Lahat ng Kabanata ng His Earthly Desire : Kabanata 51 - Kabanata 56

I woke up to silence.Not the peaceful kind.The kind that feels unnatural after chaos—like the world had paused just long enough for everything to catch up with me.For a few seconds, I lay still, staring at the ceiling, trying to remember where I was.Then it all came back.The gala.The stage.Malia.Jayden.My chest tightened.I turned my head slowly and reached for my phone on the bedside table.The screen lit up.And my breath caught.Notifications flooded the display.Dozens.No—hundreds.Messages. Missed calls. Emails. News alerts.My stomach dropped as I unlocked the phone.The headlines were worse than last night.“Mystery Woman Beside CEO Sparks Corporate Frenzy.”“Assistant or Something More? The Woman Behind Jayden Roberts.”“Anniversary Gala Turns Into Power Play.”My fingers tightened slightly around the phone.I scrolled further.Photos.So many photos.Malia in the emerald dress.Jayden stopping her.Me walking onto the stage.Me holding the microphone.Me standing be

“It started beside you.”The words didn’t echo.They settled.Slowly.Deliberately.Like something heavy placed in the center of the table for everyone to examine.No one rushed to react.No one denied it.And somehow, that was worse.I felt every pair of eyes in the room shift toward me again—sharper now, more focused, no longer just curious.Calculating.Connecting.Rewriting everything they thought they knew.My fingers tightened slightly around my phone under the table.The board member who had spoken leaned forward just a fraction.“Let’s look at this logically,” he said, tone calm, almost reasonable. “Last night’s incident involved Miss Sanders directly.”No one interrupted.“She was supposed to be on that stage,” he continued. “Instead, her sister appeared in her place. A public disruption followed.”His gaze didn’t leave mine.“And now,” he added, “we have a media leak containing internal insight… coincidentally centered around her position.”The word coincidentally lingered i

(Jayden’s POV)She thinks I let her walk out.That’s the first mistake.I stand exactly where she left me, eyes on the door long after it closes, long after the echo fades. Stillness is a skill. It convinces people you’re not moving when you already have.She said she wouldn’t go as the person I think she is.She doesn’t understand.There is no version of her that isn’t seen.There is only the version that is… accounted for.I glance at the location on her screen one last time, commit it to memory, then reach for my phone.“Lock down the floor,” I say the moment the call connects. “No one leaves without clearance.”A pause.“Yes, Mr. Roberts.”“Route all internal communications through my office. I want a copy of everything sent in the last twelve hours—emails, access logs, camera pings.”“Yes, sir.”I end the call before the questions start.Questions waste time.I move to the window, watching the city move like it always does—indifferent, efficient, unaware of how quickly it can be