บททั้งหมดของ Late Night Deliveries: The After Hours: บทที่ 71 - บทที่ 80

Kendra’s POV My phone buzzed against my palm as I stood outside, staring down at the screen. I hesitated, biting the inside of my lip as I read Clara’s message telling me to head over.“Come by the house, we can hang out,” her text read.I texted her back immediately, my thumb flying across the keyboard.“I don’t know, Clara. Are you sure? What if your mom is home? She practically threw me out last time when it got late. I really don't want to deal with that again.”Her reply came through a second later.“Relax, my mom is completely out of town for the weekend. It’s just me and my dad, and he’s super cool. He won't care at all. Get over here.”Still feeling a slight knot of hesitation in my stomach, I grabbed my coat, caught a ride across town, and headed towards Clara’s place. ***When I got there, I climbed the front steps and pressed the brass doorbell, listening to the soft chime echo inside.A moment later, heavy footsteps approached the other side of the heavy oak door. The de

Kendra’s POV My lungs burned, and my legs felt weak as I hurried down the stone pathway toward the street, desperate to put as much distance between myself and that house as humanly possible. I flagged down the first empty cab that crawled past, tumbling into the back seat and slamming the door shut."Keep the meter running," I muttered to the driver, my voice shaking so badly it barely sounded like my own.As the car pulled away from the curb, I looked down at my hands. They were still trembling. My clothes felt heavy and suffocating, clinging to skin that was still hypersensitive and flushed from the raw, reckless intensity of what had just happened.I leaned my head against the cool glass window of the cab, watching the suburban neighborhood blur into gray streaks of asphalt and concrete. A heavy, suffocating knot tightened in my chest. I had seen the look in Clara’s eyes—the absolute devastation, the betrayal, the sheer horror of walking in on her best friend and her father. The

Lena’s POV Just a few days remained before the campus gates swung open for the new semester, and the reality of returning to a structured routine loomed large. My phone sat quietly on the coffee table, a muted reminder of the brief, strained phone call I had shared with Kendra a couple of nights ago.She had sounded hollow, broken down by whatever private storm was raging in her life. But when I woke up this morning, a text from her popped up on my screen, simple and direct: “Hey. We still need to grab our books and supplies before Monday. Are you free this afternoon to hit the campus bookstore?”It was a small olive branch, a tentative step back toward normalcy after days of radio silence. I texted her back immediately, agreeing to meet her at the downtown shopping plaza near the university district.By mid-afternoon, the crisp late-summer air carried the familiar scent of roasted coffee and old paper as Kendra and I met outside the grand glass doors of the campus bookstore. I watch

Julian’s POVI sat across staring down a stubborn acquisitions partner who was trying to short-change our logistics portfolio. For three hours, I carved him up piece by piece, matching his inflated corporate jargon with cold, surgical counters until he finally folded, signing the restructuring agreement with a trembling pen.Business, leverage, power—the endless game of chess that kept the Vanguard empire running.When the meeting adjourned, I tossed my fountain pen back into its leather case, grabbed my car keys, and descended to the underground garage. My mind was already shifting gears toward the evening schedule, assuming the family estate would be completely vacant. Adrian had driven off to regional headquarters that morning, and my father had muttered something about reviewing private audits in his ground-floor study before heading into the main office.The drive home took forty minutes through sluggish mid-city traffic. By the time I pulled my sports car into the circular drive

Lena’s POV I lay flat on my back for several long seconds, staring blankly at the ceiling as the events of the past few days crashed down on me all at once. The sterile conference room, the heavy mahogany desk, the terrifying sound of Richard’s breathing, and Julian’s cold, triumphant smile as he caught us dead-to-rights.Every muscle in my body felt heavy, aching with an exhaustion that sleep couldn't fix. My chest tightened just thinking about stepping onto campus today. Adrian would likely text me later and the mere thought of reading his words made me feel like a fraud.I forced myself out of bed and headed straight for the bathroom, stepping under a hot shower to scrub away the lingering cold sweat and exhaustion. By the time I dressed in a structured grey blazer and white blouse, I felt at least physically human.My phone buzzed on the nightstand just as I was tossing my laptop into my bag. I picked it up to see a text from Kendra flashing on the screen.Kendra: Just getting dr