บททั้งหมดของ The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride : บทที่ 91 - บทที่ 100

Bella pov He looked at his wine glass. "The way he negotiates, he doesn't ask for things directly — he builds a case first. Circumstantial evidence, precedent, projected outcomes." The corner of his mouth moved. "He's three years old and he constructs arguments, I have no idea where he gets that."I almost said, you but I stopped myself."What did therapy actually do?" I asked instead, I wasn't being cruel. I genuinely wanted to know. "Specifically, what changed?"He considered it carefully, the way he'd learned to consider things. "I learned why I became who I was. My father. The way I was raised to treat emotion like enemy territory." He leaned forward, elbows on knees. "And then I learned something harder — that what I did to you wasn't an accident born from bad information. It was the result of me being deeply, fundamentally broken, and that broken person was always going to find a reason to push you away. Jade's lies were convenient. But I would have found something else if she

Bella POV Caleb drove. Tom was with Maya for the morning, which meant the car was quiet in a way I wasn't entirely comfortable with — just the two of us and the city thinning out around us as we headed north, buildings giving way to trees, traffic giving way to open road. I'd asked twice where we were going. He'd said you'll see both times, pleasantly and infuriatingly. Forty minutes out, he turned down a private lane lined with old oaks and stopped in front of a house. White stone and dark wood. Wide front porch. Windows that caught the light and threw it back warm. A garden along one side going gently wild, a weathervane on the roof shaped like a compass, I didn't say anything for a moment. "Whose is this?" I asked. "Yours." He cut the engine. "And Tom's." I turned to look at him. He was watching the house, not me, both hands still on the wheel. "Caleb" "Before you say anything." He finally looked at me. "I noticed. After that night—" He stopped, chose his words carefully.

Bella POVThe dream started the way they all did now — his hands, his mouth, the weight of him. Caleb unhurried and devastating, moving over me in the dark the way he had that one night I couldn't stop reliving no matter how hard I tried. In the dream I didn't stop him. In the dream I pulled him closer, his name breaking open in my throat, his hands finding every place on my body that unmade me.I woke up gasping. The sheets were damp against my skin. My heart was going too fast, breath ragged, the ghost of pleasure still warm and humiliating in my body. I lay there staring at the ceiling, waiting for my pulse to settle.The house was quiet. I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes and breathed through it the way I'd been doing for weeks but It wasn't working.I kicked the sheets off and sat up, the night air cool against my damp skin. Outside the window the garden was dark and still — my garden, my house, the deed sitting in my name in the top drawer of my study. Caleb had giv

Bella POVI'd planned it to be over quickly. Drive over, say what needed saying, measure the results like a woman who had her feelings under complete control. After the phone call last night, the least I could do was look him in the eye when I told him how I really felt.Maya arrived at eight to watch Tom without me having to ask. She took one look at my face and pointed at the door."Go," she said, already steering Tom toward the kitchen. "We're making pancakes. You're not invited."Tom looked up from his dinosaur. "Why isn't Mommy invited?""Because she has grown-up things to do, baby.""Like see Daddy?"Maya shot me a look over his head that said see, even he knows. I grabbed my keys before I could think myself out of it.**********Caleb's penthouse was forty - fifty minutes in morning traffic. I spent the entire drive telling myself this was practical. Two adults having an honest conversation about where things stood.I was still rehearsing the conversation when his door opened.

Bella POVThe notification came at 6 a.m. — Priya's name on my screen, three words before I'd even sat up properly. Turn on the news.I was reaching for the remote before I'd finished reading it.The anchor's voice filled my bedroom: "— allegations against Black Enterprises CEO Caleb Black, with the SEC confirming this morning that a formal investigation has been opened into suspected insider trading in connection with last quarter's Nexus Pharmaceuticals acquisition. Sources close to the investigation indicate that transactions made in the three days prior to the public announcement suggest prior knowledge of"I sat on the edge of my bed and stared at the screen. His face was everywhere. That controlled, unreadable press photo expression, his name scrolling in a red ticker at the bottom like a verdict already delivered. The anchor used words like alleged and sources indicating with the practiced confidence of someone who had already decided.My phone buzzed three times in quick succe