Todos los capítulos de Ruined By His Father : Capítulo 41 - Capítulo 47

Raymond "I can't."The words left my mouth before I could stop them, and the room swallowed them whole. For a moment, nobody breathed.Every elder stared at me as if I had just confessed to burning down the family estate myself. Valentina's smile didn't so much fall as freeze, held there a beat too long before it cracked.One of the elders rose slowly from his chair, palms flat on the table as though he needed it to keep his balance."What did you just say?""I said it plainly enough." I kept my voice level, though my pulse wasn't. "I won't hand her over."The bang of another elder's fists against the table cracked through the hall like a gunshot. "Raymond!""She's the daughter of John Harrington.""I'm aware of exactly who she is.""And you're protecting her anyway?"I let my gaze move across every face at that table, unhurried and unflinching. "I won't hand her over," I said again,

NiaThe question lingered between us longer than it should have, the candle flickering between the wine glasses as if it were waiting for my answer too."Not much," I said finally. "He died when I was fifteen. A heart attack, they told me. I was still in high school, still figuring out how to do my own laundry, and then he just wasn't there anymore."My fingers found the edge of the tablecloth and smoothed it flat, an old habit whenever I talked about him. "My mother never spoke about him much after that. I always figured it was easier for her that way."Valentina watched me with an expression I couldn't quite place—not warmth, exactly; something closer to calculation dressed up as concern."So you don't know what he did before you were born? Before you could remember him as anything other than your father?""He worked in finance." I frowned, trying to summon details that had never really been there in the first place. "Or logistics, maybe. Why does it matter?”"It matters," she said,

NiaThe heavy oak door had barely clicked shut behind Raymond when another violent wave of nausea tore through my stomach.I gasped, clutching my midsection as my mouth filled with a sudden metallic taste.Pushing myself up from the bed with trembling limbs, I stumbled blindly into the adjoining bathroom.I barely made it to the porcelain toilet before my body convulsed. I dropped to my knees, gripping the cool ceramic edge as I threw up, dry-heaving painfully into the bowl.Cold sweat broke out across my forehead and back. Trembling, I sat back on my heels, touching my lower belly with a shaky hand and wiping my lips with the back of my wrist—only for another harsh contraction to hit my chest.I leaned over again, throwing up until my stomach was completely empty.Breathing heavily, I rested my forehead against the edge of the marble counter.This isn't just stress. It isn't just from skipping meals.A sudden terrifying thought struck me, sending an icy chill down my spine: the missi

Raymond The heavy iron gates of the estate groaned under the force of my SUV as I tore onto the wet pavement, the tires screeching in protest against the slick stone. I threw the door open before the engine had even fully died, my boots hitting the ground with heavy, restless strides. The urgent council meeting I had just left was already a distant blur. All that mattered, all that had kept my pulse hammering violently against my ribs for the past two hours, was the girl waiting upstairs. "Nia?" My voice echoed off the high ceilings of the quiet halls as I took the grand staircase two steps at a time. I stripped off my suit jacket, throwing it onto the banister, my lungs aching for the soft scent of vanilla and jasmine that usually greeted me whenever she was near. Silence met me instead. A heavy, suffocating silence that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. My brow furrowed. I pushed open the bedroom door, my eyes sweeping across the expanse of the room. It wa