All Chapters of The Billionaire’s Discarded Bride : Chapter 191 - Chapter 200

200 Chapters

Chapter 190: Caught

Jade pov "Yes," I said."Am I speaking with Jade Hart?" It was a woman's voice.Something cold moved through me."Who is this?" I asked."Special Agent Dana Reyes," she said. "FBI. Miss Hart, I need you to stay exactly where you are."Agent Reyes, I looked out the window at the river. The boat had moved so far down that I could no longer see it."How did you get this number?" I asked."We've had it for weeks," Reyes said. Her voice was just like I had heard before. "Miss Hart, I need you to stay exactly where you are."I looked around the room. The boring furniture, the bag I hadn't fully unpacked, and the second laptop open on the table."I don't know what you think""Fourteenth floor, facing east," she said. "Canary Wharf. We've been outside the building for eleven minutes."I closed my eyes.In the end, it was M. It was always going to be M—useful right up until the moment he became more scared of the police than he was of losing my money. I had known that was a possibility and us

Chapter 191: Tom's Trauma

Bella POVTom slept in our bed for the first week.He didn't ask. On our first night home from the hospital, the doctors had cleared him, and the FBI was done asking questions. I had given him a bath, put him in his dinosaur pyjamas, and read him three books. Caleb sat on the other side of him, doing voices for the characters. When the books were finished, Tom simply didn't move. He lay between us with his hand tucked into mine, his eyes wide open, watching the ceiling."You can sleep," I told him."I know," he said."We're both here.""I know," he said again, and didn't close his eyes.I looked at Caleb over Tom's head as Caleb looked back at me. Neither of us suggested moving him.At some point in the early hours Tom fell asleep with his fingers still wrapped around mine.I lay there in the dark, listening to him breathe and thinking about the last forty-eight hours. I thought about the warehouse floor, his shaking body, and his voice crying, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. I did not sleep at

Chapter 192: Tom's Terrors

Bella pov The night terrors started.They weren't nightmares—I had expected nightmares, the kind you could wake a child from and soothe. These were different. Tom woke up at 2 AM screaming, completely unseeing, and thrashing away from hands that weren't there. He called for me in a voice that broke something fundamental in my chest, because I was right there. I was holding him, but he couldn't hear me.Somewhere Grace started crying. Her room was two doors down. The walls in this penthouse were good, but not that good, and Tom's screaming had reached her even in her sleep.I heard Nadia's door open. Soft footsteps moved down the corridor. Then came Nadia's voice, low and steady—the particular murmur she used when she was settling Grace in the dark.I stayed with Tom.This was the thing nobody prepared you for—the specific, impossible mathematics of two children needing you at the same time, in different rooms, for different reasons. It was the way your body tried to go in both direct

Chapter 193: The News

Bella pov "Jade made a choice," he said, his voice quiet and absolute. "Jade, whom we both made an enemy of just by existing and being happy. That is not the same as your fault." He turned to face me. "You didn't put Tom in that room, she did.""My history""Is also the reason he's in the living room right now reading about velociraptors instead of being lost somewhere we couldn't reach him," he said. "Your history is exactly why you knew how to bring him home."I looked at him."He said he decided to be like you," Caleb said. "Alone and scared in that room, he chose you as his model. That is not the legacy of someone who failed him."I didn't answer. But I stopped gripping the counter quite so hard."Mummy." Tom's voice came from the living room, patient and certain. "Can someone come look at this fossil? It's a really interesting one."I looked at Caleb.He looked at me. "Go," he said quietly.I walked to the living room doorway. Tom was on the sofa with his book open across his kn

Chapter 194: Reunion

Bella pov "Diana." I said her name the way she sometimes said mine"You got there, you found the Malta connection. You stayed throughout helping out”."I'll be there for dinner," she said finally."I know.""Don't make it a thing.""I'm not making it a thing.""You're smiling," she said. "I can hear it.""Goodbye, Diana.""I'll bring wine," she said, and hung up.I set the phone down, finally letting myself feel the relief—a massive weight leaving my chest.From the living room, Tom called out, "Mummy? Where did you go?""Kitchen," I called back. "I'm here.""Can you come back? I woke up.""Coming," I said.Tom was sitting up on the sofa when I came back in. He looked at me with that same watchful, checking expression he'd had since coming home."You were on the phone," he said. "Was it about the bad person?"I sat beside him, and he immediately leaned into my side. "Yes," I said. "It's all sorted now. You don't need to worry anymore.""Are you sure?" he asked quietly."I'm sure."He

Chapter 195: Healing Together

Caleb POVI cleared my calendar on a Wednesday morning and told James I needed three weeks.James, my assistant of years, had never heard me ask for even one full week off. He was quiet for a long moment before saying, "I'll reschedule everything possible and delegate the rest. Is there anything else I can do?""Tom has therapy on Tuesdays and Thursdays," I said. "Make sure nothing ever lands on those days.""Done," James said.There was a brief pause before James spoke again."Sir," he said, in a careful tone. "I want to say—I think this is the right call."James never offered opinions on my personal life. In years of working together, he had always just done the job. It was why I trusted him completely."Thank you, James," I said."Tom is a remarkable boy," he said. "The whole office has been—we've all been thinking about him."Looking at all the new white space on my calendar, I felt a wave of complete, physical relief."Tell them thank you," I said. "From both of us.""I will," J

Chapter 196: Family time

Caleb pov "He's very capable," she said. "But yes, he's five. This is a lot to carry.""He's working very hard not to show it," I said. "He catches the feeling and hides it before anyone can see. But i recognize that because i did the exact same thing at his age."Dr. Abara looked at me steadily. "What did it take from you?"I was quiet for a moment. "Years of not knowing what I actually felt," I said. "And a marriage that got ruined because I didn't know how to let someone in.""Is that what you want for Tom?""No," I said. "That's why we're all here every Friday. My father taught me that showing feelings was a weakness, and I believed him for a long time." I looked down at my hands. "Tom is not going to learn that. He is not going to learn that feelings are something to hide."Dr. Abara was quiet for a moment."You should tell him that," she said. "Not necessarily in a session, but when the moment is right."I thought about Tom on the terrace, figuring out that he could see the win

Chapter 197: Jade's Trial

Bella POVThe courtroom was smaller than I expected.I don't know what I had imagined. Something grander, maybe. But Court Three was just a room with wood walls, bright lights, and the smell of old paper. Benches filled up with lawyers, reporters, and strangers who just liked to watch other people's disasters.I had been in courtrooms before for Richard and Victoria. I had always been calm and left without looking back. I told myself this would be the same.It was not.Jade was already there, she sat at the defense table. Her hair was shorter, she had lost weight, and her face looked completely blank and cold.I had thought about this moment in the car, in the hallway, and right before the courtroom door opened. I told myself it wouldn't bother me.It did.But it wasn't sadness or the old bond of being sisters. It was harder than that. It was a cold, sharp anger. I looked at the person who had put Tom on a concrete floor and saw she had the same blood as me.She looked at me like she

Chapter 198: Jade's Out bust

Bella pov The room was silent. "The jury will note," Ms. Osei said quietly, "that the defendant has not said she is sorry for what happened to the child." Jade looked at me. I looked back at her, I didn't feel happy that I won. I didn't feel sad. I just felt incredibly tired—the kind of tired you feel when you finally put down a heavy box you have been carrying for years. The courtroom was completely silent when it was time to announce the judgement. The court clerk stood up. "On the count of kidnapping, how do you find the defendant?" "Guilty," the foreperson said. "On the count of child endangerment?" "Guilty." "On the count of conspiracy?" "Guilty." "On the count of directing criminal conduct?" "Guilty." "On the count of attempting to flee when about to be arrested?" "Guilty." Jade did not move, instead she looked eerily calm. The judge looked down at her over his glasses. His voice was flat and cold. "Jade Hart, for these crimes, you have shown no remorse. This c

Chapter 199: The Call

Bella POVMonths laterThe merger documents were forty-seven pages long. I was on page thirty-one when my phone rang.It was Silverton Primary and the time was 3:22 PM.I answered on the second ring. "Mrs. Black, this is the main office," a woman said. "We need to let you know that Tom didn't board the afternoon bus."I stood up before she finished talking. My chair rolled back, and my hand reached for my jacket on the door hook. Every alarm in my body fired at once, but my voice came out steady. "When was he last seen?" I asked."We are checking our attendance records right now, Mrs. Black," she said but her voice sounded strained. "We will call you back as soon as we have a location. Please try to stay calm.""Check well," I said, but the line went dead.I hung up and instantly dialed Caleb as he answered on the first ring. "Tom didn't come home from school."There was silence on the line then Caleb said, "I'm moving. Where are you?""Leaving the office now," I said, I jabbed the

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