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All Chapters of The CEO Abandoned Hiress : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

50 Chapters

Chapter 31

Callie's POV"I do not know that firm."It came out too fast.Michael did not move. He kept the laptop turned toward me, the little shield glowing on the screen."Callie.""I said I do not know it.""You said it was your father's."I opened my mouth. Nothing came.My hands had started to shake. I tried to hold the cold tea steady, but it rattled against the cup until I set it down on the table. For years I had kept my face still. In courtrooms, in hospital corridors, in front of Derek. I had thought it was strength.It was only a wall.And that small silver shield had just put a crack through the middle of it."I am fine," I said."You are not."He closed the laptop. Gently. Like he was closing a door so I could breathe.Then he sat beside me and said the one thing he had never asked, in all the weeks he had stood in my corner."Where is your family, Callie?"---I tried to say *I do not have one.*That was the sentence I had practiced. Six years of it. At job interviews. At Derek's d

Last Updated : 2026-11-04

Chapter 32

Callie's POV"His name is Gordon Hale. He owes me a favor."Michael said it into the phone with one hand pressed against his forehead. It was barely six in the morning. Lily was still asleep in the next room, and I sat on the sofa with a blanket around my shoulders, listening."Yes. The contractor. I need to know who owns it." A pause. "No, nothing official. Just quietly."He hung up and looked at me."He is a hospital security consultant. He audits companies like this one. If anyone can see behind the paperwork, it is him.""And if he finds something?""Then we will know."I nodded. I did not trust myself to say more.---Gordon Hale called back at noon.Michael put him on speaker and laid the phone on the table between us. The voice on the other end was dry and tired, like a man who had read too many contracts."Dr. Reyes. I found it.""Go ahead.""The firm has been around for thirty years. Respectable. Boring. But six years ago, the ownership changed. Quietly. No announcement.""Wh

Last Updated : 2026-11-02

Chapter 33

Callie's POV"He is alive."I said it to the kitchen wall. I could not say it to anyone's face.The photograph lay on the table between Michael's journals and Lily's colouring pencils. My father in his gray coat, one hand lifted against the sun. A date from this week.Six years of nothing. Then a plain envelope on a doormat."Callie, sit down.""He is alive, Michael.""I know." He pulled out a chair and I sat because my legs were done. "Now look at the rest.""The rest?""Who left it." He tapped the empty envelope. "No stamp. No name. Someone walked into my building, up to my door, and knocked. They knew exactly where you were."I stared at the handwriting on the back."Papa wrote this.""Maybe. Maybe someone copied it." He kept his voice gentle. "Think about the corridor photo. They wanted to be found. Now they send you a picture and no address.""It is not an address I need. It is a house." I picked up the photograph. "Stone. Gravel path. I will find it.""And then what?""Then I go

Last Updated : 2026-11-02

Chapter 34

Callie's POV"Mummy, are they taking me somewhere?"Lily stood in the hallway with Mr. Rabbit hanging from her hand. The court officer had already stepped aside to give her room.I knelt in front of her. My knees were shaking, so I pressed them into the floor."It is only a short visit, baby.""With Daddy?""With Daddy. Just for a little while.""Will you come?""Not this time." I fixed her collar. My fingers would not stay still. "But I will call you every night. And Dr. Michael will check on you. And you have Mr. Rabbit."She looked at the officers. At the camera."Is it because I pressed the button?""No." I pulled her against me. "Never. You did everything right."If I did not comply, they would arrest me in front of her. Then she would have no one. I had run that sum a hundred times in my head since the knock on the door. It always came out the same.I let her go.---The officer carried her down the stairs because she was too weak to walk fast. Michael held the door. He did not

Last Updated : 2026-11-03

Chapter 35

Callie's POV"Dr. Halvorsen does not take meetings during business hours."His secretary said it without looking up. She had a small desk, a small smile, and a very large appointment book."I am not asking for a meeting," I said. "I am asking for five minutes. It is about a child.""It is always about a child, Ms. Dawson.""Her name is Lily. She is four.""I am sure she is lovely." She turned a page. "Dr. Halvorsen will discuss the case at the event on Saturday. He is the guest of honor. He has made that very clear.""The approval has a seven day limit.""Then I suggest you attend.""I was not invited.""That," she said pleasantly, "is not my department."I stood there with my hands pressed flat on her desk. Behind her, a door with his name in gold letters stayed shut. I could hear nothing from inside. No phone. No voice. Maybe he was not even there.I left.On the way down in the elevator, I counted. Six days left.---Michael was waiting in the car outside. He had taken the morning

Last Updated : 2026-11-03

Chapter 36

Callie's POV"You came to the point faster than I expected."Vanessa sounded relaxed. I could hear ice moving in a glass.I had dialed her number from Michael's kitchen with the card still bent in my other hand. I did not say hello."You arranged all of it," I said. "Halvorsen. The event. The seven days.""Yes."Just that. No pause. No denial."Why?""Because you never learn." She sighed, almost kindly. "I tried to be gentle. A hold on a bill. A weekend visit. You kept climbing back up. So now we will do it in front of people.""Do what?""You will sing."I stood very still."On Saturday night. On the stage at the Velvet Room. In front of Dr. Halvorsen and three hundred guests." Her voice stayed soft. "You will wear the dress I send. You will sing what you are told to sing. When you finish, he will sign.""And if I refuse?""Then the signature never happens. And in seven days, a slot opens for some other child." A small pause. "That is not a threat, Callie. It is only arithmetic.""I

Last Updated : 2026-11-03

Chapter 37

Callie's POV"You should be asleep."Michael stood in the bedroom doorway in the dark. It was past midnight. I was sitting on the edge of the bed with the gown across my knees and the yellow page in both hands.I had not moved in hours."I could not," I said.He crossed the room and sat beside me. He did not ask what was in my hands. He only waited, the way he always did."It is my mother's handwriting.""Callie...""It is a song." I turned the page toward the lamp. "A lullaby. She wrote it herself. She sang it every night when I was small. Always off key. Always stopped before the second part, so I would hum it for her.""Did anyone else know it?""Only my family." My voice cracked. "My father. My brothers. Nobody outside that house. I never sang it to Derek. I never sang it to anyone. I only hummed it to Lily when she was a baby, and only when the room was dark."Michael looked at the page for a long moment."Then someone in that circle knows who you are.""Yes.""Or who your family

Last Updated : 2026-11-04

Chapter 38

Callie's POV"Two minutes, Ms. Dawson."The stage manager did not look at me. He looked at his clipboard.I stood in the wings with my arms crossed over my chest. The gown was not the one I had held in my hands. Somewhere between the box and the dressing room, it had been shortened. A black silk slip with straps thinner than a ribbon and a hem that stopped high on my thigh. A note pinned inside the sleeve said, *Vanessa says no alterations.*I had not been given another choice."I cannot go out like this," I whispered."There is no other dress.""There is my coat.""Madam said no coat."I looked down at my bare arms. My bare back. My hands were shaking so hard the silk trembled.Through the gap in the curtain I could see the room. Three hundred guests in jewels and black ties, laughing over wine. A chandelier burning gold. And at the front table, directly below the stage, three chairs.Derek in a dark suit. Vanessa in red, one hand resting on his arm. Between them sat Noah, holding a

Last Updated : 2026-11-04

Chapter 39

Callie's POV"Callie."He said it the way he used to say it in the garden, when I was small and he had just found me hiding behind the roses. Soft. Cracked in the middle.He climbed the three steps to the stage slowly. His hands were shaking. He stopped an arm's length from me, as if he still did not trust his eyes."Is it really you?" I whispered."Let me look at you."He took my hands. His fingers were cold and thin, and they held on so tightly it almost hurt. Then he pulled me against his coat, and I smelled the same old cedar and tobacco I had smelled on his collar when I was nine.I broke.I cried into his shoulder in front of three hundred people, in a dress I hated, with no microphone and no wall left to hide behind."I looked for you," he said into my hair. "Every day. Six years, Callie. I looked everywhere.""You said you would find me.""I am so sorry it took so long."I pulled back and searched his face. He was thinner. Older. Deep lines around his eyes that had not been th

Last Updated : 2026-11-04

Chapter 40

Callie's POV"Papa, why did he call you that?"My father did not answer right away. He looked down at the broken glass near Vanessa's chair. Then he looked at Halvorsen, who was still standing beside us with his head slightly bowed."Because it is my title," he said gently. "Or it was.""What title?"He turned me to face him. His hands were still cold."Callie, my name is Edmund Dawson. I am the rightful chairman of Dawson Global."The hall had gone so quiet I could hear the chandelier humming."Dawson Global," someone whispered near the front. "The Dawson Global?"I had grown up in that name. I had never heard anyone say it out loud."My brother Raymond has run it for six years," Papa went on. "He forced me out the same night he threatened you. I signed what he put in front of me, because he held your mother's life in one hand and yours in the other.""Mama died twelve years ago.""I know." His voice broke. "I am telling you what he used to make me sign. The company, the house, every

Last Updated : 2026-11-04

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