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All Chapters of The CEO’s Contract Bride: Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

134 Chapters

Chapter 101

ISABELLA’S POV The leaks did not stop after the board meeting.They multiplied.One after another. Precisely timed. Strategically devastating.All of it traced back to my computer. My files. My office.All of it impossible to explain except as carelessness. Distraction. Compromised security.Each leak came with a board meeting. Each meeting came with Samuel's concerned questions."I hate to raise this again, but we have another breach.""Isabella, I know you're doing your best, but these patterns are troubling.""Perhaps we should consider interim leadership. Just until your personal situation stabilizes."The board was wavering. I could see it. Feel it. The doubt spreading like infection.Support eroding. Questions multiplying. Confidence disappearing.Lucia worked hard trying to trace the leaks. Hired cybersecurity experts. Audited every access log. Questioned every staff member.Found nothing. No evidence. No trail. No proof.Whoever was behind this was professional. Careful. Too

Chapter 102

ETHAN’S POV I found out through Caleb.He did not say it directly at first. He eased into it like it was normal conversation.“Isabella’s under pressure,” Caleb said during a late call.I set the phone down for a second and looked out the window. “What kind of pressure?” I asked.Caleb did not answer immediately.That told me more than words.“She’s dealing with board issues at Moretti Corp. Internal instability. Samuel is targeting her position.”I exhaled once.“Is she handling it?”A pause.“She says she is.”That was Isabella.I ended the call after that. Not because I was done listening, but because I already knew what I needed to do.~~~~~The next morning I caught her just before she left.“Isabella–”“I’m busy,” she said immediately.“I know,” I replied. “But I need to talk.”“I don’t have time for long conversations, Ethan.”“Then it won’t be long.”A pause.“Go ahead.”“I heard about Moretti Corp.”Silence.Then, carefully, “From who?”“Caleb.”Another pause.“I’m fine.”“

Chapter 103

ISABELLA’S POV The emergency board meeting notice had arrived at midnight. Formal language. Urgent attendance required. Leadership review.By 8:45, every member of the board was already seated.Waiting.I entered the room with Lucia beside me.No one spoke immediately.That silence told me enough.Samuel sat near the center of the table instead of at the far end this time. He looked calm.The chairman looked toward Samuel.“You requested this vote. You may begin.”Samuel stood slowly.“I do not make this request lightly,” he said calmly. “Isabella Moretti has contributed significantly to this company. Her work with Moretti Luxe and ISMARA has strengthened our global position considerably.”His voice carried evenly through the room.Every sentence balanced carefully.That made it worse.I watched several board members nod slightly.Samuel continued.“However, leadership is not judged only during successful periods. It is judged during instability.”There it was.He turned slightly to

Chapter 104

ETHAN’S POV Caleb called me at 6:11 in the morning.“Come to the office,” he said. “I found something.”I was already awake.I had barely slept the night before. By 6:40, I was in Caleb’s office.He looked worse than usual. Tie loose. Coffee untouched beside his laptop. Files spread across the table.He slid a thick folder toward me.“This is enough,” he said quietly.I opened it.The first pages were financial summaries.At first glance, everything looked normal.Then I noticed the patterns.Repeated overbilling.Small amounts moved between departments.Payments approved through shell companies connected to Samuel.I flipped another page.Then another.Caleb leaned back in his chair.“He kept the amounts low,” he said. “Low enough not to trigger automatic review. But over time it adds up.”“How much?”“Enough to bury him.”I kept reading.And then I saw Isabella’s credentials.My jaw tightened.Caleb watched my expression carefully.“The leaks came from Samuel,” he said. “Or someone

Chapter 105

ISABELLA’S POV The call came at 7:18 AM.The screen showed the board chairman’s name.My stomach tightened instantly.“Isabella,” he said when I answered. “I thought you should hear this before the official announcement.”Every muscle in my body went still.“What announcement?”A pause.“Samuel Moretti has resigned from all positions within Moretti Corp effective immediately.”The words hit hard enough that I forgot to breathe.Across the room, Lucia straightened sharply.“The internal investigation concluded last night,” the chairman continued. “Evidence confirms Samuel was responsible for the confidential leaks.”I gripped the edge of the desk.“That’s impossible.”“It’s confirmed. Financial misconduct was uncovered as well. Unauthorized payments, hidden transfers, and data breaches tied directly to accounts under his control.”My mind struggled to catch up.Samuel.The leaks.The pressure campaign against me.Everything suddenly rearranged into something ugly and clear.“He sabota

Chapter 106

ISABELLA’S POV Three weeks of quiet felt unnatural.Every morning I woke up expecting another disaster.But none came.Samuel was gone.The investigation into the leaks had quietly buried the last of his credibility inside Moretti Corp. The board stopped questioning my judgment. Investors stopped calling every hour. Reporters moved on to newer scandals.The silence should have brought relief.Instead, it made me restless.Because once the chaos disappeared, there was room to notice everything else.Like Ethan.He was everywhere. Breakfast before appointments. Then dinners started happening naturally.Then movie nights.I stood at the kitchen counter one Thursday morning reviewing financial projections while Brahms sat beside Ethan.Brahms was laughing. Really laughing.Loud enough that Abby smiled while placing breakfast on the counter.That sound still affected me every time.Because there had been weeks in Paris when Brahms barely had the strength to speak.Now he argued before br

Chapter 107

ETHAN’S POV I started noticing on a Wednesday, though I suspected it had been happening for longer than that.Brahms reached for my hand automatically when we walked down the hallway to his room. Not asking, not looking up first. Just his small fingers finding mine the way children reach for things they expect to be there. A month ago he would have hesitated. He would have checked my face, asked permission with his eyes before committing to the gesture.Now he just reached.I noticed Isabella made two cups of coffee every morning. She never confirmed my order. She never asked. Dark roast, no sugar, shorter pour than American standard. She'd absorbed this at some point and folded it into her morning routine without apparently registering that she'd done it.I noticed we'd built a system for Brahms's medication schedule without ever discussing it. A quiet negotiation conducted entirely through glances and small nods. She tracked the morning doses. I tracked the afternoon ones. If eithe

Chapter 108

ISABELLA’S POVIt started at breakfast.Brahms pushed his oatmeal around his bowl with the focused dissatisfaction of a five-year-old who had already decided the morning was not going his way. He looked up at me, then at Ethan, then back at me."I want… Je veux aller au parc," he said.*I want to go to the park*"Plus tard," I said. "Mange d'abord."*Later, eat first*"Central Park," he said, switching to English with the deliberateness of a child who understood that specificity helped his case. "The fountain one.""You're still recovering, Brahms.""Dr. Wolcott said outside is okay." He looked at Ethan. "She said. On Monday. Outside is okay now."Ethan, to his credit, took exactly two seconds before he betrayed me. "She did clear him for light outdoor activity."I looked at him across the kitchen island. "I know what she said.""He's been on the terrace every day this week.""The terrace is controlled.""It's also twelve feet wide." Ethan picked up his coffee. "The park isn't a bad i

Chapter 109

ETHAN’S POVMy phone started at two-seventeen in the afternoon.We'd been back from the park for less than an hour. Brahms was on the living room floor with his puzzle, still wearing his coat because he'd refused to take it off, hot chocolate cooling on the coffee table beside him. Isabella was in the kitchen. I was reviewing contracts at the dining table when the first notification hit, then the second, then the phone stopped managing them individually and just began vibrating in a continuous, sustained way that meant something had broken.I opened the screen.Sixteen notifications from PR. A message from Caleb that was a link and nothing else. Four board communications flagged urgent. Two from legal.I clicked Caleb's link.The headline read: *Dexter CEO spotted in Central Park with wife Isabella Moretti and mystery child.*The photos were clear. Three of them, sequenced. The first showed Brahms at the fountain, face partially turned, features visible enough to work with. The second

Chapter 110

ISABELLA’S POV We prepared the statement in four hours.Lucia joined by video call from ISMARA's legal team. Caleb handled Dexter Corp communications. We went through drafts at the dining table, Ethan and I on opposite sides, passing documents back and forth, finding the register that sounded candid without giving anything real away.Brahms stayed with Abby in the hotel suite we'd booked adjacent to the conference room. He knew something important was happening. The conference room held thirty-eight journalists. I counted them while the communications team did final checks on the podium setup, a habit I'd developed years ago in boardrooms when I needed something concrete to focus on. Thirty-eight people with cameras and recorders and the specific alertness of press who had been given a story and were waiting to see how much more they could extract from it.Ethan stood beside me at the podium. Close enough that we read as a unit. His shoulder was two inches from mine and he was compl

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