The Kane Contract: Vows of Venom のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 51 - チャプター 60

(Livia’s POV)I’m thirty-seven weeks pregnant now, and everything feels heavy. My ankles are swollen like water balloons. My back never stops aching. I pee every twenty minutes, and Sandra has decided that 3 a.m. is the perfect time for gymnastics. But somehow, in the middle of all this chaos, there’s this quiet calm that settles over the penthouse every night. Like the world outside finally decided to give us a break.It’s a quiet Thursday. The rain has been falling all day, soft, steady, the kind that makes the city lights look blurry and beautiful through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Alexander has been in meetings since morning, some last-minute Kane Industries thing he couldn’t push. He texted me at lunch: “Home by 8. Miss you.” With a single white rose emoji. I smiled at my phone like a teenager.I spent the afternoon in the nursery. It’s almost done now. The walls are soft cream with tiny gold stars painted across them. The crib Alexander built sits in the corner, sturdy and pe

(Livia’s POV)I am so done. Completely, utterly, get-this-baby-out-of-me done.My feet look like they belong to someone else, puffy, shiny, alien. I can’t see them unless I lean way forward, and even then it’s a struggle. My belly is so low and so tight that every step feels like I’m carrying a bowling ball strapped to my front. The skin is stretched so thin I can see faint blue veins like rivers under the surface. I’ve got stretch marks that look like tiger stripes now, and I don’t even care anymore. They’re battle scars. I earned them.I’m miserable. Swollen. Hot. Tired. My back hurts constantly. My hips ache like someone’s been hitting them with a hammer. And Sandra? She’s decided the only comfortable position is with her head jammed right into my pelvis. Every time she moves, it feels like she’s trying to break through with a battering ram.I’m ready to evict her with my bare hands.It’s late afternoon. The penthouse is cool, thank God, because I’ve been sweating through every shi

(Livia’s POV)I wake up to sunlight cutting through the blinds in sharp white lines. It’s 8:47 a.m. on the last day of the contract year.Alexander is already in the shower, I can hear the water running, steady and familiar. He left a kiss on my forehead before he got up, soft and quick, like he does every morning. Like nothing is different today.But everything is different.I reach for my phone on the nightstand. The screen lights up with the time, then the notification I’ve been dreading and waiting for in equal measure.9:00 a.m. sharp.Deposit: $75,000,000.00 Reference: Kane Contract Settlement – Final PaymentThe numbers stare back at me. Cold. Final. I feel my stomach drop like I’m on an elevator with no brakes. Seventy-five million dollars. Freedom money. Escape money. The exact amount we agreed on that night in the hotel bar when I was bleeding and he said, “Get in. Let’s go ruin his life.”I sit up slowly. My belly is so low now it rests on my thighs when I sit. Sandra shift

(Livia’s POV)We don’t go straight home from the airport.Alexander drives in silence for a while, one hand on the wheel, the other resting on my thigh like he’s afraid if he lets go I’ll disappear again. The city blurs past the windows. My heart is still racing from the tarmac, from the way he dropped to his knees, from the tears on his face that I’ve never seen before. I keep glancing at him, storm-gray eyes forward, jaw tight, fingers flexing like he’s still holding onto the moment.After twenty minutes he takes an exit I recognize. The one that leads to the rooftop where we once stood pretending everything was fake. Where the contract started in whispers and ended in flames.He parks in the private garage. No security detail. No cameras.He helps me out of the car, slow and careful. My belly is so heavy now, every step feels like effort, but his arm around my waist is steady. We take the service elevator up. No words. Just the hum of the lift and the sound of our breathing.The ro

(Livia’s POV)I’m thirty-nine weeks and two days pregnant, and I feel like a walking monument to revenge.My belly is enormous now, low, heavy, impossible to ignore. Every step sends a dull ache through my hips, and my ankles are so swollen I can barely see the tops of my feet. But today, none of that matters. Today I’m not just Livia Kane. I’m the woman who built an empire with her own hands, had it stolen in front of the world, and now I’m here to take it back.The custom white maternity power suit was delivered yesterday, tailored to perfection, crisp white wool, sharp blazer with subtle shoulder pads, high-waisted trousers that accommodate the bump without hiding it. The jacket is open at the front, letting the curve of my belly show like a badge of honor. I look like an avenging fertility goddess, and I know it. When I catch my reflection in the elevator doors on the way up to Whitford HQ, I almost smile.Almost.Alexander walks beside me. He insisted on coming. No argument. His