Lahat ng Kabanata ng Fake Marriage With The Mysterious Billionaire : Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

Max stood on the balcony of his room, one hand resting on the cold railing as the night air brushed against his skin. The estate was quiet, almost eerily so, but that was how he liked it. Silence had always been his comfort. Noise, crowds, forced conversations, they drained him in ways nothing else ever did. Tonight had been exhausting. Attending the party alone would have been bad enough, but attending it with Mia by his side had been something else entirely. Necessary, yes. Planned. But still exhausting. He exhaled slowly and tilted his head back, staring up at the dark sky. The stars were faint, barely visible, hidden behind thin clouds. He preferred nights like this, it was muted, calm and predictable. The party had been none of those things. His mind drifted back to the moment they had arrived at the chateau. The stares, the sudden hush and the whispers that followed them as they walked inside. He had expected it. He always did. Max Hult showing up anywhere was enough to s

Max sat behind his desk, one hand resting idly near his laptop. The screen was dark now, but his mind was anything but there. He kept thinking back to the party. Not the music or the conversations, those had been meaningless noise, but the faces. The expressions that had flickered across them when he walked in with Mia at his side. A soft knock sounded at the door breaking through his thoughts. “Come in,” Max said without looking up. The door opened, and Scott stepped inside, closing it carefully behind him. He didn’t sit immediately. Instead, he studied Max for a moment, the way only someone who had known him for years could, taking in the stillness, the rigid calm that usually meant something was churning beneath the surface. “You’ve been quiet since last night,” Scott said finally. “That’s not like you. Even for you.” Max glanced up then, his expression neutral. “I wasn’t aware I owed commentary.” Scott huffed softly and moved to one of the chairs across from the desk, s

The invitations went out exactly one week later. Cream-colored envelopes, thick and elegant, sealed with a discreet insignia that needed no explanation. They arrived quietly and efficiently, hand-delivered to select homes across the city, homes that belonged to people who moved within the same rarefied circles as Max Hult. People he wanted at the wedding. There were announcements or press releases. Just enough to spark curiosity. Doris Hult Brandon was halfway through her afternoon tea when her butler appeared at the entrance of the sitting room. “Madam,” he said, his voice respectful, “a delivery has arrived for you.” She glanced up from her porcelain cup, already sensing something unusual. “From whom?” “There was no sender listed,” he replied, stepping forward and placing a single envelope on the table before her. Doris’s eyes fell on it instantly and her fingers paused mid-motion. She didn’t need to open it to know. The seal alone was enough. Slowly, she set her teacup

The moment Max stepped out of the dining room, the calm expression he had worn like a perfectly tailored suit shattered. His jaw clenched hard enough to ache, his shoulders stiffening as if the walls themselves had suddenly grown heavier. The corridor stretched before him, long and dimly lit, the soft glow of wall lamps doing little to ease the tension coiled tight in his chest. He exhaled slowly through his nose. Dinner had been a mistake. Not because of Mia, never because of her, but because of what her presence did to him. The way she looked at him with that careful distance. The way she spoke like every word was weighed, measured, guarded. The way her eyes flickered with fear when he pressed just a little too close to the truth. He had seen it. And it bothered him far more than he wanted to admit. Max walked briskly down the hallway, his footsteps echoing faintly against the marble floor. The house was too quiet at this hour. It always was. A place this large shouldn’t fee

The next morning arrived quietly. Mia noticed it the moment she opened her eyes, that strange stillness that clung to the house since she arrived. Sunlight filtered through the heavy curtains, pale and cautious, as though even the day itself was unsure how much it was allowed to reveal. She lay still for a moment, staring at the ceiling. And then her mind went exactly where she had tried to keep it from going. The hallway. The sour look on Max’s face. The way his shoulders had been tense, his stride like a man walking away from something he didn’t trust himself to face for too long. Mia groaned softly and turned onto her side, pressing her face into the pillow. "Get a grip", she told herself. "You’re overthinking." But even as she said it, she knew it wasn’t true. She hadn’t imagined that moment. It had been real. And it had shaken something loose inside her, an awareness she hadn’t planned for. The knock on her door came just as she was forcing herself to sit