All Chapters of The Billionaire's Binding Proposal: Chapter 181 - Chapter 190

Chapter 182~Fred~I had a free day.This was not something that happened often. Niklaus ran a tight schedule and I ran alongside it, which meant free days were rare enough that I sometimes did not know what to do with them when they arrived. I had woken up at six anyway, because my body apparently did not believe in sleeping in regardless of the occasion, and by six thirty I was already in my running clothes heading out of the building.The morning air was cool. I settled into a comfortable pace and let my mind go quiet. No schedule, no calls, no list of things to coordinate. Just a free time for me.I had been running for about twenty minutes when I nearly collided with a group of men coming around a corner from the building next to ours. Three of them, mid conversation, none of them paying attention to where they were going. I sidestepped at the last second and one of them grabbed my arm to steady himself."Sorry man, my fault," he said.I nodded and was about to keep moving when

Chapter 184~Kesley~I could not stop coughing.It had started the moment grandfather said the word grandchildren and it had not stopped since. I was coughing like something had gone down the wrong way, which technically it had, because I had inhaled my own spit in sheer shock and my body had decided to make it a big problem.Niklaus was on his feet immediately. He crossed to the small cabinet near the window, found a glass, filled it from the water jug on the side table and came back to me in about ten seconds flat. He crouched slightly in front of me with a look on his face that was caught between genuine concern and something that looked like it very much wanted to be amusement but was being held back out of respect."Here," he said, pressing the glass into my hands.I drank. The coughing slowed and then stopped. I pressed the back of my hand to my mouth and breathed.Grandfather watched me with a sympathetic expression. "Are you alright my dear?""Fine," I managed. "I am complete

Chapter 186 ~Kesley~It was almost midnight and he was not back.I had tried to sleep. I had gotten into bed, turned the lights off, pulled the covers up and stared at the ceiling for a while before giving up entirely. I was sitting on top of the covers now with my back against the headboard and my phone in my lap, doing the thing I had told myself I was not going to do.Worrying.I picked up my phone and called his number. It rang. And rang. And rang. Then it went to voicemail.I put the phone back down.Something had been different about him this morning and I could not figure out what. One minute we were sitting in grandfather's living room trying not to laugh at the honeymoon lecture and the next we were home and he had gone so quiet and so distant that the house felt like a completely different place.He had made breakfast without a word. He had sat at the far end of the island. He had washed the plates, put them away, said he was making calls and walked out.I had heard the fro

Chapter 188~Kesley~Fred and a very drunk Niklaus.That was what was on the other side of my front door at four in the morning. Fred, fully dressed and composed in that unshakeable way of his, one hand firmly on Niklaus's arm, holding him upright. Niklaus was in his jacket from earlier, hair messy, eyes glassy, leaning just slightly to the left."Good evening, ma'am," Fred said, like it was the most normal sentence in the world. "He may have had a little too much to drink."I looked at Niklaus. Niklaus looked back at me, smiling and his eyes uneven at the lack of balance."A little?" I said."Relatively speaking," Fred said.I stepped back and held the door open. "Bring him in."Fred steered him through the doorway and I led them upstairs to Niklaus's room. We got him through the door and Fred lowered him onto the bed with considerably more care than the situation probably deserved. Niklaus sat on the edge of the mattress, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor like it had persona

Chapter 190TarajiThe bell went off and the kids lost their minds.Chairs scraped, bags flew, little feet stampeded toward the door like the classroom was on fire. I laughed watching them. After the chaos of today's field activities, even I was ready to go home."Bye Miss Gilbert!"Lily came running toward me before she could reach the door. Pink dress, strawberry print everywhere, hair flying. That girl and her strawberries, I swear. She crashed into me with her full tiny body weight and I hugged her back tight."Bye baby. Go meet your mum outside okay?"She beamed at me and ran off.I was packing up my table when I noticed Amanda still at her desk. She was moving slowly, like her body was there but her mind was somewhere else entirely. No makeup today. She had barely spoken unless I spoke to her first, and even then it was just one word answers.I walked over to her before she could slip out."Amanda." I touched her arm gently. "Are you okay?"She looked up at me and I could see