บททั้งหมดของ The Billionaire’s Obsession: My Ex‑Wife Became a Queen: บทที่ 71 - บทที่ 80

The clock on the wall ticks past eleven. Midnight is one hour away. Margaret sits in her armchair, her hands folded in her lap, her face calm, almost serene. She has refused to leave. She said she is tired of running, tired of hiding, tired of being afraid. I understand the feeling. I have felt it every day for years. But I cannot let her sacrifice herself. Not after everything. Not after she finally chose to stand with us. Not when she is the only grandmother Eleanor has left.Nathaniel paces by the window, his phone in his hand, his jaw tight. He has been trying to reach Julian for the past hour. The calls go to voicemail, each one ending with the same hollow beep. Marcus is outside with his team, searching for the dark car that was parked at the corner. It was empty when they reached it. No plates. No prints. No trace. The driver vanished like smoke, leaving behind only the faint smell of cigarettes and the impression of tires on wet pavement.I sit on the couch, the locket in my h

The safe house is not safe anymore. I know this the way I know my own heartbeat, the way I know the weight of the locket against my chest. Whitmore found the cabin. She left a rose on the doorstep. She stood in my operating suite with a scalpel, smiling her cold smile. Nowhere is hidden. Nowhere is secure. But we have nowhere else to go.Margaret’s house is smaller, tucked at the end of a quiet street, surrounded by old oaks and overgrown hedges. The windows are narrow, the doors solid. She insisted we stay. She said she would not sleep knowing we were out there alone, that she would rather face Whitmore with us than wait for news that never came. Nathaniel argued. He wanted to go back to the cabin, to fortify, to fight. I chose Margaret’s house. Not because it is safer. Because I am tired of running. Because running has not saved us yet.The night is cold. The wind rattles the windows, slipping through cracks in the old frames. I sit in the dark living room, the locket in my hand, El

The rain has not stopped for three days. The world is grey and wet and cold, as if the sky itself is mourning. I sit by the window, watching the water run down the glass in endless streams, watching the street where Whitmore stood with her cold smile and her black coat. She has not come back. Not since the photograph. Not since the promise that she would take Eleanor while the rain covered her footsteps. But I feel her. Waiting. Breathing. Watching from somewhere just beyond the reach of the cameras, somewhere in the shadows between the streetlights. The locket is warm against my chest. I open it. Eleanor's face. The ring. The sapphire. I close it. I hold it tight.Nathaniel is asleep on the couch. His arm is healing, but he still winces when he moves too fast. His face is slack with exhaustion, the shadows under his eyes dark. He has not slept well since Whitmore left the rose. None of us have. Marcus is at the door, his eyes heavy, his coffee cold and untouched. He has been standing

The evidence sits on the kitchen table. Letters stacked in neat piles, their yellowed edges curling like dried leaves. The journal wrapped in a cloth my mother once embroidered with small blue flowers. The recording in a plastic bag, the tape inside fragile, decades old, the voices of the dead preserved in magnetic ribbon. My uncle sits in the corner, watching us, his hands still wrapped around a cup of cold coffee. He has not moved in an hour. His eyes are fixed on the journal, as if he is afraid it might vanish if he looks away. His breathing is shallow. His hands tremble. Nathaniel stands by the window. His phone is pressed to his ear. His voice is low, urgent. He is talking to Julian, to Marcus, to someone who knows someone at the FBI. The words spill out in rushed bursts. The evidence is real. We need protection. We need to move fast. We need to get the evidence into the right hands. We need to make sure Whitmore cannot destroy it. We need to make sure the world knows what Patri

The morning light is grey through the windows of Margaret's house. Thin, cold, the kind of light that makes everything look washed out and tired. I sit at the kitchen table, the locket in my hand, Eleanor's photograph inside. Whitmore is in custody. My aunt is in the guest room, sleeping for the first time in days, her body curled on top of the covers. My uncle is in the corner, still holding his cold coffee, his eyes fixed on the journal. The evidence is spread across the table, waiting to be delivered to the FBI. Letters stacked in neat piles. The recording in its plastic bag. The journal wrapped in my mother's cloth.Nathaniel stands by the window, his phone pressed to his ear. He is talking to Julian, to Marcus, to the lawyers. The words blur together. Protection. Immunity. Charges. Custody. We need to move fast before someone else comes for her.I do not listen. I look at the journal. My mother's words. Her truth. Her last testament.I open it. I read.The pages are yellowed, the