Semua Bab The Billionaire’s Vengeful Heiress: Bab 21 - Bab 28

The words landed like a bomb.My fingers tightened around my glass. Something hot and ugly twisted in my chest. Jealousy. Raw and immediate and completely unwelcome.This is fake. The engagement isn’t even real, so you have no right to feel this way. I thought to myself, trying desperately to call my feelings to order.But watching Victoria touch Anthony’s arm again, seeing her lean closer to him, hearing her claim some shared history made that rational voice disappear completely.“How fortunate for both of you that you didn’t.” I raised an eyebrow, keeping my voice cool and detached.Victoria’s eyes flashed with something sharp. Anger, maybe. Or satisfaction at having drawn a reaction from me.“Yes, well.” She waved a dismissive hand. “These things happen. But we’ve remained close friends, haven’t we, Anthony?”Anthony’s jaw tightened. “We’re acquaintances, Victoria. That’s all.”The correction was clear and firm, but Victoria either didn’t hear it or chose to ignore it. She launched

Chapter 24Third person pov Leo stared at his phone. He pinched himself once, then again, just to be sure none of this was a dream he was about to wake up from.Fifty million dollars right there. Sitting in his account as calmly as if it had always belonged there.He read the notification three times before his brain accepted it as real. He exhaled slowly, the kind of breath a man releases when he has been holding it for far too long without realizing.His hands were still trembling as he set the phone face down on the desk. The blackmailer would be paid. The video buried. Everything would go back to the way it had always been. Relief flooded through him.He had barely finished that thought when the office door swung open.Lydia walked in. She did not say a word at first. She simply looked at him, her gaze moving over his face the way it always did, slow and deliberate, like she was reading something written there that he had not meant to leave visible."You look strange," she said,

Third person Pov— LEOThe office had not seen sunlight in three days.Leo had kept the blinds shut since Monday, not because the light bothered him but because he did not want to be seen from the building across the street. A small, irrational thing. He knew that. But the past week had made him careful in ways he had not been before.Even after paying the blackmailer off, the unease had not left him. It sat low in his chest like something that had not finished with him yet. What if the blackmailer was still out there, still watching, tracking every move he made from a distance he could not measure?He was standing at the window with his back to the door when he heard the knock. One knock. Firm. The kind that did not ask permission."Come in."Harper entered without hurry. He was the kind of man who never seemed to be in a rush, which was either the sign of someone very calm or someone who had already decided how everything was going to end. He set his briefcase down, placed his thick

Lydia stood on the pavement across the street from Eternal Jewelry Designs, her eyes moving slowly up the glass and steel facade.The morning sun hit it at an angle that made the whole structure seem to glow from the inside. Clean. Powerful. The kind of building that told you everything about the person who owned it before you ever stepped through the door.She had done her research. Roberta Alfred was not just a jewelry designer who had returned to town after years abroad. She was connected to every elite circle that mattered in Litsville and beyond. The kind of woman whose name on an invitation made people say yes before they even read the rest of it. The kind of woman whose endorsement could open doors that money alone could not.Lydia wanted those doors open. She had been working toward the kind of life she deserved for years, and she had gotten close through every careful move she had made. But close was not enough anymore. Not when she could see exactly how far she still had to