there would be enough.That ma

Lysandra let out a sharp, disbelieving laugh, the sound brittle as it broke out of her.“Damian Blackwell… apologizing?” she muttered, shaking her head slowly. “For her?”Her grip on the glass tightened further. “Impossible.”But it wasn’t.It was happening.Right in front of her.In one move, he had turned Seraphina from a target into something untouchable.Protected.Legitimized.Dangerous to go against.Lysandra’s expression darkened, her jaw tightening as something colder began to settle beneath the disbelief.“So that’s how you want to play it,” she murmured.Her eyes narrowed slightly.Everything she had done…Every move she had made…Her lips curled faintly, but there was no humor in it.“Then why didn’t you act sooner?” she wondered aloud, pacing now, her heels clicking softly against the floor. “Why pretend? Why wait?”Her steps slowed.“No,” she muttered immediately. “No, no… you don’t get to just fix it like that.”“She left you,” she continued, almost like she was remindin