All Chapters of The Billionaire's Rejected Twins: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Evelyn had slept in two-hour intervals, waking from each one with her hand reaching for her phone.She was seated at her dressing table now, her makeup artist working quietly beside her, pressing a concealer beneath eyes that had no business looking this tired.Evelyn watched herself in the mirror with the detached focus of someone running calculations."You're tensing your jaw ma'am" the makeup artist said softly."I'm aware." Evelyn said dryly.Her assistant, Priya, was standing near the door with a tablet, waiting. Evelyn had already given her three instructions before eight in the morning, each one delivered at a pitch slightly too sharp for the hour."The number," Evelyn said. "Where are we with it?""Still working on the trace ma'am.” Priya adjusted her grip on the tablet. “My contact said by...”“I said noon, Priya.” Evelyn’s eyes stayed fixed on her reflection.“Yes, I know.” Priya swallowed lightly. “I’ve told him but....”“Tell him again.” Evelyn reached for her lipstick whi

The foundation office had a different energy today. Flowers had been arriving since morning, congratulatory arrangements from people Bella had never spoken to, press requests stacking up in her assistant's inbox, staff moved with the charged energy of an organisation that had suddenly stepped into the spotlight overnight. Success had a smell, and apparently everyone in the city had caught it.Bella was at her desk going through the morning's requests when her receptionist appeared at the door."There's a woman downstairs asking for you. She says you're old friends."Bella didn't ask for a name. She already knew the type, she'd been expecting something like this since the interview aired."Send her up." She replied Angela entered smiling like she'd been practising it in the elevator, designer bag on her arm, freshly blown-out hair in place and eyes sweeping the office in the first three seconds while her mouth was still forming a greeting. She was impressed and resenting the impressio

The meeting had been running for forty minutes and Alex had controlled every minute of it , the pacing, the questions, the silence after certain numbers were presented. He knew how to hold a room without raising his voice. He'd been doing it long enough that it no longer required effort.Then someone mentioned the Moreau Foundation casually.It came up as part of their usual discussion on business and government partnerships, the kind of thing everyone in the room already understood. Alex didn't react. He let the sentence finish and moved his eyes to the speaker without expression."Run that back," he said.The man across the table looked briefly uncertain. "The Moreau Foundation. They secured a government-linked development endorsement last week. It's been circulating in the sector as a... it's considered a significant move for an organisation that young."Someone slid a document across the table. Alex looked at it without touching it first.It was filled with Legal statements and T

The receptionist smiled before Bella had given her name. That was the first thing. The second was the security clearance, there was no waiting, no confirmation call, just a nod and a key card already prepared on the desk. And the third was the corridor, too empty for a building with this many floors, and the meeting room door already open when she reached it.Bella walked in slowly.The room was neutral to the point of feeling deliberate. A table, chairs, water glasses already poured. No briefing folder. No assistant waiting and no visible indication of who had requested the meeting or what it was for. She didn't sit immediately.She looked at the table. The seating arrangement. The single closed door behind her. The window positioned in a way that put whoever sat facing it at a slight disadvantage with the light. She moved to the other side of the table and sat there instead.The silence held for a moment longer than it should have.Then she registered that she wasn't alone.Lorenzo

The café terrace was Stephanie's idea, which meant good pastries and at least one topic Bella hadn't agreed to discuss yet. They'd been there forty minutes. Stephanie had done most of the talking, while bella had been listening, or close enough. The coffee was good. The sun was out and for a little while it had almost felt like three years hadn't happened."I still can't wrap my head around it," Stephanie said, quieter now. "You came back with a foundatio and you were raising two kids through all of it. Alone."Bella turned her cup once on the saucer. She didn't say anything immediately.Stephanie watched her. Then, said carefully "Does he know?" No clarification needed on who.Bella took a second. "No, not yet at least."Stephanie held that for a moment. "You're not planning to tell him anytime soon?""I’m not sure I could handle what would happen if I did.” bella replied Stephanie opened her mouth wanting to say something, then closed it again. She looked at Bella like someone hol