《Billionaire Second Choice 》全部章節：第 11 章 - 第 20 章

Elara POV For some reason Elara mind still puzzled on the idea, it seemed all planned and no emotions and she asked him...... " Do you believe is yours" And he answered "does it matter" I need you as my substitute wife and you need provision for your child and also you would be completely taken care of and assume all duty of wife on the outside until my fiance comes back. Elara this could be a life-changing opportunity for you. she couldn't believe what she had just heard, tears rolled than her eyes as she couldn't put words together. She turned to leave but was suddenly stopped by him and he took her phone opened it with her face ID and he dialed his number as she just stood there in disbelief, wondering were and how life went wrong from being abandoned by her biological father or having an uncaring mother who always chooses her stepfather and son over her even when he had sexually abused at the age 14 and now this pregnancy. She suddenly couldn't take it anymore she jerke

Elara POV Elara heard her mother before she saw her.The click of heels on the hallway floor outside her apartment door measured, deliberate. The kind of walk that meant a conversation was coming that Elara wouldn't be able to win.She opened the door before Linda could knock.Her mother stood in the hallway looking immaculate as always, handbag tucked under her arm, eyes doing that quick sweep of Elara's apartment that managed to be both subtle and withering. The small space. The secondhand furniture. The textbooks stacked on the kitchen counter from the degree she was still somehow trying to finish."You look tired," Linda said by way of greeting."Come in, Mom."Linda stepped inside, set her bag on the counter with the particular care of someone setting it down rather than placing it and turned to face Elara with her hands clasped."You went to see Adrian Vale." your one night stand, she said sarcastically.Elara stilled near the window.

Adrian POV The warehouse district was quiet at this hour. Adrian stood in the middle of what used to be a converted art space exposed brick, high ceilings, tall windows that looked out over the river. Seraphina had loved this building. Said it had character. He stood with his hands in his coat pockets and looked at the last place she'd been seen before she disappeared before his investigators had hit a wall so clean and deliberate it had his siblings' fingerprints all over it. The thought sent something cold and sharp moving through his chest. Derrick and Lucian. His own blood. He'd spent weeks trying to prove it. Weeks of dead ends and redirected trails and sources who went suddenly, conveniently quiet. A week. He had one week before the inheritance clause activated and he needed a wife or lost everything his father had built. Everything he had built on top of that. His phone buzzed in his pocket. He a

Derrick POVDerrick Vale did not lose his temper often. That the men who slammed fists on tables were always, inevitably, the men who lost. Their father had taught him that. Had taught both of them, though Adrian had learned control and Dorian had learned something else entirely.He'd learned to be cold.So when his phone rang at 11:47 on a Tuesday morning and his informant's voice came through with the particular careful tone of someone delivering news they weren't sure would be received well — Dorian didn't slam anything. Didn't raise his voice.He simply went very, very still."Say that again," he said quietly."The courthouse on Meridian Street." The informant's voice was steady but cautious. "Registered twenty minutes ago. I have eyes on the building It's official. He found someone."Derrick stood at the window of his penthouse and looked out at the city his brother was about to inherit and felt something move through him that he refused to call panic."Who is she.""Unknown. Yo

Elara POV Her brain took a moment to process the number on the check. Five hundred thousand dollars. She kept her expression completely still through what felt like a considerable act of will. "I don't understand," she said carefully. "I think you do." Dorian leaned forward slightly. "You signed a contract with my brother this morning. A marriage certificate." He watched her face. "Whatever he's offered you whatever arrangement brought you to that courthouse I'm offering you more. Walk away. Quietly. Today." The car moved through the city. Elara looked at the check. Five hundred thousand dollars. Marcus's surgery. Every bill. The specialist. Rehabilitation. Everything her mother had pressed her hands together about and everything Elara had been carrying since the accident. Gone. Handled. Today. She felt the pull of it like a physical thing. And underneath the pull underneath the immediate animal relief of it something smaller and more stubborn that she couldn't quite si