The Billionaire’s Greatest Loss: Ex Wife Please Come back のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 11 - チャプター 20

THE RELEASE(Damien's POV)The prison gates opened like the jaws of a steel beast, grinding against their tracks with the sound of metal on metal. The noise echoed off the concrete walls that had held me for three days. Three days that felt like three years.I walked out into the gray morning light, my expensive Armani suit wrinkled and stained from my time behind bars. The fabric that had once made me feel invincible now hung on my frame like a costume from a play I no longer wanted to perform in. The air tasted like freedom and exhaust fumes, tinged with the promise of rain from the dark clouds gathering overhead.Photographers lined the sidewalk like vultures circling carrion, their cameras with telephoto lenses pointed at me like weapons. They'd been waiting since dawn, I realized. Waiting to capture the moment when Damien Blackwood, heir to a billion-dollar empire, walked out of jail like a common criminal."Damien! How does it feel to be free?""Any comment on the charges being

THE WARNING(Serena's POV)The morning sun streamed through the windows of my office at Vaughn Innovations. It should have felt like victory. My company was worth half a billion dollars. I was free from the Blackwood family. I was building something new and clean.Instead, I felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop."You're brooding again." Elena walked into my office carrying two cups of coffee. She set one on my desk. "Decaf for the pregnant lady.""I'm not brooding. I'm thinking."Elena sat down across from me. Her red dress was perfectly pressed. Her makeup was flawless. But I could see worry lines around her eyes."About Eleanor being released?" She asked."About what she's planning." I rubbed my belly. The baby had been active all morning. Like they could sense my anxiety. "Eleanor doesn't accept defeat. She never has.""What can she do? You refused the inheritance. You're not part of the Blackwood family anymore. You have your own money, your own company, and your own

THE CHOICE(Damien's POV)I watched Serena's taillights disappear into the night. The park felt colder without her. Emptier. Like all the light had gone out of the world.My phone buzzed. In incoming call from no one else but Eleanor."Well?" Her voice was sharp as winter ice."She refused." I said flatly."Of course she did. Just like her mother." Eleanor's laugh was like breaking glass. "Did you really think she'd run away and hide? The Vaughn women don't know how to quit.""Eleanor, maybe we should...""Should what? Show mercy? Compassion?" Her voice grew deadly quiet. "She made her choice, Damien. Now she lives with the consequences.""Or dies with them." I said."Yes. Or dies with them."The line went dead.I stood alone in the park, holding an envelope that would have saved Serena's life. The plane ticket felt heavy in my hands. Like it weighed a thousand pounds.I could have tried harder. I could have begged her to take it. I could have told her I loved her.But what would have

THE SIEGE(Serena's POV)Elena's apartment felt like a fortress under siege. We'd been there three days now, watching the news reports. Watching Eleanor's plan unfold like a carefully orchestrated symphony of destruction."Dr. Cole's sister was found unconscious this morning," Elena said, reading from her tablet. "The report I got was as leak in her apartment. She's in critical condition."I pressed my hand to my belly. Twenty-eight weeks now. The baby was moving restlessly, as if it could sensing my anxiety."That's not a coincidence." I sighed."No. It's a message." Elena set down the tablet. "Eleanor's letting you know she can hurt anyone. Anywhere. Anytime." Elena's face was grim.My phone had been ringing all morning. Reporters. Investors. Employees asking if they were safe. I'd stopped answering after the tenth call."Any word from Dr. Chen?" I asked."She's with her parents at the detention center. Immigration won't let them go. They said somethings about missing paperwork that

THE DECISION(Damien's POV)I stood alone in the warehouse, staring at the torn pieces of the marriage contract scattered across the concrete floor. The moonlight made them look like fallen petals from a funeral wreath.Serena was gone. Walking into Eleanor's trap with her head held high and fire in her eyes. Walking toward her own destruction with the kind of courage I'd never possessed.My phone buzzed. Eleanor."Well?" Her voice was sharp as winter ice."She refused," I said quietly."I expected as much. Phase two begins now.""What's phase two?""Victoria will handle that. Your job is done, Damien. You've served your purpose."The line went dead.I stared at the phone, feeling something cold settle in my chest. Eleanor was finished with me. Which meant I was no longer useful. Which meant I was expendable.Just like everyone else who'd ever crossed the Blackwood family.My phone rang again. Victoria."Hello, brother.""Victoria. Eleanor said you're handling phase two.""I am indeed