The Billionaire's forbidden Ward 의 모든 챕터: 챕터 11 - 챕터 20

Chapter 11: The Judas Moon ​The red numbers of the digital clock on my nightstand bled into the darkness: 1:52 AM. ​The mansion was silent, but it was a heavy, artificial silence. I had changed out of the blue silk dress and into dark jeans and a hoodie, feeling like an intruder in my own home. I tucked the mysterious note into my pocket, its edges sharp against my palm. ​He’s lying about your father. ​The words were a physical ache in my chest. If Julian hadn't been my father’s friend, but his enemy... then every touch, every "lesson," and every look during that waltz was a calculated insult to my father’s memory. ​I slipped out of my window, using the ivy-covered trellis to climb down to the gardens. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and incoming rain. I stayed low, moving through the shadows of the manicured hedges until the silhouette of the old boathouse appeared against the black shimmer of the lake. ​The door creaked as I pushed it open. The smell of salt and

​The silence that followed the splash of the ledger was louder than the sirens. As the ripples smoothed over the black water, I felt a piece of my soul settle into the silt right along with it.​The police were a blur of shouting and heavy boots on the wooden dock. I was wrapped in a shock blanket that crackled like dry leaves, but the heat didn't reach my bones. I watched as they hauled Marcus away—broken and bleeding—and shoved Julian toward a cruiser.​Even with his hands bound and a bruise blooming like a dark flower on his cheek, Julian didn't look like a prisoner. He looked like a king being escorted to a secondary throne. Before they pushed him into the backseat, he caught my eye. He didn't say a word, but the message was clear: You belong to the secret now.​The House of Glass​Two hours later, I was back at the estate. The "dead man’s house" felt different now. The air was heavy with the scent of floor wax and my mother’s expensive perfume.​She was waiting in the foyer, her

The sun didn't rise the next morning; it simply bled through the gray fog of the estate, turning the windows into opaque sheets of slate. I hadn't slept. I stayed in the attic until the dust felt like a second skin, then I retreated to my room to wait.I didn't have to wait long.At exactly 8:00 AM, there was a knock. Not Julian’s heavy, possessive thud, but the sharp, rhythmic tap of a professional."Come in," I said, my voice sounding like gravel.It was Julian’s personal attorney, a man named Sterling who looked like he had been carved out of ice. He didn’t offer a greeting. He simply walked to my vanity, cleared aside my perfumes, and laid out a thick sheaf of cream-colored vellum."Mr. Thorne sent me," Sterling said. "He says the 'grace period' ended when the ledger hit the water. You are to sign this before breakfast."The Terms of SurrenderI looked down at the document. It wasn't a standard guardianship paper. It was a Private Indemnity and Succession Agreement.My eyes blurre

The interior of the limousine felt like a vacuum. The tinted windows erased the world outside, leaving only the scent of Julian’s expensive cologne and the damp, earthy smell of that single salvaged page."Did you really think I’d leave the most important piece of leverage in this town at the bottom of a lake?" Julian asked. His voice was conversational, which was far more terrifying than if he had been shouting."You said the police found nothing," I whispered, staring at the blurred ink on the paper."The police found what I permitted them to find," he snapped, the silkiness of his tone vanishing. "But you, Elara... you lied to me. Within an hour of signing a contract of total transparency, you looked me in the eye and protected a boy who represents everything that could destroy us."THE GLASS CAGE.......We didn't go back to the estate. The car pulled into the underground garage of the Thorne Industries glass tower. Julian led me to a private elevator. As we ascended, the city of S

The boardroom of Thorne Industries was less a place of business and more a cathedral of glass and cold ambition. Perched on the sixty-fourth floor, its floor-to-ceiling windows offered a panoramic view of a city that looked like a motherboard of flickering lights, but inside, the air was filtered, chilled, and smelled faintly of expensive ozone and old money. Twelve men and three women sat around a table fashioned from a single slab of petrified wood—black, ancient, and polished to a mirror shine. Their faces were not lit by the sun, but by the ghostly blue glow of their tablets, casting sharp, ghoulish shadows across their features.I stood at the double mahogany doors, my hand resting on the heavy brass handle. The weight of the moment felt like a physical pressure on my lungs. I was wearing the black diamonds Julian had given me; they were heavy, biting into the sensitive skin of my throat. They felt like ice, a stark contrast to the nervous heat radiating from my palms, but they g