บททั้งหมดของ The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride : บทที่ 131 - บทที่ 140

Bella POVForde broke in under a few hours. That was faster than I'd expected, and Diana, sitting at the dining table reviewing the recording from the restaurant, said it meant he'd been looking for an exit for a while. "Men like Forde don't hold secrets because they're loyal," she said. "They hold them because the alternative scares them more, it takes the scare away""And they talk," I finished.Lena and Caleb had handled the Forde meeting in a conference room on a floor of Black Tower that had been cleared for the afternoon. I hadn't been in the room. That had been a deliberate choice — Caleb's, supported by me — because my presence would have made it about the family, and this needed to stay about the company, the evidence, the clean legal record we'd need afterward. I'd watched through the building's internal video feed with Diana, who had provided a quiet, running commentary on Forde's body language with the detached interest of someone watching a wildlife documentary.When Cale

Bella POVThe hardest part was not the plan itself, the hardest part was telling Tom.Not the truth — we'd agreed on that, Diana and I, after minutes of logistics at the kitchen table while Caleb handled Lena's team. Tom was four, he did not need the real version, he needed the version he could carry without being afraid."Mummy's going to stay somewhere else for a little while," I told him, sitting on the edge of his bed. "Just a few days. You're going to be with Daddy and Diana."Tom looked at me with his serious grey eyes. "Because of the bad person?""We're sorting out the bad person," I said. "This is part of sorting it."He chewed on this. "Are you going to be safe?""Very safe," I said. "Lots of people keeping an eye on me.""Like Leon with the biscuits?""Similar to Leon," I said, and didn't let my voice change. "And you'll be able to see me on a call every night. And when it's done, I'll be home."He looked at me for another long moment with that unsettling perceptiveness he

Caleb POVThe drive back to the penthouse was a blur of dark streets and red traffic lights I barely registered. My hands gripped the steering wheel too tightly, knuckles white, the scent of Bella still clinging to my skin—her perfume, her arousal, the faint salt of her tears. Every mile away from that anonymous apartment felt like another rip in my chest.I shouldn’t have gone. I shouldn’t have touched her.I sure as hell shouldn’t have fucked her like that—raw, brutal, punishing—against the wall when she was begging me to leave. But the second she’d opened that door, the second I saw her standing there already halfway into the role of bait, something inside me had snapped, years of regret, of searching empty rooms for the wife I’d thrown away, of waking up reaching for a woman who wasn’t there… it all crashed over the carefully built walls I’d rebuilt since she came back.She’d cried out in pain when I thrust into her the first time—sharp, broken sounds that only made me drive harde

Bella POVTom didn't know what had happened. He knew Mummy had come home in the middle of the night and that when I picked him up out of bed he was half-asleep and warm , I held him for probably too long while he drowsily patted my hair and said, "You're back already," I said, "I told you I would be," He was back in his own bed by four in the morning and asleep within minutes, and Caleb and I sat on the floor of his room in the dark with our backs against his bed frame, not talking, listening to him breathe.After a while Caleb's hand found mine and we stayed there until the light started to change.The nightmares started three nights later. Tom wasn't a dramatic child. But he woke twice in the same night reaching for something in a way that made my chest tighten, and when I sat with him and asked what he'd been dreaming he said, carefully, "There were people who wanted to take me," and looked at me with those grey eyes waiting to see how I would respond.I didn't look away from it.

Bella POVI pulled back slightly, needing the distance to say it properly. "First condition," I said. "We don't rush it, no engagement announcement, no ring shopping next week, no timeline shaped by your board's opinion or anyone else's expectations. We move when we're both ready, and I'm the one who decides when that is.""Agreed," he said immediately."You're not even going to negotiate?""No."I looked at him. "Most people negotiate.""I'm not negotiating the terms of spending my life with you," he said simply. "What else?""Second condition, we see someone like a therapist. Together. I'm not building something on top of everything that happened without a solid foundation. I've worked too hard to get here to watch it crack because we were too proud to do the work properly."Something moved across his face "I've been seeing a new therapist for about eight months."I stared at him. "You have.""Yes.""You never told me.""You never asked. And I wasn't sure you'd believe me, I didn't