Semua Bab The Billionaire Celebrity I Couldn't Have: Bab 11 - Bab 20

Mira woke up smiling. The smile came before her eyes even opened, before reality had a chance to remind her who she was and where she belonged. For a few precious seconds, she stayed still on the thin mattress, wrapped in the warmth of a memory that felt unreal, like a scene borrowed from someone else’s life.She had seen him.Not on a screen. Not on a poster. Not in whispers shared by excited girls at school.She had seen De.King—the world-famous celebrity everyone adored—standing right there, breathing the same air as her. She had been close enough to see the faint crease between his brows, close enough to hear his voice without a microphone. Close enough to matter, even if only for a moment.Mira pressed her hand to her chest as her smile widened. Her heart was still racing, as if it hadn’t slept at all. Last night replayed itself in her mind like a treasured secret: the lights, the crowd, the disbelief, the way her knees had almost given out when she realized it wasn’t a dream.

Mira woke up smiling.Not the small, careful smile she usually wore—this one was wide, unguarded, real.For a moment, she lay still, staring at the ceiling of the room she had once called hers, afraid that if she moved too fast, the feeling would disappear. Sunlight slipped softly through the curtains, painting warm lines across the walls. The air felt different this morning. Lighter.Today was not like other days.Today, she was going to school.Not to scrub floors.Not to wash dishes.Not to stand silently while insults fell on her like rain.School.Her heart fluttered as she sat up. The memory of last night rushed back—the Cluster Hotel, the lights, the music, the way the world-famous Derick Lingard had looked at her like she mattered. The way his voice had steadied her when everything else spun.She pressed a hand to her chest.I really met him, she thought, disbelief and joy tangling together. De.King… I saw him with my own eyes.A soft laugh escaped her lips.Before anyone co

Derick Lingard had learned, over the years, how to watch without being seen.From behind tinted glass, the world softened. People became shapes, movements, passing lives. He liked it that way. Distance kept things clean. Controlled. Safe.The black car idled across the street from the university gate, engine humming low, barely noticeable among the morning traffic. Students streamed past in clusters—laughing, talking, checking their phones, late for lectures they pretended mattered more than they did.None of them mattered to him.Except one.She stepped out of a modest sedan, the kind of car Derick never noticed twice. The driver opened the door politely, and for a second, she paused—adjusting the strap of her bag, blinking up at the wide campus as if she were seeing something sacred.Mira, his soft lips murmur her name.After that night he had ask his PA to find information about her.Derick’s fingers stilled where they rested against his knee.She looked… different.Not dressed

Morning came gently this time.Mira woke before the alarm, sunlight slipping through the curtains and brushing her face like a quiet promise. For a moment, she lay still, listening—to the hum of the house, the distant sound of a car passing, the soft rhythm of her own breathing.Then it hit her.School.Thank God daddy is around, She said "while a slow smile curved her lips.She sat up, hugging her pillow once before swinging her legs off the bed. Her feet touched the floor, and for the first time in a long while, she didn’t feel dread. No knot in her stomach. No fear of being shouted at before the day even began.Downstairs, the house was already awake—but calmer.Rosie’s voice floated from the kitchen, light and controlled. “Tina, don’t forget your charger. You’re always losing things.”“I know, Mom,” Tina replied, distracted.Mira paused at the top of the stairs.Mom.The word still felt strange coming from Tina’s mouth. Mira didn’t resent it anymore—she’d learned long ago that re

Mira felt it before she understood it.It wasn’t fear. Not exactly.It was more like a quiet pressure, the strange sense that the world had leaned slightly in her direction.She paused halfway down the campus steps, her fingers tightening around the strap of her bag. Students moved past her in pairs and groups, laughing, arguing, living loudly. The sun was warm, the air light, everything normal.Yet something inside her shifted.She turned her head slowly, scanning the open road beyond the school gate.Nothing.Just cars passing, drivers impatient, horns blaring. She exhaled softly and shook her head at herself.You’re imagining things, she thought.Since the night at the Cluster Hotel, her mind had been doing that a lot—drifting, replaying moments, creating feelings that didn’t belong to her reality.Derick Lingard was a celebrity. A Lingard. A man who existed on screens and stages, not in her quiet life.And yet…She continued walking.The morning lecture passed smoothly. Mira list