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All Chapters of Rejected, Now He Craves For Me: Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

100 Chapters

Chapter 91: Rebuilding From the Ground

Julien's POVI resigned from Hartford Enterprises the week after the Blackwood merger finalized, no dramatic announcement, no formal farewell gathering. I simply submitted my resignation to Isabella directly, in person, in her office, the same room where I'd once handed her a folder that cost me my own mother."You don't have to do this," she said, studying the letter carefully before setting it down."I know," I said. "I want to.""Why now?" she asked. "Nothing's forced this decision. You've contributed genuinely to this company, especially through everything with Veridian.""That's exactly why now feels right," I said. "Hartford's stronger than it's ever been. You have Ethan, a genuine partnership built on equal footing, resources I could never have offered you myself. I think it's time I built something that's actually mine, from nothing, the same way you did."She didn't argue further, though something quiet and searching remained in her expression as she accepted the resignation

Chapter 92: The Victory

Isabella's POVEthan's global network proved decisive within the first two weeks of our combined counterattack. His connections across international regulatory bodies, cultivated through years of careful, legitimate business relationships, allowed our legal team to trace the falsified reports back to their origin considerably faster than we could have managed independently."We found the source," Ethan said, during an early morning strategy session, spreading documentation across the table. "A financial analytics firm in Singapore, contracted directly by Veridian Global, specifically tasked with fabricating projections designed to trigger investor panic. The payment trail leads directly back to Marcus Kane's personal accounts, not simply Veridian's corporate treasury.""Personal accounts," I repeated. "That's considerably harder to explain away as corporate strategy.""Precisely," Ethan said. "This isn't a board-level decision he can distance himself from. This is direct, personal fra

Chapter 93: A Gesture Misread

Isabella's POVEthan filed the transfer quietly, no formal announcement, simply routine paperwork moving a considerable portion of his personal shares in Hartford-Blackwood International directly into my name. I learned about it through Naomi, who brought me the confirmation with an expression carrying more curiosity than alarm."He's transferred fifteen percent of his personal holdings," she said. "Directly to you, not through the corporate structure."I reviewed the documentation carefully, understanding the significance immediately. "This isn't required by the merger terms.""No," Naomi said. "This appears entirely voluntary."I called Ethan that evening. "Why did you transfer your shares directly to me?""Trust," he said simply. "After everything with Veridian, I wanted you to hold enough personal stake in the combined company that no future threat could ever again exploit uncertainty about whether you genuinely control what we've built together.""That's considerable trust to ext

Chapter 94: What He Lost

Julien's POVPriya showed me the headline before I'd had the chance to see it myself, her tablet angled toward me during our morning review of a client's inventory system."You've probably already seen this," she said carefully, "but I thought you should know it's circulating widely."*Blackwood's Gift: Is Romance Behind Hartford's Latest Business Move?*I read through the article slowly, understanding the significance of what it described. Ethan had transferred a substantial portion of his personal shares directly into Isabella's name, unprompted, structured personally rather than through corporate mechanisms. The press had already reached its own conclusion about what such a gesture actually represented."It's just speculation," Priya said, watching my expression carefully."Probably," I said, though something in me understood the speculation carried more weight than casual gossip typically did.I sat with the article for a long while after Priya returned to her own work, understand

Chapter 95: An Unplanned Meeting

Isabella's POVDavid's foundation hosted the gala at a downtown venue draped in soft lighting, the evening dedicated entirely to raising funds for children aging out of foster care without family support, a cause I'd become personally invested in over these past several months, understanding intimately what it meant to grow up believing no one would ever claim you as their own.I moved through the crowd exchanging pleasantries, thanking donors, admiring the silent auction items Adrian's team had carefully curated. Ethan had joined briefly earlier in the evening, though he'd left before the main program began, a scheduling conflict pulling him toward an overseas call he couldn't reschedule.I was alone, comfortably so, when I noticed a familiar figure near the edge of the room, standing quietly beside the donation table, away from the cameras David's team had positioned to capture the evening's highlights for press coverage.Julien.He hadn't seen me yet, his attention focused entirely

Chapter 96: I'm Sorry

Julien's POVI'd nearly reached the exit when I glanced back one final time, unable to help myself, and found Isabella still standing where I'd left her, watching me instead of returning to the crowd of donors and old associates waiting for her attention.She didn't look away when our eyes met again. She simply held my gaze, something deliberate in the stillness of it, and I understood, standing there near the door, that she was leaving the choice entirely to me. Not inviting me back. Not dismissing me either. Just offering the space for whatever came next to exist, if I wanted it to.I turned and walked back across the room."I thought you'd left," she said, once I reached her again."I almost did," I said. "There's something I should have said earlier, and I didn't want to leave without saying it properly.""Alright," she said, studying me carefully.I felt the familiar instinct rise, the old habit of preparing something polished, something carefully constructed to land exactly the

Chapter 97: Starting Small

Isabella's POVJulien called ahead this time, no unexpected appearance, simply a straightforward request for thirty minutes of my time if I happened to be available that week. I told Naomi to schedule him for Thursday afternoon, curious, still, about whatever remained of our unfinished conversation from the gala.He arrived precisely on time, dressed simply, none of the tailored precision he used to favor when he still carried the Hamilton name like armor."Thank you for making time," he said, settling into the chair across from my desk."Of course," I said. "How's the consultancy?"He spent the next twenty minutes describing it honestly, without embellishment, without the careful performance he might once have offered to make even modest success sound considerably more impressive than it actually was."We've grown slowly," he said. "Six employees now, mostly working with mid-sized regional companies who can't afford the larger consulting firms. It's not glamorous work. Supply chain a

Chapter 98: Actions, Not Words

Julien's POV I heard about the sabotage attempt through Priya, who'd maintained loose contact with several logistics contacts across the industry, the kind of professional network that occasionally surfaced information worth knowing. "A rival firm's been quietly approaching some of Hartford-Blackwood's smaller shipping partners," she said, mentioning it almost in passing during our morning review. "Nothing formal yet, but they're offering considerably better rates, timed suspiciously close to a major contract renewal Hartford's currently negotiating." I sat with that information for a moment, understanding the particular vulnerability it represented, the kind of quiet, incremental sabotage that could genuinely destabilize a supply chain if it went unnoticed long enough. "Do we have any actual relationship with those partners?" I asked. "A few," Priya said. "From when you were still working directly in logistics there." I spent the next several days quietly reaching out to those

Chapter 99: The storm

Isabella's POV The trip to London had been coincidental, both of us attending the same industry conference for entirely separate reasons, Julien presenting a small panel on ethical logistics practices, myself delivering a keynote about resilient leadership through crisis. We'd shared a brief dinner during the conference, comfortable in the way our conversations had become these past several months, but I hadn't expected to spend an entire evening trapped with him at Heathrow when a severe storm grounded every flight departing that night. "They're saying at least six hours," Julien said, returning from the airline counter with two coffees, settling into the seat beside me in the crowded lounge. "Possibly longer, depending on how the weather clears." "Six hours," I repeated, glancing around at the increasingly frustrated crowd filling every available seat. "I suppose we're stranded together, then." "It appears that way," he said, offering me one of the coffees. We settled into

Chapter 100: Chosen, Not Missed

Isabella's POV We didn't mark the moment with anything dramatic. There was no proposal staged in front of cameras, no bouquet delivered to my office with a card that tried too hard. It simply arrived, quietly, the way most things worth keeping eventually do. We'd fallen into a rhythm those past several months, Sunday dinners occasionally including him now, quiet weeknight calls that had nothing to do with business, the London airport conversation settling into something neither of us rushed to define. He kept showing up. That was all. Not louder, not more insistent, just steady, exactly the way he'd been showing up since long before either of us admitted what it might eventually become. "I have something I want to ask you," Julien said, one evening at my apartment, the two of us finishing dinner he'd cooked himself, something simple and unremarkable, no elaborate performance behind it. "Go ahead," I said. "I'm not asking you to marry me," he said, and something in the plainn

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