All Chapters of CHASING THE REBORN HEIRESS: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWELVE*ALEXANDER*The board voted me out eleven to three. Victoria didn't even have the grace to look apologetic."It's business, Alexander. You understand.""I understand you've been waiting for this opportunity since I got promoted over you.""That too." She gathered her files. "For what it's worth, you did the right thing going to the FBI. But right doesn't keep stock prices up."I cleaned out my office in twenty minutes. Five years of work fit into two boxes. Security escorted me out like a criminal.My father called as I reached my car. "How bad?""I'm out. Victoria's interim CEO until they hire externally.""I'm sorry.""Don't be. You warned me this would happen." I threw the boxes in my trunk. "Your arraignment is Thursday. What does your lawyer say?""Plead guilty, cooperate fully, hope for leniency. I'll probably get three to five years." His voice was steady. "I deserve it.""Dad""I do. I knew Eleanor was corrupt and I looked the other way. I profited from crimes.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN*SOPHIA*I didn't let him drive me home.Marcus did that, with Isabelle in the backseat talking enough for all three of us, which I was grateful for. It meant I didn't have to speak. Didn't have to process Alexander standing in that parking lot like he'd been there the whole thirty days.Maybe he had been. I didn't know what to do with that.My apartment felt different after a month away. Smaller. I walked through it touching things absently, relearning the space. Marcus made tea. Isabelle reorganized my refrigerator with items she'd clearly stocked before picking me up."You planned this," I said."Obviously." Isabelle didn't look up. "You're not spending your first night back eating crackers."Marcus set a mug in front of me. "Rebecca Torres called. The DA is reviewing the new evidence about Paulson. If they can prove Catherine's team compromised the evaluation, it strengthens the case against her significantly.""Good.""Sophia." He sat down. "You need to talk to m

CHAPTER SIXTEEN**ALEXANDER**The coffee became a standing thing.Not by formal agreement. Just that the following Saturday at eleven, I showed up, and she was already there. Neither of us mentioned that it was the second time. We just ordered and talked about the London hospitality contacts I'd confirmed and the Harlow installation she was finalizing.Functional. Safe. Hers on her terms.I understood that and didn't push it.What I did push, on the third Saturday, was a question that had been sitting with me since Millbrook."The dreams stopped," I said.She looked up from her cup. "When?""The night you walked out of the facility. Haven't had one since." I watched her face. "I don't know what that means.""Maybe it means what needed to be corrected has been corrected.""Has it?"She considered that longer than a simple yes would require. "The major things. Catherine's facing prosecution. Eleanor gave her statement. Your father's serving his time." She paused. "The people who hurt me

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN*SOPHIA*Vivian Cross was exactly as I remembered her.Precise posture, expensive coat, recorder placed on the table before she'd fully sat down. She had the particular energy of someone who'd built a career on being the smartest observer in any room and knew it.I let her set up without rushing her. We were at a neutral café, not the gallery, not anywhere that was mine. I'd chosen that deliberately."Thank you for meeting me," she said."You said off the record.""The recorder is habit. I won't turn it on without your permission." She left it sitting there anyway, which told me everything about how she operated. The reminder of its existence was its own kind of pressure.I moved it to the side of the table. "Talk to me first. Then we decide if there's a story."She accepted that without blinking. "I've been following your career since the Harlow acquisition. Before that, honestly, since the Morningstar Gallery opening." She folded her hands. "When I wrote those piece

CHAPTER TWENTY**SOPHIA**The trial ran three weeks.I testified twice. Once for the prosecution, once to counter a defense motion that tried to reintroduce the psychiatric framing through a back door Rebecca closed efficiently. Catherine's lawyer was good but Rebecca was better and the documentation was airtight.I didn't watch my mother during any of it. Marcus told me later that she'd looked at me during my second testimony with something he couldn't quite name. Not guilt exactly. Something older and more complicated.I didn't need to see it to believe it.The jury deliberated four days.I spent those four days running the gallery with focused normality. Yuna and I finalized the London partnership details. I approved the Tokyo accommodation contracts Alexander had negotiated, which were better terms than I'd expected. I had two artist studio visits and a board meeting for the foundation I'd quietly been building since year three.Isabelle came by every evening and didn't talk about