Cinderella and Her Three Knights のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 21 - チャプター 30

Ella’s POVThe heavy front door clicked shut later that morning. Adrian’s parting words—a crisp, cold command about meeting him at the office in an hour—still hung in the air. I’d nodded, my smile a tight, practiced thing. Now, I was alone. Or so I thought.The house felt different without their collective energy. Adrian’s imposing control, Evan’s simmering resentment, Julian’s gentle watchfulness—it had all been siphoned out with them, leaving a hollow, expectant shell. I stood there for a long moment, the polished marble floor cool beneath my thin flats, listening to the absence. My plan was simple: go upstairs, change, gather my notes, and leave for the estate office before Adrian’s patience wore thin. A straightforward escape.I was halfway up the grand staircase when I heard it.A low, rhythmic groan. Not of pain. It was a sound of… strain. Of effort. It was followed by a wet, slick slap, muffled but distinct.My feet stopped moving. Every instinct told me to keep climbing, to mi

Ella’s POVI didn’t wait to hear what Lucian would say next.I turned and rushed out of his office, my heart pounding far too hard for a simple walk down a corridor. The door closed behind me, and I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. My face felt warm, my thoughts messy, tangled around one single, irritating fact.I had never seen Lucian like that before.The suit. The calm confidence. The way he had filled the room without trying. It unsettled me how easily the image replayed in my head—how different he looked from the reckless, teasing man I thought I understood. That version of him felt… dangerous in a quieter way.I pushed the thought aside as I headed toward the exit. I just needed air. Space. Distance from the Blackwood brothers and their constant pull.The glass doors slid open.“Ella?”I stopped short.Julian was stepping into the lobby, dressed neatly but casually, a tablet tucked under his arm. He looked surprised to see me—genuinely surprised, not calculating like the others.“W

Ella’s POVI stared at my phone for a long moment after Adrian’s message.Come to my room. Or I’ll come to yours.My heart thudded hard against my ribs—not with excitement, not exactly, but with something sharper. Awareness. Calculation. I’d learned early in life that power didn’t always shout. Sometimes it whispered and waited for you to step closer.I typed slowly.Me: I’ll come. Give me five minutes.I didn’t rush.I fixed my hair neatly, changed into something simple—nothing inviting, nothing careless. I wanted control, even if it was borrowed. When I finally stepped into the hallway, my footsteps were steady.Adrian’s door opened before I knocked.He looked… composed. Too composed. Like this was something he’d planned long before tonight.“Come in,” he said, stepping aside.The room smelled faintly of cologne and something darker—leather, maybe. He shut the door behind me, the soft click loud in the quiet.We stood there for a second. Too close.“You ignored the intercom,” he sai

Ella’s POVNaomi and Julian excused themselves after a few more polite words. Julian promised to come back later after finishing the business that brought him, and Naomi was already halfway back to the counter, moving with the kind of confidence that made people turn their heads without realizing why.I told myself to relax.I didn’t.Lila was talking, animated, hands moving as she described something funny that had happened on her way to the café, but my attention kept drifting. My eyes followed Naomi without permission—how she leaned close to Julian as they spoke quietly near the counter, how she laughed, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.Naomi.The name kept echoing in my head like a bell I hadn’t meant to ring.I took a sip of my drink, barely tasting it.“Ella,” Lila said, snapping her fingers softly in front of my face. “Hello? Earth to Ella.”I blinked and laughed awkwardly. “Sorry. Zoned out.”“You’ve been zoning out since that woman showed up,” she said, lowering her

Ella’s POVLater that night, the sound of a car pulling into the estate drifted through the quiet like a warning bell.I was sitting on my bed with a book I hadn’t turned a page of in minutes when voices floated in through the open windows. Laughter. Light. Easy. The kind that made my chest tighten for reasons I didn’t fully understand.I stepped out of my room just as Julian walked in through the main doors.He wasn’t alone.Naomi walked beside him like she belonged there. Not hesitant. Not curious. Comfortable. Her steps were confident, her smile warm, and the way she looked around wasn’t the way a guest did—it was the way someone returned home after a long time away.What surprised me most wasn’t her beauty. It was how everyone reacted to her.One of the older security men smiled widely when he saw her.“Naomi Cross,” he said fondly. “It’s been years.”She laughed and greeted him by name.Even the chairman, who rarely softened around anyone, opened his arms and called her his daugh