One Night With My Brother’s Worst Enemy のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 21 - チャプター 30

Vienna woke to sunlight and the weight of Ezra's arm across her waist.The new apartment was still unfamiliar. The ceilings were too high. The windows were too wide. The bed was too soft. But the man beside her was the same. Warm and solid and hers. She turned her head on the pillow and watched him sleep. His dark hair was messy. His jaw was shadowed with stubble. His lips were slightly parted. He looked younger like this. Softer. Nothing like the cold, commanding CEO who had bought her at an auction and changed her life forever.She reached up and touched the collar at her throat. The white gold was cool against her fingers. The small diamond caught the morning light. Ezra had given it to her in Spain, and she had not taken it off since. Not in the shower. Not in bed. Not even when Silas had looked at it with knowing eyes and asked if she was sure.She was sure.Ezra stirred. His arm tightened around her waist. His eyes opened slowly, dark and hazy with sleep."You are staring," he m

The next few days were quiet. Too quiet.Vienna woke each morning, made coffee, and wrote. The manuscript was growing. She had passed sixty pages. The words came easier now, flowing from her fingers like water from a tap. She wrote about the auction in vivid detail. The mask. The collar. The way Ezra's voice had sounded in the dark, low and commanding and full of promise. She wrote about Silas too. His illness. His anger. The slow, painful process of watching her brother die and then watching him come back to life. She wrote about Elena. The café. The warning. Ezra did not ask to read it. He said he would wait until she was ready. He said he trusted her to tell the story the right way. That trust meant more than he knew. --- On Thursday, Vienna went to the grocery store. It was a small thing. Ordinary. The kind of errand she had done a hundred times before. But nothing felt ordinary anymore. Every face on the street seemed to watch her. Every shadow seemed to hide something.

The lawyers were expensive.Vienna sat in the corner of Ezra's office, watching him pace back and forth while two men in thousand dollar suits discussed legal strategy. She understood some of it. Harassment. Stalking. Invasion of privacy. Restraining orders. The words blurred together, heavy and serious.Ezra's lawyer, a sharp-faced man named Harrison, set down his pen. "We have enough evidence for a restraining order, Mr. Vance. The photographs, the note, the payment trail. But a restraining order is just a piece of paper. It will not stop her if she is determined to hurt you." "Then what will?" "Public exposure. If we go to the press, if we make her actions known, she will lose any remaining credibility. Her father will distance himself. The board will cut ties. She will be left with nothing." Ezra stopped pacing. "Do it." "Ezra." Vienna stood. "Are you sure?" "I am sure." He crossed the room and took her hands. "She has been threatening us for months. Following us. Taking phot

The weeks after Elena's revelation were strange. Vienna moved through them like a ghost. She woke up. She made coffee. She sat in her writing room and stared at the blank page. She ate when Silas reminded her. She slept when Ezra held her. But she was not really there. Not all of her. Part of her was still in that café, watching Elena smile as she handed over the medical records. Part of her was still on that bench, reading her father's name and feeling her world tilt. Part of her was still twelve years old, watching her father die and not understanding why. Ezra gave her space. He did not push. He did not demand. He just waited, patient and steady, the way he had always waited. Silas was less patient. "You cannot hide forever," he said one afternoon, sitting on the edge of her bed. "I am not hiding." "You are. You have not written in weeks. You have not left the apartment. You have not even looked at Ezra without flinching." Vienna flinched at that. "I am not flinching." "Y

The voicemail arrived at 2:47 in the morning. Vienna was asleep, tangled in Ezra's arms, when her phone buzzed on the nightstand. She ignored it. It buzzed again. And again. She reached for it blindly, still half asleep, and pressed it to her ear. "Vienna Cross, this is Elena Vance. I know it is late. I know you do not want to hear from me. But I need you to listen. I need you to understand." Vienna sat up. Her heart began to pound. "I know I have done terrible things. I know I have hurt you. I know I have tried to destroy your relationship with Ezra. But I am done. I am done fighting. I am done running. I just want to be free of all of this." Elena's voice cracked. "I am leaving the country. Tonight. I am never coming back. And before I go, I need you to know the truth. The whole truth. About your father. About Ezra. About the board." Vienna's hands were shaking. "There is a file. Hidden in the wall of my father's study. Behind the painting of the sailboat. It contains everyt