บททั้งหมดของ My Ex-husband Billion Dollar Mistakes : บทที่ 71 - บทที่ 80

POV: NicholeThe four security guards in black suits dragged me and Elena. Their shoes banged on the polished marble. I pressed my back against the ballroom wall as the gold leaf on the molding dug into my shoulder blades."Stop and leave her alone." Xavier’s voice cut through the room as the guards stopped instantly. Two of them dropped their hands to their sides as Xavier approached us and looked straight at me who was helplessly held by the guards. He did not look at the three hundred guests in the room as his breath came fast and furious. His mouth stayed slightly open as his blood boiled in fury and an angry line formed between his eyebrows.The silence in the boardroom lasted for five seconds and after that people started whispering. The sound grew from a low hum into a loud rattle as Mrs. Vance Xavier's mother shifted her diamond necklace Xavier's uncle stepped back into the shadow of a marble pillar.Across the floor, Mira stood next to the tiered cake, her fingers curled int

POV: NicholeThe gravel crunched under the tires as the sedan crawled to a stop. Xavier off the headlights and the entire forest swallowed us in absolute darkness.We got out of the car. The air smelled of damp earth and pine needles. Ahead sat a low, concrete structure with a flat roof and reinforced steel window shutters. It did not look like a house but resembles a bunker.Xavier pushed open the heavy iron door and inside, the air was cold and smelled of dust. He walked straight to the kitchen counter where a row of black electronics sat. He picked up his personal phone, corporate phone, and the car’s GPS transponder. He took a small metal tool from his pocket, popped the SIM cards out, and snapped them in half with his thumbs. He dropped the pieces into a glass of water on the counter. Then he turned to us."We are off the grid," Xavier said flatly. "Mira's father has connections with the state police but they cannot track the signals here."Elena sank into an old leather armc

POV: NicholeIt has been two days in the woods.The satellite phone on the kitchen counter buzzed three times against the wood. Xavier picked it up on the fourth ring. He did not say hello but he just listened.I watched him from the cot. His face did not change color, but the skin around his eyes tightened. He reached into his pocket, pulled out his black titanium debit card, and dropped it onto the table."When?" Xavier asked the caller as he paused. "All of them? Even the offshore holding account?"He ended the call without a goodbye and then looked at the card on the table."My personal accounts are locked," Xavier said. "The bank cited an emergency audit regarding corporate fund mismanagement and Mira’s father sits on the compliance committee."A cold sweat broke out along my hairline. Xavier had given up his salary when he resigned, but this was different. This was total extraction. He had zero dollars and the gasoline in his car’s tank and the cash in his wallet, eighty-four do

POV: NicholeWhile I laid there with him.The two men vanished into the dark as soon as Xavier hit the ground. The roar of their SUV fading down the road, leaving only the sound of my own ragged breathing and the engine of Xavier's car idling nearby.I hauled Xavier’s shoulders off the cold ground. His head was heavy and the blood soaked through my fingers, hot and sticky and staining the front of my dress. He did not blink. His skin was the color of mutton fat under the yellow station bulb.Then before all hope was lost . I saw a pair of headlights of another car rounding the bend as I jumped to my feet, and ran into the road, waving my bloody hands into the glare. The yellow car shrieked to a halt and behold, it was a local taxicab."Help me sir please!" I screamed at the wind-shield. "Someone is bleeding here!"The driver, an older man in a wool cap, got out and helped me drag Xavier into the backseat. I climbed in after him, pulling his torso onto my lap as Ipressed my linen coat

POV: NicholeThe small room in the clinic was cold as Elena stood by the window, her back to me. Her hands were jammed deep into the pockets of her oversized flannel shirt. She had not looked at me for an hour."Elena, you need to eat something," I said as I placed a plastic bowl of cold broth on the bedside table next to Xavier. He was asleep, and his breathing heavy and loud through his nose with the white bandage on his head which was slightly crooked.Elena did not turn around. Her shoulders rose and fell in a quick, jerky motion. "I am not hungry, Nichole." She said, I sat back down on my wooden stool and my lower back ached from the hard seat, with a dull, familiar pressure tightening in my lower abdomen. I put my hand over my flat stomach. I needed to stay calm for the baby, but the silence in the room felt stuffy, like the air before a storm.Elena turned around slowly with her face which was gray under the fluorescent light and there were dark circles under her eyes, her ski