บททั้งหมดของ Billionaire Contract Marriage: Her Quest : บทที่ 71 - บทที่ 80

Sophia's POVFour months old, and Isabella had opinions about everything.Especially about being left out of conversations."The ceremony should be small," Mrs. Kane was saying, flipping through venue photos at our dining table. "Just family. Maybe thirty people maximum.""Forty," Mr. Thomas countered from his position beside her. "Accounting for your sister and her family.""I haven't spoken to my sister in six years.""Which is why you should invite her to your wedding."Mrs. Kane made a sound of disagreement. Isabella, in my lap, made an identical sound.Everyone stopped."Did she just—" Emma started."She absolutely did," David confirmed. "Isabella has opinions about the guest list.""She's four months old," Mrs. Kane said, but she was smiling at her granddaughter. "She doesn't have opinions yet."Isabella blew a raspberry. Thoroughly disagreeing."She's on my side," Mr. Thomas said. "Forty guests. Isabella has spoken."---They'd been engaged for three months now.Mr. Thomas had

Sophia's POVThe day before the wedding, we descended on the Ashford Estate like a small army.Emma had spreadsheets. David had the timeline memorized. Maria had agreed to help with Isabella for the weekend, currently keeping her entertained while we transformed the ballroom.My grandparents supervised from chairs they'd positioned strategically to offer opinions without actually doing physical labor."The flowers go on the left side of the aisle," my grandmother called. "Not the right. Left.""They're on the left, Mom," my grandfather said patiently."That's the right.""It's the left from where the bride walks. Right from where we're sitting.""Well, that's confusing."I caught David's eye across the room. He grinned.This was chaos. Beautiful, family-filled chaos.---Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Kane arrived at noon.They'd driven up separately, staying in different guest rooms overnight despite the fact that they'd been living together for three months now. Some traditions apparently stil

Sophia's POVThe morning after the wedding, we had brunch at the estate before everyone dispersed.Casual. Relaxed. The exact opposite of yesterday's controlled elegance.Isabella sat in her portable high chair - she couldn't actually sit unsupported yet, but the chair reclined and she seemed content to watch everyone move around her."Best wedding I've ever attended," Emma announced, piling her plate with scrambled eggs. "And I've been to exactly three weddings, so my sample size is limited, but still. Best one.""The bar was low," I said."The bar was perfect. Everyone cried, no one fell, Isabella only screamed once, and the cake was excellent. Flawless execution."Mrs. Kane - I kept wanting to call her Mrs. Kane even though she was now Mrs. Thomas, which seemed too formal - smiled from her position beside her new husband."It was perfect," she agreed. "Thank you all. For everything.""For what?" my grandmother asked. "You did all the hard work. We just provided the location and exc

Sophia's POVThe texts kept coming.Every fifteen minutes. Like clockwork. Like Sophie had set a timer specifically to terrorize us.*You have everything I should have had.**The company. The money. The perfect family.**But you stole it all. You were supposed to die with them.*Detective Chen had officers tracking the phone. Triangulating location. Sophie was using burner phones, switching them constantly, staying mobile.Smart.Unstable but smart."She's in the city," Detective Chen said after the fourth text. "Manhattan. We've narrowed it to a three-block radius but she keeps moving.""How is she getting phones?" David asked."Stealing them, probably. Or she had help. Someone on the outside." He looked at me. "Any idea who would help her?"I thought about my family. Uncle Richard in prison. Aunt Melissa in prison. The extended relatives who'd sided with them - all distanced now, wanting nothing to do with the scandal."No," I said. "Everyone who would have helped her is locked up o

Sophia's POVWe didn't sleep the rest of that night.Just sat together in the living room, lights on, watching Isabella breathe through the monitor even though she was five feet away in her bassinet.No one wanted to be alone.No one wanted to let go.At 6 a.m., Mr. and Mrs. Thomas arrived.They'd driven through the night after Detective Chen called them. Honeymoon abandoned. Just got in the car and came home because that's what family did.Mrs. Thomas went straight to David, pulled him into a hug he clearly needed. He'd been holding it together for hours. He broke the moment his mother touched him.Mr. Thomas came to me.Looked at Isabella. At me. His expression devastating."I should have been here," he said quietly."You were on your honeymoon. You couldn't have known.""I should have been here," he repeated. Like he could rewrite history through sheer will.I leaned against him the way I'd done when I was eight years old and the world had ended the first time."You're here now," I