All Chapters of The Ceo’s Unwanted Claim: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The bedroom was quiet, but the air still felt charged, heavy with the static of what had just happened.I lay still, staring at the ceiling. The silk sheets were tangled around my legs, trapping me even in sleep. My body ached—a dull, throbbing soreness that radiated from my hips and the sensitive skin of my neck.Dante was gone.He had left before I woke up, vanishing into the city to rule his empire, leaving me here in the wreckage of the bed we shared.I rolled over, pressing my face into the pillow. It smelled of him—sandalwood, musk, and the sharp, metallic scent of his control. I hated that smell. I hated that it was the first thing I breathed in the morning.Last night hadn’t been a negotiation. It hadn’t been a seduction. It had been a claiming.He hadn’t hurt me, not in the way a stranger in an alley would. He hadn’t struck me. But he had taken me with a cold, terrifying intensity that left no room for no. He had pinned me down and used my body to prove a point: You do not loo

The file was heavy in my hands, but it felt lighter than the rage burning in my chest.I walked down the corridor of the Executive Wing, my heels striking the marble floor with a rhythm that sounded like a countdown. Three. Two. One.I had spent the last two hours in the Archives, not just reconstructing the provenance of the Domitia bust, but perfecting it. I had dug through the digital archives I wasn't supposed to access—using the password I’d memorized from Dante’s keystrokes weeks ago—and found the original auction records from 1952. I had found the letters from the archaeologist who excavated the villa in Naples.I had built a document that was bulletproof. It was undeniable proof of my competence.It was my shield. And my sword.I reached the double doors of Dante’s office. The assistant’s desk was empty; Bianca must have sent her away.I didn’t knock. I pushed the door open and walked in.The office was bathed in the golden, hazy light of the late afternoon sun. Dante was at hi

The elevator ride up to the penthouse was silent, but it was the loudest silence I had ever heard.It hummed in my ears, a high-pitched frequency that blocked out the world. I stood in the corner of the metal box, my hands clasped in front of me, staring at the floor indicators as they ticked upward.48… 49… 50…Dante stood in the center. He took up so much space. He radiated a dark, satisfied heat, like a furnace that had just finished burning something down. He wasn't looking at me. He was checking his phone, scrolling through emails, probably reading the accolades for the acquisition strategy Bianca had stolen from me.I didn't care.That was the terrifying part. Yesterday, I would have been seething. I would have been plotting. I would have been screaming inside my head.Tonight, I felt nothing.It was as if the girl who cared about credit, about dignity, about truth… she had stayed downstairs in that boardroom. She was still sitting in the corner chair, pouring coffee for men who

The car didn’t stop at a hotel. It didn’t stop at a restaurant with white tablecloths and hushed conversations.It stopped in the Meatpacking District, where the cobblestones were slick with rain and grease, and the buildings loomed like hollowed-out carcasses against the bruised purple sky."Get out," Dante said.I hesitated. Through the tinted window, I saw a heavy, unmarked iron door guarded by two men who looked less like bouncers and more like mercenaries. There was no sign. No line of people waiting to get in. Just a vibrating, low-frequency hum that I could feel in the soles of my feet even through the floor of the armored sedan."Dante," I whispered, clutching the strap of the red dress. "What is this place?""It’s the deep end, Evelina."He didn’t wait for me to open the door. He got out, walked around the back of the car, and wrenched my door open. The damp night air hit me, chilling the skin exposed by the high slit of the dress.He reached in and grabbed my hand. His grip w

"Silence!" he roared.He turned and vanished into the shadows of the staircase, heading down into the belly of the beast to fight a war I didn't understand.I was left alone with Luca.He stood by the edge of the booth, his back to the room, blocking the exit. He crossed his arms over his chest. He looked like a statue carved from granite.I pulled the velvet wrap tighter around my shoulders, trying to cover my exposed legs."I didn't call anyone," I said to Luca's back.He didn't turn around. He didn't speak."You have to believe me," I pleaded. "I re-did the file. I saved the shipment."Luca slowly turned his head. He looked at me over his shoulder. His expression was bored, almost irritated that I was making noise."It doesn't matter what you did," Luca said."It matters to him," I said."No," Luca corrected. "It matters to him who betrayed him. If it was you... you're dead. If it wasn't you... someone else is dead."He turned back to watching the crowd."Ideally," he added, his vo