All Chapters of The Billionaire's Exception: Elena's Revenge : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

31 Chapters

Chapter Eleven

***Elena’s POV***The rays of sunlight shone on my face from the window as I fluttered my eyelids, drifting back to reality. “Day 2 of being Mrs. Blackwood” I muttered to myself as I rolled my eyes. I pulled the oversized duvet over my head as I vented out my frustrations like the duvet was Dominic. Next thing I know, a gentle knock came at the door and before I could answer, a trail of maids about seven of them strolled into my room. I was speechless. They walked up to the curtains and pulled them apart letting more light into the room. Then the lined in front of me and in unison said “Good morning Mrs. Blackwood.”One of them stepped forward and continued “We are here to prep you for the day. Mr. Blackwood will be expecting you downstairs for breakfast in two hours.”I couldn't even protest. I wanted to cry. What's with all these? All these shenanigans were never included in the contract. Dominic will definitely be hearing from me!I pulled the duvet over and stormed angrily out

chapter twelve

***Elena's POV***The car ride there was, predictably, a lesson in mutual discomfort dressed up as silence.I sat with rigid posture, staring out the window while Dominic looked composed enough to be carved from obsidian.After several minutes, I finally glanced at him.“Do I need to know how to behave tonight?”His eyes remained on the road. “Try not to insult anyone who can lose money.”“That narrows it down to almost everyone in your social circle.”“Yes.”I frowned. “What about speaking?”“Only if spoken to.”“Outrageous.”“You’ll manage.”I gave him a look. “You’re enjoying this.”He didn’t answer immediately.Then, very faintly, “A little.”I turned away so he wouldn’t see the smile trying to escape me.The gala was exactly what I expected and somehow still worse.Crystal chandeliers. White flowers. Men in tuxedos who looked like they had never once carried groceries. Women glittering in jewels that probably had their own insurance policies. I mean, if body parts could be insure

Chapter thirteen

***Dominic’s POV***The first report came in at 2:14 a.m.By 2:16, I already knew something was wrong.By 2:19, the warehouse floor was slick with blood and my men were standing in a half-circle around the only surviving spy like they were waiting for permission to breathe.I did not hurry.Hurrying was for men who panicked.I crossed the underground corridor at an even pace, my coat hanging open, my expression calm enough to make the people around me look nervous. That was usually the effect I preferred. Fear sharpened judgment. Fear kept people honest. Fear made fools become careful.Tonight, however, the air felt wrong.Sharp.Alert.The kind of wrong that crawled under the skin before it ever reached the mind.Rook met me at the warehouse entrance. His face was unreadable, but his jaw was tight in the way it only got when something had gone past inconvenient and landed in the territory of bad.“You should see him,” he said.“I am seeing him.”Rook did not move aside immediately. T

Chapter fourteen

***Elena’s POV***The house felt wrong the moment I woke.Not quiet.Wrong.There was a kind of silence that belonged to peace, to sleep, to empty rooms and closed windows.This was not that.This was the kind of silence that waited for something to break it.I lay still for a few seconds, listening.Nothing.Then, very faintly, I heard it again.A sound like a floorboard giving way under a careful step.My pulse jumped so hard I almost sat up too fast.Damien wasn't home…. Neither was Rook.The maids had gone to sleep at the staff quarters and the guards were outside on the perimeters. I pushed the covers away and stood slowly, every muscle in my body tightening as I crossed to the door. My room was dark except for the thin seam of light under the curtains and the silver spill of the moon outside the window. The corridor beyond my door was even darker.Too dark.I opened the door a fraction.Nothing.Then a sound from downstairs.A crash.I froze.My first instinct was stupid and im

Chapter fifteen

***Elena’s POV***The sound of the alarm cut through the house like a wound opening.For one frozen second, nobody moved.Not me.Not Dominic.Not even the body at his feet.The intruder’s head had turned at an angle no human neck should ever know, and the sight of it hit me in a way I had not expected. Not because I was squeamish. Not because I had never seen death.Because I had.Because I knew what it meant when a man like Dominic stopped pretending.The hall filled with the blaring alarm, red lights beginning to flash along the walls in ugly, urgent pulses. Somewhere deeper in the estate, doors slammed open. Heavy footsteps started running. Voices rose in sharp confusion.And still Dominic stood there, breathing hard, his chest lifting and falling as though he had climbed out of something dark and was not fully out of it yet.His face was blank.That frightened me more than the violence had.I looked at the dead man again and felt my stomach turn.Then I looked at Dominic.His han

Chapter Sixteen

***Elena’s POV***The message with my name on it should have scared me senseless.Guess what?... It didn'tInstead, it made me angry.That was the thing about fear—it rarely arrived alone. It dragged other things behind it. Rage… Pride... Stubbornness. The urge to stand your ground just because some unseen coward thought they could make you move.Dominic had ordered the entire lower hall searched. Rook had taken over the cameras. Juliet, bless her quiet, efficient soul, had started barking instructions at staff who looked like they had all suddenly remembered urgent errands elsewhere.And me?I was standing in the middle of the corridor, arms folded tightly over my chest, pretending my heart was not trying to break out of my ribs.“Don’t tell me to go to my room,” I muttered when Dominic glanced my way.His eyes moved over me once. “I was not going to.”That annoyed me more than if he had.“Good,” I said. “Because I’m not leaving.”Rook, who had the good sense to remain several feet a

Chapter seventeen

***Dominic’s POV***When Elena showed up at my door looking frightened, my first reaction was not noble.It was amusement.A quick, dry flicker of it, sharp enough to surprise even me.There she stood in the dim light of my study, trying very hard to look composed while her eyes gave her away completely. She was angry, yes. Elena was almost always angry in some controlled, stubborn way.But this was different.This was fear.Real fear.The sort that did not bother to disguise itself behind sarcasm or pride.For a moment, I was mildly repulsed by the thought of it—not by her, not truly, but by the fact that the house had made her feel cornered enough to come here at all. I did not like the weakness the sight stirred in me either. It annoyed me that she could walk into my room looking so vulnerable and make my instincts go in two opposite directions at once.Protect.And… calculate.It was not a comfortable combination.She had not asked for much.That should not have mattered.But… It

Chapter Eighteen

***Dominic's POV***The outer perimeter was secured, but that did not mean it had been watched properly. The two were not the same, and idiots often confused them because both involved men in dark clothing standing near walls.I moved through the side corridor and out toward the west grounds, where the service path curved around the outer fence line.The night air was cold enough to sharpen thought.Good.I preferred it that way.But my mind couldn't help but drift towards Elena. The thing about Elena was that she had become inconvenient in every possible way.Not the obvious ways.Those were expected.The dangerous ways were quieter.She had a talent for appearing in my thoughts at the wrong time. For asking the wrong question. For looking at me as though she could see the effort it took not to become what the world expected. For irritating me so thoroughly that I could think of nothing else for ten minutes, then noticing her absence and feeling it like a missing rib.That was new.

Chapter Nineteen

***Dominic's POV***The lower wing held the internal monitoring stations, spare weapons, backup power, and a secure room designed for situations where the house could not be trusted. Elena glanced around with professional interest, which was almost worse than if she had looked frightened.She was too intelligent not to see the logic of the place.Too intelligent not to notice the irony that I had taken her into the one room where she would be safest and most trapped.I keyed the lock behind us.Her head turned sharply. “Did you just seal us in?”“Yes.”She stared at me.Then she smiled very slowly. “That is either extremely protective or extremely unhinged.”“It depends on your behavior.”“Oh, I see. So I’ve entered a disciplinary relationship now.”I pressed my mouth together and tried very hard not to react.Failed.A sound almost like laughter escaped me.Elena’s eyes widened.Mine did too.Neither of us spoke for a beat.Then she pointed at me. “There. That thing. You did the thin

Chapter Twenty

***Dominic’s POV***Elena spent the next ten minutes glaring at me like I had personally insulted her ancestors.It was almost impressive.She had gone from irritated to offended to dangerously quiet in the span of a single hallway walk, and I could tell exactly which part had caught under her skin– the fact that I had made the decision without consulting her.Not the move itself.Not the danger.The lack of permission.That, more than anything, was what made her bristle.She had already gone upstairs to change into something practical when I finished the final instructions to Rook. By the time she came back down, she had her notebook tucked under one arm and a very deliberate expression on her face, as if she had decided not to forgive me for at least twenty-four hours out of principle… or maybe it was one of her rules I skipped on paper.She wore black trousers, a fitted sweater, and boots that made her look less like a woman being carried around by other people’s agendas and more l

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