Lahat ng Kabanata ng Falling for the Disgraced Heir: Kabanata 51 - Kabanata 60

The letter arrived folded twice, ink smudged from too much handling. Julia read it once, then again, hoping the words would soften.Come home before you embarrass the family further. — Mother.Her throat felt raw. No greeting, no warmth—just the same clipped authority she’d grown up under. Brandon was still asleep on the couch, one arm flung over his eyes. For a moment, she watched him breathe, his chest rising slow, steady. The quiet between them had been fragile lately, stitched together with forgiveness and fear. She couldn’t risk tearing it apart with this.When he stirred, she tucked the letter under a stack of invoices. “I need to go away for a few days,” she said lightly.

Julia stepped outside before she could talk herself out of it. The cold night air wrapped around her, sharp enough to sting. Brandon stood beneath the lone streetlamp like he’d been carved out of shadow and stubbornness, rain dripping from the ends of his hair. His clothes were simple—dark jacket, worn boots—but on him, simplicity looked like defiance.“You came,” he said softly, as if the possibility he might lose her had weighed on every minute since she left.Julia swallowed hard, her voice stuck somewhere between longing and fear. Before she could answer, a faint scrape sounded behind her. She turned just in time to see the curtain in her mother’s bedroom window fall back into place. Watching. Judging. Measuring.Brandon followed her gaze and smiled faintly. “You didn&rs

The first crack of thunder split the sky before Julia even stepped onto the porch. She froze at the sight above her—Brandon already on the ladder, hauling himself up onto the old, sagging roof as if the weather wasn’t threatening to break open any second. The clouds hung low and bruised, pregnant with rain. Her pulse raced.“Brandon!” she shouted. “You can’t start now—the storm’s coming!”He didn’t look down. “Perfect time to see how bad the leaks are,” he called back, steady as ever.Her mother stood at the foot of the yard, arms folded so tightly they might’ve been welded shut. “We’ll see if money can fix wood,” Mrs. Bailey said, her tone slicing the air sharper than any wind.

The moment they stepped into the house, the air tightened—thick, electric, ready to shatter. Julia barely set her coat down before her mother’s voice cut through the silence like a knife.“You embarrassed me at the cemetery.”Julia spun, eyes blazing. “Embarrassed you? For defending someone who’s been nothing but good to me?”Mrs. Bailey’s lips curled, cold and sharp. “Good? He’s a Hughes. That is all he’ll ever be.”The words hit Julia like a slap. “You don’t know him,” she said, her voice trembling. “You don’t see how hard he’s trying.”“I see perfectly,” her mother shot back. “You think you&rs

The storm hadn’t fully passed when morning broke—gray light seeped through thin curtains, casting the cramped room in a muted, uneasy glow. Julia woke to the sound of her phone vibrating nonstop on the nightstand. She groggily reached for it, expecting a message from Brandon, maybe even an apology or a quiet reassurance that last night hadn’t been a dream.Instead, her screen was flooded with notifications.Dozens. Then hundreds.Her breath caught as she opened the first headline.Hughes Heir Seen Rekindling Romance in Bailey Town — Small-Town Girl Clings to Fallen PrincePictures filled the screen—grainy, long-lens shots of her walking beside Brandon on the pier, their silhouet