Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride : Kabanata 181 - Kabanata 190

Caleb POVI had run boardroom coups, I had dismantled hostile takeovers in forty-eight hours. I had stood in my father's office at thirteen while he told me that crying was a disease, and I had believed him for years.None of it had prepared me for watching Bella watch that video.I’d seen every side of Bella—her strength in boardrooms, her resilience in the hospital, and her quiet empathy for others. But I’d never seen the look that hit her face when Tom said, “Come find me.”In that moment, the fear she’d been holding back finally surfaced. I held her upright, my mind flashing to Tom on that concrete floor with his dinosaur backpack. He was five years old and alone, yet he’d stopped crying to be brave—using the exact words Bella had taught him.A cold, absolute rage settled in my chest. I grew up knowing what it felt like to be afraid, and I had promised myself Tom never would. Whoever put him on that floor was going to be systematically dismantled.Bella pulled herself together fir

Bella POV I had been powerless before. I knew exactly how it felt—the way it stays in your bones and tells you that nothing you do matters. I felt it on my wedding night when my family told me to disappear, I felt it when I was working odd jobs just to survive and I promised myself back then that I would never feel that way again. But here it was. The room was quiet at 4 AM. Reyes’s team spoke in low voices. Diana was on the phone in the hall. Caleb sat two feet away. That small distance was the only thing keeping me from falling apart. I watched the second video again. Tom had his hand flat on the floor. He did that whenever he was thinking hard, like he was trying to steady himself. He was scared but trying not to show it. Seeing a five-year-old try that hard to be brave broke my heart every time. I had taught him to be brave, but I never wanted him to need it for this. "Bella." Maya was suddenly beside me, her voice quiet and steady. It was the tone she used when she was be

Caleb POV The drone footage arrived at 5:40 AM, grainy and grey in the early morning light. Lena showed us the video frame by frame. The building was a large, dark rectangle in the industrial district. It had metal walls and a rusty entrance. The second-floor windows were covered with cardboard. The heat scan showed someone in the corner room on the second floor—likely Tom and a guard—and another heat signature near the stairs. "A guard on the stairs," Reyes said. "And at least one person in the room with Tom." "That's at least two people," Lena added. "Maybe three if there is a guard on the ground floor watching the doors." I studied the building layout again. The guard at the stairs was a problem because he could see anyone coming from the elevator or the main entrance. Coming in through the front would be too slow and loud. If we used the back freight entrance, we would still have to get up those stairs without being seen. "There is a fire escape on the west wall," Diana said

Bella pov Caleb got up first and lifted Tom onto his back. Tom's arms looped around his neck. Then Caleb reached down and pulled me up, and he didn't let go of my hand once I was standing. I didn't want him to. We were halfway down the corridor. Tom had his chin hooked over Caleb's shoulder. He watched the hallway go past with that quiet, thinking look he always got when he was learning something new. "This is a big building," he said. "It is," Caleb said. "It smells funny, Daddy." "Old buildings often do." Tom was quiet for a minute. Then he said, "Dad?" "Yeah." "I told the wall about dinosaurs," he said. "When it got too quiet, I told it everything." He stopped for a second. "I know a whole lot." "I know you do," Caleb said. His voice sounded like it was about to break. "Do you think walls can hear things?" "I think if any wall was ever going to hear something, it was hearing that." Tom thought about this very seriously. "Good," he said. "Then it wasn't bad." He hugg

Jade pov What I had not accounted for was sitting in the van, watching the live feed from that grey room, and seeing a five-year-old refuse to cry. He eventually cried. At the end, when he had nothing left. But for the first six hours, he had simply sat there. Back against the wall, knees to his chest, jaw set in that way that was so completely Caleb's face on a child's face it made me want to put my fist through something. He had talked to the wall. He had pressed his hand flat against the floor like he was steadying himself. He had looked at the camera once, directly, like he knew someone was watching, and then looked away with the deliberate composure of someone who had decided not to give whoever was watching the satisfaction. He was five years old. And when Marco had brought him food—a simple enough gesture, intended to keep him cooperative and quiet—Tom had looked at the plate, looked at Marco, and said, very clearly, "No thank you." I had heard it through the feed and fel