Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 41 - Chapitre 45

Tears burned Zara’s face before she realized she was crying, and when she tried to stand, her legs buckled. She hit the floor with the laptop still clutched in her hands. It slammed down so hard the sound rolled through the house like a gunshot. Chance heard it and dropped everything he was doing without thinking and sprinted into the living room, his chest tight. “Zara” He hit his knees in front of her, hands flying to her face. She shoved him back with both palms, curling tighter around her knees until she looked small enough to disappear.“I can’t… I can’t run anymore,” she whispered, and the words broke in the middle. Her whole body shook, teeth chattering, shoulders jerking with every breath she couldn’t seem to catch. Chance reached for her anyway, and she felt his fingers tremble against her back like he was scared she’d fall apart if he held too tight.“Baby, talk to me. What did you see? What’s wrong?” His voice stayed low, but she couldn’t answer. Every time she opened her

Zara didn’t know lunch with Henry and Chance would feel like sitting between two thunderstorms. Especially not with Chance across from her, his eyes locked on her like he was trying to memorize every twitch of her mouth. She knew that look. The one that said he’d burn the whole place down if she so much as breathed wrong.The moment her plate was half empty, she was on her feet, mumbling something about a call she had to take, about files in Kaden’s office. Anything to escape the weight of their stares. She fled, leaving the two men alone with the wreckage of her half-eaten food and the silence she’d been too scared to sit through.Back at the table, the air went still. The kind of still that made the clink of plates sound like gunshots.Henry folded his linen napkin slowly, deliberately, each crease precise like he was buying time. He didn’t look up at first. When he finally spoke, his voice was ice dragged over steel.“You're not good for her, Chance.”Chance stopped with the glass

After Kaden’s endless speeches about a weekend getaway that would fix everything, Zara finally gave in and agreed to the ranch house, even though every instinct in her chest told her it was a mistake she would regret the moment they pulled through the gates. The drive stretched for an hour and thirty minutes of restless silence, and by the time they arrived Zara was exhausted in a way that settled deep in her bones, but she could not help lifting her face to take in the sprawling beauty of the ranch because it was big in a way that felt almost arrogant, and magnificent in a way that made her forget, for half a second, why she had been so reluctant to come.“Damn, girl… who are you trying to impress,” Kaden exclaimed the moment Zara stepped out of the room wearing denim shorts with a white crop top she had tied at her belly, paired with white sneakers, her hair pulled into a neat bun that exposed the curve of her neck and the flush on her cheeks from the drive. “Are you for real,” Za