Forbidden Love wtih my Ex-Husband's Billionaire Brother のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 91 - チャプター 100

✦••Kennedy••✦Everything was falling apart, and I could feel myself unraveling at the edges, like I was barely holding it together anymore.I still hadn’t found Giselle. Not a single lead, not one trace of where she’d gone, and that alone was eating me alive from the inside out.But now Annie was missing too, and the whole situation had blown up into this massive mess I wasn’t even close to being ready to deal with.No calls, no texts, nothing. No reports filed anywhere. She’d just vanished into thin air, and the silence she left behind felt louder and heavier than anything she could’ve screamed at me to my face.I drove to the mansion with my jaw clenched tight the whole way there. I already knew exactly what was waiting for me before I even pulled through the gate.My parents were standing in the foyer like some kind of united front when I walked in, my mom with her arms folded across her chest, looking all tense and pissed, and my dad with those cold, hard eyes he gets when he’s al

 ✦••Annie••✦When everything finally got quiet and the knife was no longer in my hand, the only thing left was me sitting there on the edge of that bed with nowhere to look and nothing left to hide behind.I had no one to blame but myself. I knew that deep down. I'd known it for a while now, but knowing something and actually making peace with it are two totally different things entirely.I'd looked at a married man like he was mine to want. Like his wife didn't even exist, like the ring on his finger was just some piece of jewelry and not a real promise he'd made to another person.I told myself all kinds of bullshit back then to make it feel okay, that he deserved better, that what we had was special, that Giselle didn't deserve him anyway.Every single one of those things was a lie I built up so I could keep doing exactly what I wanted to do.And now here I was. Sitting in a mansion that wasn't mine, carry

 ✦••Joseph••✦I wasn’t going to dance around it or sugarcoat shit. It was my kid brother’s greed that landed both him and Annie in this situation and I was only glad for the timeliness.Had I wanted more time than needed, only her dead body could have been found, or she would have been hospitalized for God knew when.I’d gotten pulled into this whole mess because of Giselle, and I wasn’t about to soften my edges now just to make Annie feel better about a decision she needed to make on her own.I looked her straight in the eyes and kept my voice level and steady.“I have no way to prove anything to you if my word isn’t enough. But I’m not Ken.” I let that hang in the air for a second.“I didn’t put you in this situation. I’m only trying to get you out of it, and I’m doing it because of Gigi. If that’s not good enough for you, then fi

✦••Joseph••✦Part of me, the part I wasn't going to say out loud, was also thinking about Jeffery.My best friend had a type and Esther was exactly it, except sharper and with more backbone than anyone he'd ever gotten close to.Getting her into our orbit wasn't purely strategic, I'll admit that. But that was a secondary thing. Giselle came first."I'd have to finish the project I'm already on," Esther said finally, turning back to face me. "And I'd need to talk to my brothers before I commit to anything.""Call them now," I suggested, ignoring the fact that I was pressuring her but I’d rather meet and talk to her knowing Giselle was next door and aware, than meet or call her secretly to raise unnecessary suspicions.Her expression flattened. "You don't know my brothers.""Call them anyway," I insisted. Her brothers were men, and so was I. Everyman would want

✧🦋✧Joseph🦋✧"Jo, you just have to come. The content of the note doesn't matter."He was rushing his words the way he always did when something had him rattled, clipped, fast, tripping over himself to get it all out. I knew that energy. I'd grown up with it. My father had never once in his life delivered bad news at a normal pace.But underneath all the urgency, I was hearing the one thing he didn't realize he was actually telling me.The note didn't matter.The breath I'd been holding came out slow and quiet. If my father, a man who could turn a missed phone call into a full family emergency was saying the note didn't matter, then Annie hadn't written anything that could blow anything up.No accusations. No details. Nothing that would drag me into a conversation I couldn't walk back from."She's an adult," I said into the phone, keeping my voice completely flat. "Let her be.""Jo, are you refusing to show up?"I let the yawn out without bothering to hide it. "Dad, I'm exhausted. Tod