All Chapters of The CEO'S Vengeful marriage: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The news, when I finally forced myself to check it at six in the morning, wasn't the disaster I had feared all night.A single blurry photo of Lily leaving her dormitory, a caption calling her "the mysterious Vance sister" with a few cruel guesses about her love life. Ugly, invasive, embarrassing. But not the ruin I had braced for after that text message. I called her immediately, and she answered sounding more annoyed than afraid, more worried about a professor seeing the photo than anything Julian could actually do to her."People have called me worse things than mysterious," she said dryly. "I'm fine, Elara. Stop worrying so much, you're going to give yourself gray hair before you turn twenty six."I let myself breathe for the first time in what felt like days."I still want the guard outside your building," I said."Fine. But tell him to stop glaring at my study group. He's scaring off potential friends."I laughed despite myself, a real laugh, the first one in longer than I wante

The days after the cemetery blurred together in a strange, quiet rhythm, equal parts fear and something gentler I hadn't expected to find underneath it.Marcus doubled the security around the penthouse without a word of explanation to me, extra cameras installed along the hallway, a new guard stationed near the private elevator around the clock. Nobody mentioned Kael by name in front of me again, though I understood without asking that his shadow now sat over every decision made inside these walls.But alongside the fear, something else had begun happening too, small and quiet enough that I almost missed it at first.I noticed the vitamins on Tuesday morning, a neat orange bottle sitting beside my coffee mug, prenatal formula, the same brand my doctor had mentioned in passing during our appointment weeks ago. I hadn't bought them myself. I hadn't asked anyone to.I said nothing. Neither did Damian, though I caught him watching me from across the kitchen island when I swallowed the fir

Marcus called back within twenty minutes, his voice clipped and fast over the speaker."I've got him. He didn't get far. His car wouldn't start, some kind of fuel line issue, and by the time he popped the hood to look, I was already standing behind him.""Is he cooperating?" Damian asked, already pulling on his coat."He's scared," Marcus said. "Scared enough that I don't think we need to force anything out of him. Get down here before he changes his mind and calls a lawyer instead of talking to us."---We found Vale sitting in the back of Marcus's car outside the parking garage, his tailored suit rumpled, his face pale under the streetlights. The briefcase sat open on the seat beside him, and even from the doorway I could see the edge of cash bundled inside, along with a slim folder of documents and a passport that wasn't his own name."Mr. Vale," Damian said, sliding into the seat across from him, his voice deceptively calm. "You've had an eventful evening."Vale's hands trembled s

"Absolutely not," I said, holding up two paint swatches like weapons. "This one looks like a hospital hallway. This one looks like something died in it."Damian squinted at the swatches from across the small, unused room down the hall from our bedroom, a room we had started, tentatively, cautiously, to think of as something other than empty storage space."They're both called Serene Mist," he said. "How can two paints with the same name look so different?""Because paint companies lie, Damian. It's their entire business model."He crossed the room and took the swatches from my hands, holding them up to the light with the same intense focus he probably gave to million dollar contracts, which struck me as so absurd that a laugh escaped me before I could stop it."What?" he asked, glancing at me."Nothing," I said, still grinning. "It's just strange, watching the Devil of Manhattan agonize over paint samples like they're a hostile takeover.""This is more complicated than most takeovers,

Victoria chose a small, quiet tea room two blocks from Thorne Tower for our meeting, tucked away enough that no photographer would think to look for either of us there."You look exhausted," she said, sliding into the seat across from me, studying my face with something that looked genuinely close to concern."It's been a difficult week.""I heard about your sister." Victoria's voice softened. "The paint swatch. That's the kind of thing that keeps people awake for a very long time.""How did you hear about that already?""I make it my business to hear things," she said simply. "It's mostly how I've survived in circles like ours my whole life." She wrapped both hands around her teacup, her expression turning serious. "I actually asked you here because I found something I think matters."I leaned forward. "What is it?""The staffing agency Thorne Tower uses for housekeeping and maintenance," Victoria said. "Sterling Domestic Services. My family used to use them too, years ago, before my