บททั้งหมดของ The Billionaire's Regret: บทที่ 181 - บทที่ 190

Poppy was talkative, stubborn, and unusually gifted at turning every day into a debate arena with no rules. But that wasn’t what truly unsettled me.It was her memory.The way she caught small things adults barely noticed. Strange words, changes in someone’s voice, details that should have disappeared into the blur of daily life. She didn’t just remember them. She stored them, connected them, then brought them back with almost disturbing precision.And it wasn’t random.It was intelligence in its purest form. Still innocent, still untrained in how to hide itself, still unaware of when it might be safer to stay quiet.I moved in front of Poppy and crouched beside her chair. We were almost eye level now. Her cheeks were round, her bangs poked into one eye, and on that little face that looked far too much like Sebastian’s was the serious expression of a child holding family history without realizing she could set it on fire.“When was that, Pop?”She shrugged. “Before.”“Before when?”“B

Evening settled slowly over Èze, far too beautiful for a day filled with suspect lists, digital certificates, and twenty missing minutes in a security log.I claimed the chaise lounge on the lower terrace as my personal territory. White linen pants, black tank top, hair down, sunglasses on, and a glass of iced coffee containing significantly more ice than coffee. If my life was about to turn into a criminal investigation, the least I could do was avoid looking like the victim in a news photo.Poppy was napping inside after insisting she wasn’t tired.According to her, she just “needed to lie down because the world had too many opinions.”Salma sent her upstairs before I could ask who had taught her that sentence. Most likely me.Sebastian sat a few yards away beneath the pergola, his laptop open in front of him. He’d traded his white shirt for a dark gray T-shirt that made his shoulders look like an administrative problem no one could solve over email.I wasn’t looking at him.I just

Poppy lifted one finger. “Don’t make the fox too evil. That’s animal discrimination.”“We haven’t even reached page one.”“I’m giving guidelines.”I rolled my eyes. “In a kingdom by the sea, there lived Princess Elara, who never wanted to sleep—”Poppy lifted her head. “She wasn’t sleepy?”“She was stubborn.”“Maybe she was ambitious.”I looked at her. “Fine. She was ambitious.”Sebastian rested his elbows on his knees. “A complex character.”“Don’t encourage her.” I kept reading. Princess Elara saw the moon disappear from the sky and followed a trail of fox prints into the forest. When the fox’s dialogue came up, I angled the book toward Sebastian. “Your turn.”He leaned down slightly and read the first line. “‘I did not steal the moon,’ said the fox.”Poppy frowned immediately. “Daddy.”“What?”“Don’t do a mafia voice.”I laughed.Actually laughed.Sebastian turned toward me.Our eyes met over Poppy’s head.And I was still laughing.For one second, the room lost five years.I saw hi

“No.” Poppy sat cross-legged in the middle of my bed in a little yellow dress, one star-shaped clip sitting crooked in her hair. Three grown-up dresses lay spread out in front of her feet like contestants that had just been eliminated from a competition.I held up the first one, a dark blue satin gown with a high neckline. “Why not?”“Too sad.”“It’s navy.”“Sad.”I put it down and picked up the second dress. Emerald green, off the shoulder, cleanly cut. “This one?”Poppy narrowed her eyes. “Looks like salad.”“A six-thousand-euro salad.”“Still salad.”I looked at Salma, who stood near the closet with several hangers in her hands.“Why am I letting a four-year-old who tried to put lip balm on a painting earlier choose my dress?”“Because you’ve been trying to choose one yourself for an hour,” Salma rolled her eyes.“I was considering my options.”“You threw seven of them on the floor.”“That’s part of the creative process.”“It’s too salad for a pretty woman,” Poppy said, mimicking m

The car turned onto a private road beside the harbor. Black barricades came into view ahead, followed by standing lights, camera cables, and several people dressed in dark clothing talking into their wrists.“The media pool is on the right. News Exclusive has the primary video position. Don’t stop after the second line. We’re going straight inside.” Luca’s voice came through the front speaker.I looked out the window.“Media pool” sounded peaceful. Almost like a place where children learned how to swim.In reality, at least a dozen cameras were already aimed at our car like a firing squad with sponsorship deals.“I could go in through the kitchen,” I said.“No.”“I hadn’t even finished making my case.”“You’d complain that your dress smelled like butter.”“I like butter.”“You don’t like cooking smells getting into your hair.”I turned toward him. “Why do you remember things that are completely useless?”Sebastian glanced at the nape of my neck.He didn’t answer.The car stopped.The