บททั้งหมดของ The Billionaire’s Secret Heir: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

The internet was already on fire. But none of that chaos had anything to do with what was happening outside the glass doors of KT Star Entertainment on the forty-second floor of a Midtown Manhattan high-rise. Vivian Rong had just walked out of her audition and passed. She hadn't even made it to the elevator when her phone erupted. Once. Twice. Five times in rapid succession. She glanced at the caller ID and, without a moment's hesitation, held the phone a calculated six inches from her ear. Smart move. "VIVIAN RONG." The voice that exploded from the other end was loud enough to rattle the windows. "What in the actual hell is going on?! Why did you suddenly come back to New York without telling me? You said Rosie was at summer camp, Vivian so why is he on every news channel in America calling Ethan Hartwell Daddy?! Start talking. Right now." Vivian calmly wiggled a finger in her ringing ear, stepped away from a group of wide-eyed interns, and found a quiet alcove near t

Vivian had already decided to pretend she hadn't seen them.She was two steps from a clean escape when Rebecca's voice floated after her, soft and perfectly pitched."Sister?"The word landed like a fishhook.Vivian kept walking."Vivian!" Rebecca stepped smoothly into her path, eyes wide with manufactured delight, one hand pressed to her chest as though her heart couldn't quite contain the joy. "Oh my goodness, it is you! Why didn't you tell anyone you were coming back? I would have""Moved?" Vivian suggested pleasantly, and stopped walking.She uncrossed her arms, tilted her head, and let a slow smile spread across her face the kind that was bright enough to be blinding and sharp enough to draw blood.That smile.Rebecca's delicate, camera-ready features couldn't have produced it in a thousand years of practice. It was the kind of beauty that didn't ask for permission vivid and unguarded and completely, devastatingly real."Rebecca." Vivian's voice was silky smooth. "We both know yo

"I didn't ask if she was pregnant." Ethan's voice was quiet. The kind of quiet that made rooms feel smaller. His sharp gaze cut across to the young doctor with the unhurried precision of a man who had never once needed to raise his voice to make a point. "I asked you to tell me whether anything was seriously wrong with her." Dr. Cameron Reid set the medical chart down on the counter, spun around on his heel, and looked at Ethan with the cheerful fearlessness of someone completely immune to intimidation. "Okay but" He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms, tilting his head toward the room where Vivian lay. "You bring a girl who looks like that into my ER at midnight, and your first concern is whether your car killed her?" He clicked his tongue. "That's a lot to unpack, brother." Ethan did not dignify that with a response. Cameron, undeterred, pushed off the counter and began pacing with the restless energy of a man who had been pulled away from something important. "Do

"Good evening, Mr. Hartwell.""Good evening, Mr. Hartwell."The greetings rippled through the entrance hall as the Bentley's headlights swept across the driveway. The household staff lined the foyer in quiet, practiced rows and every single one of them forgot their composure the moment Ethan Hartwell stepped through the front door.With a woman in his arms.He carried her the way he did everything else without explanation, without hesitation, as though the universe was expected to simply accommodate whatever he decided to do. He crossed the marble foyer, took the staircase, and disappeared to the upper floor without a word.The silence he left behind lasted approximately four seconds.Then"Did I just see what I think I saw?""You saw it. I saw it. We all saw it.""Mr. Hartwell carried a woman. Personally. Through the front door.""Who is she? I couldn't see her face it was turned away.""I don't know, but whoever she is—"The murmuring spread through the downstairs staff like electri

Vivian laughed.It came out slightly strangled, but she committed to it fully, pressing a hand to her sternum like the humor was almost too much to bear. "Mr. Hartwell, a girlfriend. You." She shook her head, smile perfectly in place. "I'm sorry, I don't mean any disrespect, but that might genuinely be the funniest thing anyone has said to me all year."Ethan did not laugh.He didn't even blink. Those dark, relentless eyes stayed fixed on her face with the focused patience of a man who was accustomed to waiting out other people's deflections."I don't joke," he said simply. "Think about it."The smile on Vivian's face faltered by precisely one degree.He's serious.She recalibrated. Quickly."I have a boyfriend," she said.The atmosphere in the room shifted.It was subtle, the way pressure shifts before a storm. Nothing moved. No expression crossed Ethan's face. But something in the quality of his stillness changed, and Vivian felt it in her spine before she consciously registered it.