All Chapters of The Night Before Christmas: Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

Desmond’s POVThe paper felt heavier than it should have, despite being nothing more than a thin, ordinary document resting between my fingers. The texture of it was smooth, unremarkable, and yet the weight it carried refused to align with its form, as though the truth embedded within it had substance, something dense enough to shift everything it touched.I did not look up as I read.My eyes moved across the page once, then again, slower this time, more deliberate, each word settling into place with a clarity that left no room for misinterpretation.The numbers were undeniable, 99.9999%, a certainty so absolute it left no room for argument or escape. Hailey Smith is my daughter.For a moment, the world seemed to still around me.The study remained unchanged, the low amber lighting casting soft shadows across the polished wood surfaces, the faint, familiar scent of varnish and aged paper lingering in the air, the quiet ticking of the clock mounted on the wall marking time with indiff

Aria’s POVThe moment I saw him, something inside me went completely still.It was not panic, not immediately. It was something colder, sharper, like the instant before glass shatters, when everything holds for just a fraction too long.Evans leaned casually against the doorframe as though he belonged there, his presence filling the space in a way that felt invasive, deliberate, and suffocating. The faint corridor light spilled in behind him, outlining his figure in a soft glow that did nothing to soften the expression on his face.That smile.It was wrong.Too relaxed for a man who should not have been free.Too certain.“How…?” The word left me before I could stop it, my voice quieter than I intended, caught somewhere between disbelief and something far more dangerous.His smile widened slightly as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him with a soft, decisive click that echoed louder than it should have in the small room.“Is that how you greet me now?” he asked lightly, his

Desmond’s POVI had faced negotiations worth billions without hesitation, dismantled men twice my size with calculated precision, and built an empire on decisions that demanded absolute control.None of it had prepared me for this.Something had shifted between us, irreversibly and without warning, leaving behind a space that neither logic nor control could immediately fill. I felt it in the altered weight of the air, in the distance she now held between us, and in the quiet disarray of thoughts that no longer aligned with the discipline I had spent years mastering.Hailey.Her name no longer existed in abstraction. It no longer belonged to a distant reality I could observe without consequence. It carried weight now, pressing into something deeper than reason, something instinctive and unrelenting. The realisation that she was my daughter did not arrive with clarity or fulfilment. It settled instead like a slow, sinking gravity, hollowing out everything else around it.It should have

Aria’s POVThe study no longer felt like a room.It felt like a vault.Not for money. Not for power.For truth.The kind that had been buried too long, layered carefully beneath years of silence, control, and carefully constructed narratives.The air itself felt heavier here, as though it had absorbed every secret ever spoken within these walls and refused to let them dissipate. Even the faint scent of polished wood and leather seemed sharper, more intrusive, settling at the back of my throat as though reminding me that nothing here was accidental.I sat very still, my hands resting in my lap, though I could no longer feel my fingers. Across from me, Desmond placed the file and the album on the table with measured precision, as though even now, he understood the weight of what he was about to expose.The soft thud echoed louder than it should have.Like a line being drawn.Everything that came after would exist on the other side of it.He opened the file first.Photographs.Old ones.

Aria’s POVThe silence in my bedroom felt different from the one in the study.There, it had been heavy with revelations, sharp, suffocating, unavoidable.Here, it was quieter. But not lighter.If anything, it was worse.Because now, I understood.I stood by the window, my fingers lightly gripping the edge of the curtain as I stared out into the darkness beyond the estate grounds. The night stretched endlessly, calm on the surface, betraying nothing of what was moving beneath it.Just like everything else.My mind replayed the conversation in the study, not in fragments, but in patterns.That was the difference now.Before, everything had felt like isolated incidents, unfortunate, confusing, and painful.Now, they were connected.Deliberate.Constructed.And I could finally see the structure forming beneath it all.Helina.The name surfaced with quiet clarity, settling into place in a way that made my chest tighten.I was caught up in so many things, I forgot about what I found out ab