All Chapters of Desired by the Billionaire Brothers: Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

140 Chapters

Look into my eyes

Veronica's POV:"You cannot keep me in the dark forever," I said. "That is not a sustainable arrangement, Theo. You cannot make decisions about what I am and am not allowed to know about my own situation and then expect me to remain grateful.""Veronica, I need you to stop for a moment...""Don't do that.""You are spiraling... this is not good for your health.""I am not spiraling, I am responding rationally to information I should have been given months ago, and the fact that you are framing my response as spiraling is exactly what I am talking about." I pulled my hands back from his and gripped the armrests of my wheelchair instead."You are doing it right now. You are gaslighting me right now, in real time, while we are having a conversation about the fact that you have been doing it."Theo stood up from his knee and looked down at me."I came to you," I said. "I came to you and Max specifically because I believed you were different. I had a father who controlled every room I walk

Three of us

Max's POV:How stupid had I been?The question wouldn’t leave me alone.It followed me down the hallway, down the elevator, out into the cold night air like a shadow I couldn’t outrun. I should have known better. I did know better.And yet I still stood there, watching them like some fool who needed proof of what was already obvious. Veronica never let Theo go. Not really. Not in the way I needed her to.I let out a harsh breath and ran a hand through my hair, pacing once before pulling my car door open.The city lights blurred as I drove, but I barely registered anything around me.My mind kept replaying the same image.Veronica sitting there, looking at him like he was the only thing supoorting her. Theo standing too close of his place in her world.And me?I wasn’t in that moment at all.I laughed under my breath, bitter and sharp.What a joke I have become.She agreed to marry me, yes. But love? That wasn’t fully just for me.Even if she loves me... she will never forget me brothe

He is drinking again

Max's POV:The VIP lounge above the bar was the kind of place that existed specifically to provide wealthy people with the illusion of privacy.Low lighting, private booths with high backs, music loud enough to make conversation feel contained. I had been in rooms like this a hundred times in my life for reasons I could account for clearly and explain to anyone who asked.I was having some difficulty accounting for how I had arrived in this particular one tonight.Sofia was beside me, close enough that the our conversation had shifted from the bar downstairs into something with a different geographical location, and I was aware with the part of my brain that was still running its usual operational checks that I had moved through the last hour with something that was not quite intention and not quite accident but somewhere in the uncomfortable space between them.She had a good laugh. That was the first thing I had noticed after the hooker comment had nearly ended the conversation befo

Not what it looks like

Max's POV:At some point, it stopped feeling like distraction with her.It started feeling very wrong.My mind wasn’t here anymore. It hadn’t been for a while.I pulled back this time, not because of a passing thought... but because I couldn’t just continue with her anymore.She noticed immediately. “What is it now?”I ran a hand through my hair, stepping back like I needed distance to think straight. “I can’t do this.”Her expression changed from confusion to mixing with irritation. “You couldn’t do this five minutes ago?”“I shouldn’t have done it then either.”She folded her arms slightly. “Okay… what changed?”I hesitated for a second, then said it plainly. “I have a fiancée.”That landed on her hard. She blinked at me, then let out a short, disbelieving breath. “You have a fiancée… and you’re here with me?”“I know how that sounds.”“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I want to hear how you explain it.”I looked away for a moment, and my jaw was tightening before I forced myself t

Face it as a trio

Veronica's POV:I didn’t know what emotion hit me first when I saw them together. Because I was both confused and angry.The blonde woman still stood beside Max with a lazy smile on her lips, completely unbothered by the chaos she had caused. One of her manicured fingers was lightly touching his arm like she belonged there.Something burned in me at that.“Seriously, Max? This is what you’ve been doing?”Max looked horrified instantly. “Veronica, no...”But then my mind paused. And suddenly the bigger picture snapped into place.Chase. Of course. It was always Chase."Chase set this up," I said.Max blinked."Think about it," I said. "He was downstairs. He saw you come in, or he knew you were here, or he arranged for you to end up here... I don't know which one yet but I know it was one of them. And then he made sure we knew about the girl before we had any context for what we were walking into."I moved my wheelchair past Max and pushed back through the VIP lounge door, and the girl

You cheated on me

Chase’s POV:The engagement announcement was everywhere.Every platform, business page, and gossip account.Every luxury media outlet obsessed with the Ashfords and the Whitmores.Veronica Whitmore engaged to Max Ashford.The headlines replayed in Chase’s mind like something designed specifically to torment him.He stared at the livestream clip again from his office screen, and his jaw was tight enough to hurt.Veronica stood beside Max smiling while reporters shouted questions at them. Max’s hand rested against her waist while flashes exploded around them.And Veronica smiled.“No,” he muttered under his breath.His hand slammed shut against the laptop. “No. No, absolutely not.”Veronica couldn’t really slip out of his hands. Not after everything he tried.And Max? That bastard didn’t deserve her.Without thinking further, Chase grabbed his keys and left.An hour later, he was walking into Mr. Whitmore’s office without waiting for permission.Veronica’s father barely looked up from t

Maybe this is love

Veronica’s POV:I stared at Theo for a long moment after asking him why I should forgive Max.And suddenly, something inside me felt exhausted.I was tired of constantly trying to understand two men who carried entire storms inside themselves. Tired of feeling pulled in different directions emotionally until I no longer recognized my own thoughts anymore.I looked at Theo standing in front of me, calm as always, unreadable in ways that made me want to scream sometimes.And for the first time, I wanted out."To hell with them. To hell with this entire triangle."I was done.Done trying to decode hidden feelings between us, or balancing myself between brothers who loved each other and somehow kept hurting each other through me.I opened my mouth, ready to say it.Ready to call everything off.But before I could, my phone rang.I glanced at the screen.Father.My brows furrowed slightly before I answered. “What?”“You sound irritated,” he said immediately.“Because I am.”“I spoke to Cha

Not the Disneyland

Theo's POV:My father's office had always been designed to make you feel small.I had never been able to determine whether this was intentional or whether he had chosen the height of the ceilings and the scale of the desk with the specific purpose of reducing whoever sat across from him.Either way, the effect was consistent.I had been walking into this room since I was old enough to walk, and I had never once left it feeling larger than when I entered.And today was not an exception."The shares are down fourteen percent," my father said, without looking up from the documents in front of him.He had a way of delivering devastating information in the tone of someone reading a grocery list, which I had once admired as composure and now recognized as pure cruelty. "The Meridian partnership has formally requested a review of our Q3 commitments. And the Donovan group, whom I personally introduced you to, Theo, personally, as a favor... are now considering withdrawing entirely."I stood o

The Bait

Theo's POV:The nine year old Max found me in the corridor outside the sitting room.I had left the chess table and was standing near the window at the end of the hall with my forehead almost touching the cold glass, watching the garden below without seeing it, running the same calculation I had been running for the past twenty minutes which was whether it was possible to become good enough at chess between now and tomorrow morning to satisfy my father who had already decided what he was looking at when he looked at me.The answer I kept arriving at was no.I heard Max's footsteps before I heard his voice, which was always how it was with Max even at nine... he moved through spaces with an impact."Theo."I didn't turn around."I have an idea," he said."I don't want your ideas.""You want to go to Disneyland."I turned around.He was standing in the corridor with his hands in his pockets. There was nothing condescending in his face.That was the thing about Max that my father never f

Under my noose

Veronica’s POV:The office smelled like leather, and coffee.The chair of my cabin was exactly as I had imagined it.I had been imagining it for long enough that the reality of sitting in it should have felt anticlimactic... like the way things you work toward for years sometimes reveal themselves to be just furniture when you finally arrive at them.But it didn't feel anticlimactic. It felt like exactly what it was, which was the conclusion of a fight I had been having since I was old enough to understand that the company my father had built was something I wanted to be part of and winning my father's validation.I ran my hand along the edge of the desk.For a moment, I simply stood there looking at it all.The glass walls. The skyline beyond them.The polished desk at the center of the room with my name already engraved on the silver plate.Veronica Whitmore. CEO.A slow breath left me. I had fought for this position for years.Years of trying to prove I was capable enough. Smart en

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