Semua Bab The Billionaire's Ultimatum: Bab 71 - Bab 80

LAURA I wanted to stay in that second forever. The second way Xavier admitted he loved me and the world finally felt sturdy, I wanted to memorize the way his eyes looked, wet and honest. But the nightstand erupted with a redeem him, and I watched the honesty in his gaze flicker into something sharper, something guarded. “Ignore it,” I whispered, desperate to crawl back into the safety of his hands. But Xavier was already moving. The vulnerability was being tucked away, replaced by the man who was always looking for the next straight.“It’s late, Laura. Someone is trying very hard to get a hold of you.” Then he handed me the phone. The screen was a white glare in the dim room. One email, no sender's name, just a subject line that felt like a slap to the face: “You deserve to know the truth about your husband.” My fingers hovered over the delete button. “Posivia saw my hesitation. Open it,” he said quietly. “No more secrets.”I slowly opened the email and my breath hitched. At th

XAVIER What was Xavier really negotiating with her? And why is he lying to you about it? She immediately turned to me, the phone shaking in her hands. “Is this real?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper. “Were you with her that night? Were you meeting with Alexis's family behind my back?”I opened my mouth to explain, but Laura held up her hand. “Don't. Don't tell me it's complicated or it is for my protection. Just tell me the truth. Did you meet with Elaine?”I woke up the night you said you were at a warehouse. I went silent, my silence an answer enough as I could feel Laura’s distance towards me, like something was breaking in her chest. “Get out,” she said quietly. “Get out of my room right now.”---LAURA I watched as Xavier made his way out of the room. And I just sat there, not knowing what to say, how to think. My hands still shook. The video replayed on and on, and I was not able to do anything but feel disappointed, heartbroken. I can't still believe this. I can't b

XAVIER The bell above the door hadn't even finished its cheerful chime before the atmosphere in the coffee shop died. It wasn't just my size or the way my clothes and security team fanned out behind me like a shadow cabinet. It was the heat coming off me. I moved to the... hipster morning customers as they parted like the Red Sea. I didn't see the menu boards or the line of people waiting for lattes. I only saw the back of Vanessa's head and the pale, frozen mask of Laura's face across from her. Every step I took felt like a hammer striking against the floor. The viper wasn't at the gate anymore. She was sitting at the table, pouring poison into my wife's ear. And the restraint I had practiced for years snapped like a dry twig. I couldn't believe it. It all came to me like a sickening clarity. Everything had fought, found every way, scanned through every corner just to find out who exactly was trying to come in between me and my wife, and she was right there, taking each and every s

LAURA "I'm scared," I muttered gently to him. He looked at me sharply, concerned immediately. "You don't have to be scared of anything." "Then why are you keeping silent? Why are you acting like I am just talking to myself and you are not even listening?" I poured out my feelings. "I am listening to everything, every word you say to me. But you don't have to be scared because there's nothing to be scared about." "Hey Ashot, I'm falling for you so deeply that I don't even have a choice. And do you know what frightened me the most?" I said slowly. I knew I wanted to hide this for as long as possible. But at this point, I don't think I can anymore. "It's the fact that you will always patronize your business and secrets over our partnership, our relationship, this marriage." I said. He slowly let go of me and sat a bit distance from me. "I don't know what goes through your mind sometimes, Laura, but I don't even know how else to assure you anymore. But I want you to know I am al

LAURA The quarterly projection glowed on the wall-sized monitor, a jagged mountain range of red and green lines that supposedly represented human lives and livelihood to the men in this room, men who wore their power like a second skin. It was just resource allocations or mitigating overhead. To me, it was a dizzying blur of light that made my head ache because of my eyes. Behind my eyes. I kept thinking about what Juniper had told me earlier, her voice echoing in my head like a lifeline. She said I was supposed to be the voice of humanity, the conscience of the board. But as I sat in a chair that probably cost more than my first car, I wondered how anyone was expected to speak about humanity when they were choking on the smell of expensive cooling recycled air and cold ambition.Xavier sat at the head of the table, and watching him was like watching a stranger. This wasn't the man who made me coffee in the morning or held me until I fell asleep. This was a titan. He stared at the c