All Chapters of The CEO'S Vengeful marriage: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

I woke up to the smell of ginger tea, which was strange, because I had never once asked for ginger tea in this apartment.I padded into the kitchen in my pajamas, rubbing my eyes, and found a mug sitting on the counter, still steaming. Beside it, a small plate of dry crackers. Nothing else. No note. No explanation.I stared at it for a long moment.Ginger tea and crackers were exactly what I needed after two mornings of nausea. I hadn't told a single person about the nausea except Sofia, and Sofia wasn't the type to sneak into a billionaire's kitchen and leave breakfast."Chef made too much," Damian said from the doorway, not looking up from his phone. "Figured it shouldn't go to waste.""You don't even like ginger tea," I said carefully."I don't." He finally glanced up. His face gave away nothing. "Drink it before it gets cold."He walked out before I could ask another question.I sat down slowly and wrapped my hands around the warm mug. My stomach, which had been rolling since I op

Arthur survived the night.The doctors called it a stress event, not a full cardiac arrest, and by morning his heart rate had settled enough that they moved him out of critical monitoring. He was sleeping when I left his room, exhausted from the ordeal, and I hadn't been able to ask him another single question before a nurse insisted I let him rest.I hadn't slept at all. I sat in a plastic chair in the hallway until sunrise, replaying his words over and over.There's another Vance. He's closer than you think.Do not trust the man standing outside that door.I didn't know what to do with any of it. Marcus had said nothing to me since the night before, and Damian had been locked in phone calls with lawyers and security since six in the morning, too consumed with protecting my father to notice that I had gone completely silent beside him.By nine, I had made up my mind. I couldn't sit and wait for someone else to hand me the truth. I needed to go straight to the one person who had lied

Neither of us slept.By six in the morning, Damian had already called Elena Rostova, his lawyer, the only person outside this apartment he trusted enough to bring into something this fragile. She arrived before seven, sharp suited even at that hour, her dark hair pulled back tight, a leather folder tucked under one arm like she'd already guessed this wasn't a social visit."You said this was urgent," she said, setting the folder down on the kitchen counter. "You didn't say it was about Marcus.""You know something," Damian said. It wasn't a question.Elena's eyes flicked to me, then back to him. "I know that sealed court records don't stay sealed forever if you know which judge to ask. Give me a day. Maybe two." She paused. "Whatever this is, Damian, tread carefully. If Marcus really is connected to Arthur Vance, and he's kept it hidden for eight years, there's a reason. People don't bury a truth like that unless they're protecting someone, or afraid of someone.""Or both," I said qui

The drive to Lily's campus took twenty three minutes. It felt like three hours.Damian sat beside me in the back seat, one hand gripping mine so tightly it almost hurt, the other pressed to his phone as Marcus fed him updates from the car ahead of us. I stared out the window at the city blurring past, my mind spinning through every terrible possibility Julian's words had planted there.Anyone could walk right up to a dormitory building unannounced."She's probably just in class," Damian said, though his voice didn't sound entirely convinced either. "Phones die. Signal drops in old buildings. This doesn't mean anything happened.""You don't believe that any more than I do."He didn't answer. He didn't have to. His silence told me everything.---We reached the dormitory just as Marcus was climbing out of the car ahead of us, already speaking to a campus security guard who looked thoroughly confused by the sudden appearance of two black SUVs outside a college building on a Tuesday after

Marcus caught my eye across the café and went very still, like a man who knew exactly what he'd been caught doing."Marcus." Damian's voice was low, controlled in that dangerous way that meant he was holding himself back from something worse. "Explain. Now."Marcus set down the menu he'd never intended to order from and crossed the small distance between our tables, his jaw tight, his eyes flicking once toward the door before settling on us."I followed you," he said simply. "I know I wasn't asked to. I know the message said to come without security. I made the decision on my own.""Someone in this café knew that too," I said, my voice shaking. "They knew you were here before I ever turned around and saw you."Marcus's face paled slightly. "Someone's watching this meeting.""Or someone in this meeting is watching us," Damian said, his eyes scanning the room again, sharper this time.I looked down at my phone, still open to the last message. My thumbs moved fast.Are you still there? H