All Chapters of The Rejected Wife Returns as a Billionaire Queen: Chapter 11 - Chapter 13

Crystal didn't sleep.She lay in a bed the size of her old apartment, staring at a ceiling painted with constellations that actually glowed—a detail her mother had commissioned from an artist in Florence when Crystal was only three. Her glasses sat on the nightstand. She had worn them since she was fifteen, the day she first realized that being seen was dangerous. The thick frames had been her shield. The baggy clothes had been her armor. The slouch had been her invisibility cloak. For twelve years, she had hidden.But no more. She was done hiding.The transformation began at eight o'clock sharp. The quiet of the East Wing was shattered by the arrival of a small army waiting in her private lounge. They came all at once: stylists, hair experts, makeup artists, and wardrobe assistants. A full team. The best in the world. They stood in perfect formation, their stations marked by leather cases and chrome carts."Miss Laurent." The eldest stepped forward—silver hair, sharp eyes, and hands

The executive elevator opened onto the fourteenth floor—the design atelier of Laurent Fashion. Crystal stepped out, her gold stilettos sinking into the plush charcoal carpet. Behind her, the elevator doors slid shut with a soft hiss, cutting off the buzz of the lobby below.She was alone. No security detail past this point. Adrian’s rule: “In the atelier, you earn your place by hand, not by name.”The hallway stretched endlessly, lined with glass-encased displays of past Laurent masterpieces—runway pieces that had once stopped the world mid-breath.. She recognized them all—she’d studied every Laurent runway show from her cramped foster bedroom, sketching her own versions on cheap paper. Now she walked past them as the woman whose name was etched into the brass plate on the door at the end.Crystal Laurent, Executive Chair & Head of Design.She pushed open the door to her office and stopped.Luxury didn’t begin to describe it.The office was less a workspace and more a statement of pow