جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 50

BELLA I stood outside the office building for a long minute, staring at the glass doors like they were a gateway to another world.Two weeks had passed since I sent that final text to Alex. Two weeks of silence between us.Two weeks of me hiding in my new apartment, crying, researching prenatal vitamins, and trying to convince myself I could do this alone.Today was the day I had to go back.I couldn’t hide forever. Dad had been patient, but the Thompson project follow-up meetings were starting, and he needed me there. I had run out of excuses.I took a deep breath, smoothed down my loose blouse (carefully chosen to hide any early changes), and walked inside.The elevator ride up to the fifteenth floor felt endless. My heart pounded harder with every floor number that lit up. When the doors opened, the familiar buzz of the office hit me phones ringing, keyboards clicking, colleagues chatting. It all felt the same, yet completely different.I kept my head down as I walked to my desk

ALEXI sat in my home office with the lights off, the only glow coming from the laptop screen. The cursor blinked on a blank email I’d been trying to write to Bella for the past forty minutes.Every version I started felt wrong too desperate, too formal, too late.Lauren’s latest call still echoed in my head.“I know something’s going on, Alex. I can feel it. If you don’t come clean, I’ll make sure Robert hears every rumor I can dig up. And trust me, I’m very good at digging.”She had hung up before I could respond, leaving me staring at the wall like a man waiting for the axe to fall.Four months.Four months of stolen nights, secret texts, and the constant fear that one wrong move would destroy everything. I loved Bella more than I had ever loved anyone. The way she looked at me, the way she trusted me with her body and her heart, the way she made me feel alive again after years of just surviving, it was everything.But love wasn’t enough to silence the terror of losing Emily.I rub

BELLA I drove to Mia’s apartment with tears blurring the road ahead.The city lights streaked like watercolor through the windshield, and every red light felt like a punishment, giving my mind too much time to replay the afternoon at my parents’ house.Emily’s small, hurt voice kept echoing in my head:“I don’t like you anymore… I wish you would just go away.”Those words had cut deeper than I expected. I had always adored Emily the bright, curious girl who used to run to me with drawings and ask me to braid her hair.Now she saw me as the person who made her daddy sad. Another obstacle. Another reason why Alex and I could never work.By the time I parked outside Mia’s building, I was shaking. I barely made it to her door before the tears started falling again.Mia opened the door on the second knock. One look at my face and she pulled me inside without a word, wrapping me in a tight hug.“Oh, honey,” she murmured, rubbing my back. “Come here. Sit down.”She guided me to the couch, g

LaurenLauren sat in her car outside Alex’s house, engine off, fingers drumming on the steering wheel. The folder on the passenger seat was thick now hotel receipts, blurred security footage from the coastal resort, a copy of the pregnancy test receipt Bella had tossed in a public trash can near the clinic, and several photos her private investigator had taken of Bella entering Alex’s house late at night and leaving early in the morning.It was all there.She had known for weeks that something was happening, but tonight the proof felt heavy in her hands. Robert’s daughter. The girl who had grown up calling Alex “Uncle.” The perfect little princess who had always been handed everything. And now she was carrying Alex’s child while Lauren was still fighting for scraps of influence over her own daughter.The jealousy burned hotter than it had in years.She picked up the folder and stepped out of the car. Emily was already waiting on the porch with her backpack, looking small and uncerta

ROBERT Robert Harper had built his life on certainty.Certainty in business. Certainty in people. Certainty in the choices he made and the relationships he trusted.It was how he had gotten this far how he had built a company from nothing, how he had raised his children, how he had kept his world steady even when things tried to shake it.And if there was one certainty he had never questioned.It was Alex.For over twenty years, Alex had been more than a business partner. He had been a brother. A constant. Someone Robert trusted without hesitation, without doubt.Which was exactly why the conversation from yesterday refused to leave his mind.Lauren’s voice lingered like an irritation he couldn’t quite shake.“Tell your daughter to stay away from my husband"At the time, he had dismissed it.Lauren had always been sharp-tongued, calculated, especially where Alex was concerned. Their history alone was reason enough not to take her words at face value.Still…Doubt, once planted, had a