my Billionaire’s baby のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 51 - チャプター 60

Louis’s POVThe world tunneled. The grainy image on my phone screen—Sierra’s younger, brighter face, Victor’s manic scrawl—burned itself into my retina. A cold, precise fury, sharper than any I’d ever known, crystallized in my veins. This wasn’t an attack on my business or my past. This was a target painted directly on the center of my present. On *her*.I looked at Sierra. She had gone very still, her face pale but composed, her eyes fixed on the photo. She was running the same calculations I was, but from inside the crosshairs.“He was watching me,” she said, her voice detached, analytical. “From the beginning. This wasn’t just about a business grudge or a lost lover. This was… a transfer of obsession.”The pieces snapped into a horrifying new configuration. Victor’s rage wasn’t just about a woman I’d removed from his life. It had festered, mutated. He’d fixated on the woman who had taken her *place* in the public narrative—the wife, the symbol of my “winning.” In his distorted min

Sierra’s POVThe text from Derek messed me up. I tried to forget it, but I couldn’t. It was like a song you hate that gets stuck in your head.*He talked about you a lot. More than you know.*Why would he say that? We paid him to lie. Was he lying about the lying? My brain hurt.Louis made some calls. He told Irina to “handle” Derek. I don’t know what that means, and I didn’t ask. Sometimes now, I don’t want to know.Everything else looked normal. Katie was fine. She had a playdate with a girl from school. The girl’s mom was nice. She didn’t ask about the kidnapping. She just talked about how good Katie was at sharing.Louis worked a lot. I started planning a new thing for the foundation—giving money to schools for art stuff. It kept me busy.But at night, when the house was quiet, I’d think about the text. I’d look at Louis sleeping next to me. He looked calmer now. But I wasn’t calm.One night, I had a bad dream. I was in the grocery store, but all the boxes had my picture on them.

Sierra’s POVThey fixed the cameras. They put in a whole new system. Big guys in suits walked around our house all day, checking everything.It was supposed to make me feel safe. It didn’t.I felt like a bug in a jar. Everyone could see me. The good guys and the bad guys.Katie knew something was wrong. “Why are there more helpers, Mommy?” she asked.“They’re just… checking the TV,” I said. It was a dumb lie.“Our TV is broken?”“Sort of.”Louis was like a robot. He moved around, talking in a low voice on his phone. He didn’t sleep. He just drank coffee and stared at screens.I tried to be normal. I made pancakes. I helped Katie with her glitter glue project. But my ears were always listening. For a weird sound. For a voice on a monitor that wasn’t there anymore.Three days after the singing, I found something.I was in the laundry room. Katie’s favorite pink sock was missing. I was looking for it, checking under the big laundry table. And I saw it.A little black box. Stuck under th

Sierra’s POVLouis’s plan was crazy. Talk to Miranda Vale? On purpose? It was like seeing a wasp and sticking your face in its nest.But he said we had to control the story. I guessed he was right. If she was going to talk about us anyway, maybe we should be the ones talking.The next day, Louis’s assistant called Miranda’s show. They set up a meeting. Not for an interview. Just to talk.We had to get ready. I put on a soft blue sweater and jeans. I wanted to look normal. Nice. Not like a scary rich lady.“Remember,” Louis said in the car. “We’re a team. We’re parents. We’re just trying to protect our family.”“What if she’s mean?” I asked.“Then we stay calm. We kill her with kindness.”The TV studio was big and shiny. A lady with a headset took us to a green room. There were crackers and water on a table.Miranda Vale walked in. On TV, she looks bigger. In person, she was thin and had very sharp eyes. Like a bird.“Mr. and Mrs. Crowe,” she said. She didn’t smile. “This is a surprise

Sierra’s POVPlanning the party was the hardest thing I ever had to do. My hands would shake when I looked at color swatches for tablecloths. Picking out what flowers to get made me want to scream. Who cared about flowers when someone wanted to steal your kid?But I did it. I smiled at the party planners. I said “yes” to the silver balloons and “of course” to the live band. I picked a chocolate fountain because Katie loved it. Every time I made a choice, I felt sick. I was building the set for a play where the monster might jump out of the wings.Louis was different too. He wasn’t just the boss anymore. He was the general. He and Martin turned my pretty party plans into a security map. They put tiny cameras in flower arrangements. They had microphones in the ceiling. Every waiter and valet person was actually a security guard. The whole house was going to be a spider web, and we were the flies sitting right in the middle.A week before the party, I couldn’t sleep. I got up and went to