Lahat ng Kabanata ng HIS COLD ADDICTION : Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

The city lights were already glowing when Vince Donovan finally left his office that evening.Most of the employees had gone home hours ago. The once-busy halls of Donovan Industries were quiet now, filled only with the soft hum of air conditioners and distant footsteps of the night staff.But Vince hadn’t moved from his office for nearly two hours.Lucas’s words kept echoing in his mind.She’s terminal.Six to eight months.For a long time, Vince had stared at the documents Lucas sent him. The medical records were clear, precise, and brutally honest.Tiana Solche wasn’t just sick.She was dying.The diagnosis had a complicated medical name, but the meaning was simple enough. Her body was slowly shutting down, and there was no treatment capable of stopping it.At best, doctors could slow it down.But the ending was inevitable.Vince closed the file on his desk again.For the first time in years, something inside him felt… unsettled.Not guilt.Not exactly sympathy either.It was somet

The restaurant was quiet in a way that felt intentional.Not empty—no, there were people seated at tables, waiters moving gracefully between them, soft music playing in the background—but there was a sense of control in the air.Privacy.Power.The kind of place where deals were made without witnesses.Tiana noticed all of it the moment she stepped inside.“This is his kind of place,” she murmured under her breath.“Of course it is,” Vince replied calmly beside her.His presence was impossible to ignore.Even in a simple black suit, he carried authority like a second skin. People noticed when he walked in—subtle glances, lowered voices, quiet recognition.But tonight, Tiana wasn’t here for him.Her eyes scanned the room.Searching.Waiting.“Table in the back,” Vince said quietly, guiding her forward.They walked through the dimly lit space until they reached a secluded section.And there he was.Ethan Caldwell.He looked exactly like the kind of man she had imagined.Mid-forties.Sha

The invitation arrived the next morning.It was simple. Clean. Expensive.Exactly what Tiana expected from a man like Ethan Caldwell.Private dinner. 7 PM.Caldwell Residence.No unnecessary details.No questions.Just an assumption that she would come.Tiana stared at the card for a long moment, her fingers tracing the embossed lettering.“He’s confident,” she murmured.“He’s careless,” Vince corrected from across the room.She glanced up at him.“You already knew he’d invite me?”“Yes.”“And you didn’t think to warn me?”“You wouldn’t have listened.”That was true.Still, it irritated her.Tiana placed the invitation down on the table and crossed her arms.“So this is it.”“The beginning,” Vince said.“No,” she replied quietly.“This is the middle.”Because her story didn’t begin with Caldwell.It began the day everything was taken from her.And it would end…With someone losing everything.“Are you going?” Vince asked.Tiana met his gaze.“You know I am.”He studied her carefully.

Morning came too quietly.Tiana woke to the soft glow of sunlight filtering through the curtains, the kind of calm that didn’t match the storm still lingering in her chest.For a moment, she didn’t move.Didn’t think.Just breathed.Slow.Careful.Like her body might break if she did anything more.Then the memory returned.Vince’s voice.“Because I don’t want you to die.”Her eyes opened fully.And just like that, the calm shattered.She sat up slowly, ignoring the faint ache in her chest.“That doesn’t change anything,” she murmured to herself.It couldn’t.It wouldn’t.Because if she let that one sentence mean something…Everything else would fall apart.By the time she stepped out of the room, she had already rebuilt her walls.Cold.Controlled.Untouchable.Vince was in the living area, exactly where she expected him to be.Working.Focused.Like nothing had changed.But something had.She could feel it in the air.In the silence between them.“You’re awake,” he said without look

The apartment was quiet, almost eerily so.Tiana sat at the edge of the bed, fingers tangled together, staring at nothing. The anticipation gnawed at her. Tonight wasn’t just any night—it was the night the next move against Caldwell had to be made. The night she might finally start seeing the pieces fall into place.But the ache in her chest wasn’t from exhaustion alone. Her body reminded her, sharply and cruelly, that time was slipping faster than she could act.The door opened softly behind her, and Vince stepped in. He moved silently, like he belonged in every shadow, in every corner.“You’re tense,” he said, closing the distance.“I’m not tense,” she replied quickly, almost too quickly. But her shallow breath betrayed her.“You’re lying,” Vince said simply. His gaze fell to her hands, her posture, the way she refused to meet his eyes. “How bad is it?”Tiana flinched slightly at the question. Not because she hadn’t considered it before, but because it reminded her that she couldn’t