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Lahat ng Kabanata ng Reborn as the True Billionaire : Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 50

128 Kabanata

41

Tristan’s POVMorana came home late and I was still awake in the living room reviewing files on Xavier’s operation. I could hear her keys hit the counter in the kitchen. She appeared in the doorway wearing the black Alexander McQueen dress and her makeup was smudged slightly around the eyes. Her hair has started to come loose from its twist. She looks exhausted and powerful and completely unavailable.That had become the pattern. Every time she came near, there was this electric thing that happened between us. Every time I tried to close the distance, she maintained it with surgical precision.“You’re still awake,” she murmured but it wasn’t a question.“Work.”She nodded and moved toward the bedroom like that was the end of the conversation. Like we were just two people who happened to share an apartment instead of two people who’d agreed to share a bed.I watched her walk past me and felt that familiar frustration settle into my chest. Keep him at arm’s length. Don’t let yourself n

42

Xavier’s POVI was in my study reviewing extraction schedules when Lance called. The man sounded frantic like something had gone wrong and he couldn’t figure out how to fix it.“Xavier. Thank God. I need your help!” he said before I could even say hello.I leaned back in my chair and lit a cigar because if there was one thing I understood, it was how to use someone else’s desperation as leverage. Lance Mortaine has come to me weeks ago with a proposal. I should help him consolidate control of Mortaine Patent and push out the board members who were loyal to Theodore.In exchange, I’d get access to Mortaine’s research division and their proprietary formulas. Access to everything I needed to synthesize my own version of the regenerative compound.I won’t need Morana Greene anymore. I have enough of her blood extracted to last several weeks. The buyers were satisfied and operation was running smoothly. “What’s the problem?” I asked.“She’s back!” Lance said and his voice cracked slightl

43

Morana’s POVI woke up at 3AM dizzy and my mouth felt like cotton. My body was doing this strange thing where everything felt simultaneously too heavy and too light. I lay in the dark for a minute trying to remember if I’d eaten anything yesterday besides coffee and the single salad I’d forced down at lunch.The extractions were still catching up with me. Even though Xavier wasn’t taking my blood anymore, my body was still running on fumes. Still trying to replenish something that has been drained for five years.I got out of bed carefully because moving too fast made the room tilt. I headed toward the kitchen for water. But I didn’t make it that far. I made it to the hallway and then my legs decided they were done working properly.I caught myself on the wall but it was close. My vision was already blurring at the edges and I understood in that moment that this was what biological dependency actually felt like. It was not even emotional but physical. Tristan’s voice came from som

44

Morana’s POVFelix arrived early in the morning with coffee from some place in SoHo that probably charged fifteen dollars for a cup and absolutely no announcement. He just walked in like he owned the place because apparently cousins had that kind of access.I was sitting at the kitchen counter in one of Tristan’s shirts (that I stole) and my hair was still damp from the shower and I hadn’t bothered with makeup because frankly I was too tired to care what I looked like. Felix took one look at me and raised an eyebrow so high it practically disappeared into his hairline. He is probably thinking of all bad things. “Well.” He cleared his throat and his voice came out very dry. “That answers several questions I had about how this marriage was going.”“Don’t start.” I warned but I was already smiling because Felix had always been the one person in my family who could make me laugh when I wanted to punch something.Tristan appeared from his office looking completely unbothered by the fact

45

Morana’s POVThe drive to Mrs. Sun’s botanical estate took forty minutes and I spent every single one of them reviewing her history. Evelyn Sun, seventy -three years old. One of the original investors who’d helped my father expand Mortaine internationally. She rarely attended board meetings in person. Never sided emotionally with anyone.Tristan warned me before I left that Mrs. Sun respects intelligence. I’d listened carefully but underneath the listening was tension that I was carrying in my shoulders and my jaw and the way my hands gripped the steering wheel too tightly. This was the first truly important meeting I’ve handled alone since reclaiming my name. The first time I wasn’t walking in with Tristan beside me or Felix in the room or Theodore watching from the sidelines.I dressed carefully for it. A charcoal grey Chanel suit that made me look like someone who understood power. Black heels and diamond earrings my father had given me before he died. My hair pulled back so s

46

Morana’s POVI sat in the car for a long time after I got back. The engine was off and the city was moving around me but I wasn’t really seeing it. My head was doing something that felt like splitting open. A migraine was forming. The kind that came when your body understood what your mind was still trying to process.My father wasn’t who I thought he was. Mabel was something far more dangerous than I’d anticipated. The board was terrified of her. And I was sitting in a parked car trying to figure out how to save a company that was built on secrets and buried bodies.The penthouse door opened and Tristan appeared. He didn’t ask questions. He just walked toward the car and opened the passenger door and waited until I understood that he wasn’t leaving without me.I got out and we went inside and he moved directly to the kitchen and poured whiskey into two glasses. Not wine or even water. Whiskey. It was the drink you have when you need to say things that were difficult.He set one gla

47

Morana’s POVI woke up at two in the morning burning up and my body was doing like it was rejecting itself. My sheets were soaked through with sweat and I couldn’t stop shivering even though the fever was so high I could barely see straight. I tried to get out of bed and my legs decided they weren’t participating anymore.Tristan was already awake. He must have felt the shift in my body temperature because his hand came to my forehead and his expression went very still in a way that suggested he understood exactly what was happening.“Dr. Reeves!” he said into his phone before I could even tell him how bad it was. “Now. The penthouse.”Dr. Amelia Reeves arrived thirty minutes later with her emergency bag and an expression that suggested she’d been expecting this call. She was in her late thirties and had that particular exhaustion that came from being a single mother and one of the most brilliant infectious disease specialists in the country simultaneously. Her son was probably wi

48

Morana’s POVThe white dress I chose was very simple. There’s embroidery or crystals or the recent dramatic neckline trying too hard to announce wealth. I made sure it was clean silk that skimmed my body perfectly and fell straight to my ankles. The kind of dress old money women wore when they didn’t need attention to know they owned the room already.I stood in front of Tristan’s bedroom mirror gathering my hair over one shoulder while he stepped behind me to help with the zipper. Neither of us spoke immediately.Tristan’s fingers brushed the bare length of my spine once as he pulled the zipper up slowly. I was sure that move wasn’t accidental and he forced me to swallow the shiver I wanted to let out. His hands… fuck“You’re staring,” I murmured catching his reflection in the mirror.“You’re nervous.”“I’m not.”His hand settled briefly against the small of my back after the zipper closed. It feels entirely too familiar considering how quickly my life had changed around him.“You’

49

Morana’s POVMabel’s hand remained on my arm as she guided me into the conference room like we were friends meeting for lunch instead of two women circling each other for power. The space was exactly as I remembered it with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Manhattan, the long mahogany table my father had commissioned from some Italian craftsman and fresh flowers that probably cost more than most people’s monthly rent.She settled into the chair at the head of the table. My father’s chair.I took the one across from her instead of beside her. The message was intentional and she caught it. The smallest pause before she smiled again, wider this time.“You look so much like him it hurts” she said pouring champagne from a bottle that was definitely not the cheap kind. “Sometimes it’s almost unsettling.”I didn’t respond to that or reach for the champagne either. She took a slow sip from her own glass and the emerald dress caught the sun again as she moved. Everything about Mabel was

50

Morana’s POVThe research archives were in the basement of the original Mortaine buildin. It is the one my father had kept separate from the main headquarters specifically so certain projects could exist without board oversight. I had the access codes because I’ve worked there before Xavier, back when I still believed my father was stupidly good and innocent unlike other businessmen I have met. Now my eyes have cleared. The elevator descended past the normal levels. Down to the sub level that most people at Mortaine didn’t know existed.The fluorescent lights flickered on automatically when I stepped into the corridor. Everything was exactly as I remembered it all pristine and sterile and designed to keep information locked away where it belonged.My hands were steady as I moved through the restricted files. Years of training kicked in. I knew how to navigate classified research and exactly what to look for. I know how to read between the layers of language and find the actual trut

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