All Chapters of The CEO'S dirty little secret : Chapter 21 - Chapter 26

The morning sun crept over the Sterling estate with a deceptive stillness. By seven o’clock, the grand house was mostly empty of its men. Alexander had left before dawn for an urgent site inspection at one of his independent developments, his mind likely still heavy with the confession he had made to his brother. Liam, along with his father and the Sterling elders, had departed shortly after for a high-stakes board meeting to discuss the company’s post-trial recovery.Isabella woke with a dull ache in her chest. The peace she had fought so hard for felt thin, like parchment held too close to a flame. Needing a kick-start to a day she already dreaded, she slipped out of the master suite and headed toward the kitchen, hoping to grab a cup of coffee before the toddlers woke up and claimed her morning.As she entered the kitchen, she froze. Sandra was already there, standing by the stove. The air between them was thick with the residue of yesterday’s backhanded insults. Isabella decided t

The Sterling beach house was a sanctuary of glass and white linen, perched on a secluded cliffside where the only neighbors were the seagulls and the endless rhythm of the Atlantic. Here, the air was salted and clean, a world away from the suffocating luxury of the city mansion and the tragic dust of the village. For the first few days, Alexander and Isabella existed in a bubble of fragile peace.Alexander had stripped away the CEO persona. He wore linen shirts and went barefoot, spending his mornings chasing the twins along the shoreline and his evenings cooking simple meals for Isabella. He was a man on a mission of penance, proving with every gesture that his world began and ended with her.Isabella, however, remained watchful. She loved the man who held her at night, but the woman who had survived the streets of the city was still on guard. They spent their afternoons on the deck, the only sound the crashing waves below. They talked—truly talked—about their fears and the darkness

The aftermath of the rescue at the hunting lodge was not met with the quiet cover-up the Sterling name usually commanded. Alexander made sure of it. As the sun rose over the city, the clinical white walls of a high-end private medical facility provided the backdrop for a new kind of Sterling history. Sandra was being treated for a concussion and severe bruising, while Isabella sat by her bedside, a silent guardian who refused to leave until the legal paperwork was signed.Alexander didn't go to the beach house. He didn't go to his own office. He drove straight to the Sterling ancestral mansion, the seat of his father’s power. He didn't knock. He walked into the grand dining room where his father, Mr. Sterling, and a pale, trembling Eleanor were having breakfast."It’s over," Alexander said, his voice dropping like a lead weight onto the mahogany table."Alexander? What on earth—" Eleanor started, but the look on her son's face silenced her."Liam kidnapped Sandra. He held her at the l