The Billionaire’s Favorite Mistake のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 31 - チャプター 40

Rain hammered the windows of the old carriage house behind the Vance estate. Damien stood with his back to the door, gun metal eyes fixed on the man in the doorway, soaked, gray haired, hands raised like he'd expected to be shot."Who are you?" Damien said."Someone who's been watching you since you were six years old."Ellie stepped closer to Damien, close enough that her shoulder brushed his arm. "That's not an answer.""It's the only one that matters tonight." The stranger lowered his hands slowly. "My name won't mean anything to you. But I've spent thirty years protecting Damien."Silence. Water dripping from the stranger's coat onto the concrete floor."Protecting me," Damien repeated. "From what?""From the truth. From your father. From what your father almost did to you."Damien's jaw tightened. "My father built an empire on lies. I know exactly what he did.""No." The stranger's voice cracked, not with fear, with something older. Grief, maybe. "You know what he let people beli

The car sat in the driveway for eleven seconds before its headlights cut out and it reversed, tires screeching against wet gravel, and vanished down the tree lined road.Nobody spoke until the sound of the engine faded completely."Someone wants us rattled," Ellie said. "Not dead. Rattled.""It's working," Julian muttered.They didn't wait for morning. Damien drove, Ellie beside him this time, Julian in the back scrolling through the facility's public records on his phone, hands still unsteady."Meadowbrook Residential Care," Julian read aloud. "Licensed, inspected, nothing flagged. It looks completely ordinary.""That's the point," Ellie said. "Nobody hides a secret in a place that looks suspicious."Nobody spoke for a while after that. The wipers beat a slow rhythm against the windshield, and Damien's knuckles whitened around the wheel every time his mind drifted toward what waited at the end of the drive. Ellie noticed and said nothing, just let her hand rest lightly against the co

"What does that mean?" Julian's voice had gone quiet, dangerous. "Someone who looks exactly like me. Say what you're actually implying, Marcus." "I'm not implying anything." Marcus didn't blink. "I'm telling you what the footage shows. Whether you believe it is your business." "That's not an answer." "It's the only one I'm giving you tonight." "That's convenient," Julian said. "You've had thirty years of convenient answers, Marcus. I used to think that was because you were thorough. Now I think it's because you rehearsed it." A muscle ticked once at Marcus's jaw. Damien had already opened the thin folder Marcus had slid across the table. A family tree sketched in fading ink, most of the branches crossed out, names blacked out with heavy marker. Only two remained untouched. Julian Vance II. Beside it, a name scratched out so thoroughly it was unreadable. "What is that?" Ellie leaned in, her shoulder brushing Damien's arm. Marcus's jaw tightened. "Julian has spent his whole lif

Damien didn't wait for anyone else. The moment the head of corporate security finished speaking, he was already moving toward the boardroom door, jaw set, the photograph still burning behind his eyes."Show me."The security chief hurried after him, badge swinging against his chest. "Mr. Sterling, we haven't finished analyzing the, ""I didn't ask if you finished." Damien pushed through the door into the executive hallway, not slowing his stride. "I asked you to show me."Ellie caught up beside him before the elevator doors closed, breathless, one hand braced against the frame like she needed something solid to hold onto while her mind caught up with her feet. Julian followed a second later, still pale, the image of the man wearing his face refusing to leave him no matter how hard he tried to blink it away. Marcus came last, unhurried, his composure a thin shell stretched too tight over whatever was underneath it now.Nobody invited him. Nobody told him to leave either. The silence be

The room went black before anyone could scream.For one suspended second, nothing existed but sound. A chair leg scraping. Someone's breath catching. The soft click of the door Damien hadn't heard close."Nobody move." His voice cut through the dark, low and steady, though his heart slammed against his ribs. His hand found empty air where Ellie had been standing seconds ago. Panic, sharp and unfamiliar, spiked through him before he could stop it."I'm here." Her whisper came from just behind his shoulder, closer than he'd expected. Her fingers found his sleeve first, then his hand, gripping hard enough to hurt. "I'm here, Damien."Relief loosened something in his chest, but only for a second. The voice came again, closer than before, low and amused."You've asked the wrong question again."Julian's chair scraped back, wood against carpet, too loud in the dark. "Show yourself.""No.""Then stop hiding in the dark like a coward."A soft laugh answered him, unhurried, almost fond. "I've