บททั้งหมดของ The Heiress in Glass: บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

The call didn’t come back.Daniel tried three times.Each time, it went straight to nothing.Not voicemail. Not silence. Just absence.Vivienne stood in the center of the bedroom, barefoot, unmoving, her arms wrapped around herself like if she held on tightly enough, she could keep Eloise from slipping further away.“She sounded afraid,” Daniel said quietly.Vivienne didn’t answer.Afraid wasn’t a word she associated with Eloise.Not because Eloise was fearless.But because she had learned very young that fear was dangerous when Margaux could see it.“Play it again,” Vivienne said.Daniel hesitated.Then he held the phone out.He had recorded it.Vivienne listened to her sister’s voice.Thin.Breathless.Older.“…I tried to stop her…”Vivienne closed her eyes.Eloise had always tried to stop her.

The letter shook in Vivienne’s hands.She didn’t realize how tightly she was gripping it until Daniel gently touched her wrist.“Vivienne,” he said softly. “Breathe.”She hadn’t been.Air came back to her lungs in fragments, like her body didn’t trust it.The storage unit suddenly felt too small. Too close. Too full of ghosts that had been waiting years for her to find them.“She knew,” Vivienne whispered again.Daniel didn’t rush her.He had learned that about her.Vivienne didn’t need to be pushed.She needed space to arrive at the truth herself.He glanced at the letter.“Read it to me.”Vivienne hesitated.Then nodded.Her voice trembled at first, but she forced it steady.“Vivienne,If you’re reading this, it means I ran out of time to explain it safely.”She stopped.Her throat tightened.Daniel’s ha

Vivienne didn’t remember leaving Helena’s office.She remembered Daniel’s hand at her back.Marcus saying something about securing the files.Helena telling them to move quickly.But the words had blurred together, drowned beneath the sound of her own heartbeat.Secrets.Her father had built Laurent Holdings on secrets.Not innovation.Not brilliance.Secrets.She stood now in her father’s old office.Alone.She hadn’t been inside since the day of his funeral.Daniel had offered to come with her.She had said no.This was something she needed to face herself.The room was exactly as it had been.Untouched.Preserved like a shrine to a man she wasn’t sure she knew anymore.The city stretched beyond the glass walls, glowing with indifferent life.Vivienne stepped toward his desk slowly.Her heels sounded too loud in the silence.She ran her fingers along the polished surface.He had sat here.He had signed those documents here.He had lied to her here.Her throat tightened.“You should

The silence after the call felt louder than any scream.Vivienne stood frozen in the center of her father’s office, her phone still pressed to her ear long after the line had gone dead. The faint reflection of herself in the darkened window barely looked like her anymore.Daniel said her name softly.She didn’t answer.Not because she hadn’t heard him.Because Eloise’s voice was still echoing inside her.She’s waiting.Waiting.Not hiding.Not fleeing.Waiting.Daniel stepped closer, his hand hovering near her arm before finally resting there, warm and steady. “Vivienne.”She inhaled sharply, as if surfacing from deep water.“She’s alive.”Her voice broke on the last word.Daniel closed his eyes briefly, relief and dread arriving together. He had never known Eloise the way Vivienne had, but he understood what her survival meant.Hope.And danger.Vivienne turned to him, her eyes shining with tears she hadn’t let fall yet.“She sounded afraid.”Daniel didn’t try to soften it.“Then she

Vivienne didn’t realize she was shaking until Daniel took her hands.Margaux’s words still echoed in her ears.Now come and get your sister.Not if.Not maybe.Now.The clock had started.Daniel’s grip tightened, grounding her.“Vivienne,” he said softly.She looked at him, her eyes wide and glassy. For a moment, she looked less like the untouchable Laurent heiress and more like the girl he used to know—the one who used to run barefoot across summer lawns and believe the world couldn’t hurt her.“I have to go,” she whispered.Daniel’s jaw flexed.“We’ll go.”She shook her head faintly.“She’ll be watching. She’ll expect that.”“I don’t care what she expects.”“I do.”Her voice broke.“Because she always plans for it.”Silence stretched between them, thick with fear and something deeper.Love.The