All Chapters of A BILLIONAIRE'S PROMISE: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The flight back to New York was the longest of Ella's life.Every minute stretched into an hour, every hour into an eternity. She stared out the window at the darkness below, watching the lights of distant cities flicker past, but she didn't see any of it. All she saw was her mother's face. All she heard was the doctor's voice.*It's not good.*Xander held her hand through the entire flight. He didn't try to talk, didn't try to offer empty reassurances. He just held on, his presence solid and steady, reminding her that she wasn't alone.They landed at dawn. The sky was gray, the city waking slowly beneath a blanket of clouds. Ella barely remembered the drive to the hospital. She remembered running through the doors, remembered the elevator, remembered the long hallway that led to the ICU.Then she was there. Standing outside her mother's room, looking through the glass.---Clara looked smaller than Ella remembered.The machines around her beeped and hummed, tubes connecting her to mo

The apartment smelled like candles.Ella noticed it the moment she walked through the door after another long day at the clinic. Something warm and soft, vanilla and sandalwood, the kind of scent that wrapped around her like a blanket. She stopped in the doorway, confused. This wasn't the apartment she'd left that morning.Xander appeared from the kitchen, wearing an apron over his shirt, a dish towel in his hands. "You're early.""The nurse said I should get some rest." She looked around the room. The candles were everywhere—on the tables, the windowsills, the counter that separated the kitchen from the living space. Their flames flickered in the dim light, casting shadows that danced on the walls. "What's all this?""I wanted to do something nice." He crossed to her, took her bag, set it aside. "You've been working too hard. Sleeping too little. Eating too irregularly.""I'm fine.""You're exhausted." He cupped her face in his hands.

The Swiss clinic was quiet at night.Ella sat beside her mother's bed, the same plastic chair, the same beeping machines, the same antiseptic smell that seemed to follow her everywhere. But something was different now. Clara was awake. Her eyes were open, clear, focused in a way they hadn't been for days.The doctors said it was a good sign. A brief window of lucidity before the end. Ella didn't want to think about the end. She wanted to stay in this moment, with her mother's hand in hers, with the mountains visible through the window, with the illusion that everything might be okay."Ella." Clara's voice was weak but steady. "There's something I need to tell you.""You already told me. About Isabella's father.""That's not all." Clara's grip tightened. "There's more. About me. About your family."Ella's heart pounded. "What do you mean?"---Clara closed her eyes for a moment, gathering her strength. When she opened them again

The pieces didn't fit.Ella had been staring at the screen for hours, scrolling through articles, cross-referencing dates, trying to make sense of a puzzle that seemed designed to confuse. Sophia and Isabella. Cousins. Partners. Friends. Their names appeared together so often that it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.But it was the timing that bothered her.Isabella's campaign against her had started months ago, long before the bomb, long before the threats, long before any of the chaos that had nearly destroyed her life. And Sophia—Sophia had been there. At the same parties, the same events, the same social circles where Isabella had plotted and schemed.How much had she known? How much had she helped? And why did the name Sophia Rossi keep appearing in connection with things that didn't seem connected at all?Ella rubbed her eyes, exhausted. She'd been at this for hours, and she was no closer to understanding than

The warehouse looked abandoned from the outside.Weeds pushed through cracks in the pavement, windows were boarded up, and the walls were covered in graffiti that had faded over years of exposure. But the door was new—steel, reinforced, with a keypad that glowed red in the darkness. Someone had spent money on this place recently.Xander parked the car a block away, killing the engine and the lights. They sat in silence for a moment, the only sound their breathing and the distant hum of the city."We should wait," he said."We've been waiting.""A few more minutes won't hurt."Ella looked at him. In the dim light, his face was all hard angles and shadows, his jaw tight, his eyes fixed on the warehouse. He was scared. She could see it. But he was here, and he wasn't leaving."I love you," she said."I know.""Whatever happens in there—""Nothing's going to happen." He took her hand. "We're going in, we'r