บททั้งหมดของ I AM BILLIONAIRE DAMON'S REPLACEMENT BRIDE : บทที่ 221 - บทที่ 230

The boathouse smelled of damp wood, river water, and victory laced with terror. Damon’s arms were locked around both of us so tightly I could barely breathe, but I didn’t care. Lily was here. Warm, alive. Her tiny body pressed between us as she cried those heartbreaking newborn sobs that tore straight through my soul. “We got her,” Damon whispered against my hair, his voice cracking for the first time all night. “We got our baby back, Eve. She’s here. She’s safe.” I couldn’t speak. I just held on, one arm around Lily and the other clinging to Damon’s back, my face buried in his chest. Tears poured down my cheeks uncontrollably. Lily’s little fists grabbed at my shirt, her cries slowly quieting as she recognized our voices, our smell, our touch. The three of us knelt on the dirty floor, tangled together like we would never let go again. “My baby,” I sobbed, pressing kiss after kiss to her soft head. “Mommy’s here, daddy’s here. We’ve got you. We’ve got you forever.” Damon’s shoulde

EVE'S POV The nursery was quiet except for the soft hum of the white noise machine and Lily’s gentle breathing. I sat in the rocking chair, holding her against my chest in the dim glow of the nightlight. She had fallen asleep after her evening feed, one tiny fist curled around my shirt like she was afraid to let go. I understood the feeling completely. It had only been two days since we got her back. Two days since the nightmare of her kidnapping ended with her safe in our arms. But my body hadn’t caught up yet. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Sophia’s wild face as she clutched my baby and ran. I heard Lily’s terrified cries. I felt the emptiness in my arms all over again. “I’ve got you,” I whispered into her soft hair, rocking slowly. “Mommy’s got you. No one’s ever taking you again.” Lily sighed in her sleep, trusting and warm. The sight should have filled me with peace. Instead, something sharp and ugly twisted in my chest. My breathing started to quicken. The room felt

EVE'S POV The new security protocols hummed constantly in the background... soft beeps from motion sensors, the low murmur of extra guards rotating shifts, reinforced doors that now required biometric scans. Lily slept peacefully in her crib, but I checked on her every few minutes, my body still wired from the trauma of her kidnapping. Damon worked from his home office, refusing to leave us even for a short meeting. His presence was a constant, protective shadow. The doorman buzzed. “Miss Eve, your parents are here, they say they want to see Lily and apologize.” I tensed immediately. Damon looked up from his laptop, jaw tight. “You don’t have to see them if you’re not ready.” “I need to,” I said quietly. “For closure. But stay with me.” My parents stepped off the elevator looking exhausted and guilty. My mother, carried a small gift bag with a stuffed toy and baby clothes. My father held a bouquet of flowers. They both had red, swollen eyes. “Eve,” my mother said, voice tremblin

EVE'S POV The decision to return to my rented office wasn’t easy. Three days after we got Lily back, the penthouse still felt like the safest place in the world. Every corner had been reinforced with new security... biometric locks, constant camera feeds, armed guards rotating shifts like silent shadows. Lily slept in her crib with two monitors and a dedicated operator stationed just outside the nursery door. I hadn’t left her side for more than a few minutes since the rescue. The thought of stepping away, even for a few hours, made my chest tighten with familiar panic. But the project... my project...had been bleeding for too long. The sabotage from Sophia and Alex had gutted most of my progress. Permits stalled, contractors pulled out, funders vanished. If I didn’t fight for it now, it would die completely. And I refused to let them take that from me too. “I need to go in today,” I told Damon over breakfast. Lily was in her bouncer beside us, happily chewing on a teether. “Just

EVE'S POV The bathroom felt smaller than usual that afternoon, the walls closing in just a little too tight. I sat on the closed toilet lid, staring at the three pregnancy tests lined up on the marble counter like tiny judges waiting to drop their verdict. My hands trembled so badly I had to clasp them together in my lap, knuckles white, just to keep them still. The soft afternoon light filtered through the frosted window, casting hazy patterns on the tiles, but it did nothing to chase away the cold dread and wild, fragile hope twisting around in my chest. It had been months since we got Lily back. Months of slow healing, of turning our home into a fortress with all those extreme security protocols, of learning to breathe again while Sophia stayed a ghost somewhere out there and Alex fought like hell for bail from prison. Lily was eleven months old now... crawling into everything, pulling herself up on furniture with those chubby little hands, babbling “ma-ma” and “da-da” with such