Semua Bab BOUND TO THE BILLIONAIRE’S CONTRACT : Bab 21 - Bab 27

I literally stopped breathing.Like, my lungs just entirely went on strike.I stared at the cracked screen of my phone until my eyes physically burned. I read those two letters over and over again until they stopped looking like letters and just looked like a death sentence.*El.*Nobody called me that. My dad called me Ellie. Chloe called me a loser. Alexander called me *wife* like it was a threat.Julian was the only person on this entire planet who called me El.I shoved my fist into my mouth and bit down on my own knuckles so hard I tasted blood. I had to do it to stop myself from letting out this hysterical, psychotic scream that was bubbling up in my throat.Viktor was standing literal feet away, facing the door like a silent gargoyle.If I made a sound, if I showed him this text, Alexander would know. And if the text was telling the truth—if Alexander really did know Julian was alive this whole time—showing Viktor this phone would be a fatal mistake.I was completely, utterly t

I didn't feel scared anymore. I didn't feel like crying. I didn't even feel the cold air coming through the open balcony door. All I felt was pure, unfiltered, absolute rage. Chloe. My own twin sister. The girl who used to steal my lip gloss and cry when she got a bad grade in high school. She was the one who sold Julian to the mob. She was the reason I spent four years struggling in a crappy apartment, crying myself to sleep, eating ramen while my kid wore hand-me-down shoes. And now she was marching up here to steal my son for a payout? Absolutely freaking not. Not today. Not ever. Alexander didn't even have to tell me to move. I was already sprinting. I ditched my ruined designer heels completely and ran barefoot down the long hallway, my torn silk dress flying behind me. "Viktor, hold the chokepoint at the elevators!" Alexander’s voice boomed behind me. The guy literally had a fresh bullet hole in his chest, but he was barking orders like a five-star general. "Nobody breache

So yeah. That’s how I ended up trapped in a giant, hyper-luxurious bedroom on the top floor of a Manhattan skyscraper like a literal princess in a dark mafia fairy tale. Ngl, if you told me six months ago that I’d be hostage to a gorgeous, psycho billionaire who just took a sniper bullet to the shoulder for me, I would’ve laughed in your face and told you to stop watching so much bad TV. But here I was. It was like three in the morning. The penthouse was dead quiet except for the faint hum of the central air conditioning. Dr. Evans finally packed up his silver silver instruments and left after giving Alexander enough painkillers to put down a full-grown horse. Viktor posted two massive, human-brick-wall guards directly outside the master bedroom doors. You could literally hear their heavy boots shifting every five minutes. Leo was completely knocked out next to me on the massive king bed. My little guy was so exhausted from all the chaos he didn't even wake up when I pulled his s

Make it make sense. Seriously, I need somebody to explain to me how this is real life, because my brain was completely short-circuiting. I’m standing in a freezing cold, hyper-luxurious master bedroom, staring at Viktor’s bruised, bloody knuckles, while he casually explains that my own stepmother is on a mafia payroll. Not just any payroll. Marcus Rossi’s payroll. The guy who ordered a sniper to shoot up a charity gala. The guy who actively wants my husband—fake husband, whatever—dead. And Beatrice took his money. Look, I always knew Beatrice was garbage. Like, literal, bottom-of-the-barrel human trash. When my dad got sick, this woman practically forced me to sleep on a broken metal cot in our cramped laundry room just so she could turn my actual childhood bedroom into a walk-in closet for her counterfeit designer bags. I knew she was greedy. I knew she was toxic. Hell, I already knew she sold me off to Alexander in a marriage contract just to clear her own gambling debts. That