Home / Romance / Touched by the Billionaire, Owned by the Devil / Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

All Chapters of Touched by the Billionaire, Owned by the Devil: Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

157 Chapters

131

Gideon turned the deadbolt of the front door, and threw his keys on the side table. The court bag slid from my shoulder onto the nearest chair. I went straight to the kitchen and filled a glass with water. My hands still had a slight tremor, and the tight band across my lower back hadn't let up since we left the courthouse. I drank half the glass and rested my free hand on the counter until it steadied. Footsteps came up behind me. "You want to sit?" Elias filled a second glass and set it beside mine. "In a minute." Gideon came back from the hallway and checked the street through the blind. "Security will keep the extra passes going for the rest of the day. After that they scale back unless something new appears." I nodded. The words landed differently today. The threat hadn't vanished, but it no longer filled every corner of the house. My phone buzzed on the counter and David's message lit up the screen. The written order will be available by the end of the day. Elias gla

Last Updated : 2026-09-16

132

The phone buzzed against the table while I was still holding my tea. I set the mug down and turned the screen over. 'The judge has formally referred the bribery evidence to the criminal authorities. The laboratory is preparing its own civil claim against Shane for unauthorised use of their trademark stamp on the forged report. I'll update as soon as charges are filed.' - David The civil ruling had been about my case. The bribery evidence had been argued in my hearing, by my lawyer, against my husband. This was different. The judge had taken what came out of that room and handed it to someone else. Elias stopped slicing the apple and looked over. "What is it?" I handed him the phone instead of answering. He wiped his hands on his jeans and read it, his eyes moving down the screen twice before he looked up. "The judge referred it." "The bribery evidence." He handed the phone back. "The matter of cash, the footage, the statements, and the forged report material. That goes to t

Last Updated : 2026-09-17

133

“It’s David, he is calling.” Elias answered and put the phone on speaker between us. Gideon leaned against the counter with his arms crossed, listening. "Shane was formally charged this morning." David's voice came through the speaker. "Bribery and related offences connected to the forged report. The laboratory filed its civil claim an hour later. They're seeking damages for unauthorised use of their trademark stamp and reputational harm. Both matters are now public." I lowered myself into the nearest chair. The edge of it caught me before I realized I'd been standing. "So he's officially been charged." "Yes. I wanted you to hear it from me before you saw anything online." Elias leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "How strong is the case?" "Strong. The footage, cash records, timing, witness evidence, and the laboratory's documentation all support each other. The forged report is also creating a separate problem for him now that the laboratory has formally denied authorising it

Last Updated : 2026-09-18

134

The house key felt different in my hand when we stopped outside the old apartment. I'd carried it for months without using it, and now I fitted it into the lock while Elias stood beside me and Gideon waited a few steps back near the stairwell. The key turned. I pushed the door open. Nothing had changed enough to make the place unfamiliar. The same couch sat against the wall, the small table stayed near the window, and dust had gathered over everything. It looked almost exactly as I'd left it, except smaller than the version that had lived in my head. Elias followed me inside. Gideon stayed near the doorway, hands in his pockets, watching the hallway behind us more than the room in front of him. "You can come in," I said. "I know." He didn't move. I went straight to the bedroom and opened the wardrobe. The clothes I hadn't taken were still there, and on the shelf above them sat the folder with my school certificate and a few papers I'd forgotten about. I checked the certificate f

Last Updated : 2026-09-19

135

The printout was already on the kitchen table when I came down, and Gideon was standing over it with his coffee. "David sent the summary, it arrived before you woke up." He pushed it toward me across the table. "Shane was convicted this morning on the bribery and related charges. The laboratory's claim was cited in the sentencing notes. He's been sentenced." I picked it up. Three years for the bribery count. Eighteen months for the forged report. Running concurrently. I read it twice before I set it back down. "Three years." "That's the minimum for what he was charged with." Gideon poured a second coffee and set it beside my hand. "David says it could have been longer, but his counsel argued for the lower range. The lab's claim and the forged report both worked against him." Elias came in from the hallway with his jacket still on. He saw the paper in my hand and stopped. "David called?" "Sent the summary." Gideon pushed the coffee cup closer to me. Elias took the print

Last Updated : 2026-09-20

136

Shane was already at the table when they brought us in, dressed in a grey uniform with his hands folded in front of him. The visiting room smelled of disinfectant and old coffee. He looked thinner than I remembered, and his hair had been cut short. His eyes went to me, then Elias, then Gideon, lingering on him before returning to me. We sat. Elias took the chair on my right, close enough that his knee rested against mine beneath the table. Gideon stayed near the wall behind us, arms folded. Shane leaned back in his chair. "You brought both of them." My hands stayed flat on the table. "I did." "Why?" I reached into my jacket pocket and set the ring on the table between us. The metal clicked against the surface. "Found it at the apartment. I'm returning it." He stared at the ring. His jaw tightened briefly before he looked up again. "You came all the way here for that?" "I wanted to give it back myself." His eyes shifted to Elias. "And you needed an audience." Elias ke

Last Updated : 2026-09-21

137

By the time we walked back into the house, I was expecting the feeling from the prison to follow me through the door. It didn't. I set my bag down in the kitchen and stood there for a moment, listening to the ordinary sounds around me. The house hadn't changed. The same rooms, the same people, the same unfinished pieces of the day. Somehow none of them felt like they were waiting for something to go wrong. Elias took off his jacket and hung it over the back of a chair. "Tea?" "Please." He went to the kettle. Gideon came in from the hall, tossed his keys on the side table, and opened the refrigerator. "I've decided we're having eggs." I looked over. "That's one very strong decision for someone who doesn’t asked what anyone wants, and goes on with his plans anyway." "You're welcome to object." "I'd rather see what happens, because I know you will not stop then." Gideon gave me a look before taking the carton out. "That's usually how people end up eating my cooking."

Last Updated : 2026-09-22

138

The landlady checked the number on the key, nodded once, and dropped it into a drawer. "Place is clear. Deposit will be processed by the end of the week.""Thank you."She reached for the next file before I'd stepped away from the desk, already halfway through a sentence to someone on the phone pressed against her shoulder. The office was small and warm and smelled faintly of cigarettes somebody had smoked twenty years ago and never aired out. A calendar on the wall was still turned to the wrong month. I let the door close behind me and headed outside.Gideon was waiting on the pavement with his phone in his hand. He slipped it into his pocket when he saw me and fell into step beside me without asking how it went, which was how I knew he'd been standing there the whole time."You didn't have to come in for that.""It's all right. I was already here." I adjusted the strap of my bag and glanced at him. "I had something else to do while we were out anyway."He kept his hands in his pocke

Last Updated : 2026-09-23

139

The waiting room had that particular smell that clinics have. Antiseptic and paper and the faint trace of someone's coffee going cold. Elias had taken the chair beside mine and stretched his legs out until his feet almost reached the opposite row. He'd picked up a magazine from the table without checking what it was, and he'd been on the same page for ten minutes. "You're not reading that." "I'm looking at the pictures." "There aren't any pictures." He turned the page. "That's what makes it interesting." I laughed and shifted in my seat. The chairs were the kind that looked padded and weren't, and my back had been complaining about them since we sat down. I leaned forward, then back, then gave up and let my hands rest on my stomach. Elias noticed. He put the magazine on the table and turned toward me. "Do you want me to ask if there's a different chair?" "It's a chair. I'll survive." "I could ask." "You could also read your magazine." "I was reading it." "You we

Last Updated : 2026-09-24

140

Michael was halfway through explaining why a bakery box counted as proper food when I put my glass down “Micheal,” Just his name. He stopped talking and turned to me, the air around the room shifted. Lena looked up from her wine. Derek froze with a piece of brownie halfway to his mouth. The flat went quiet the way rooms do when someone changes the temperature without raising their voice. "He used to hit me," I said. Nobody moved. "I left him months ago. I've been living at Gideon's since then. Everything I've been doing at Vale, the hours, the schedule, the way I never talk about home, was me trying to keep working while I figured out how to stay standing." Michael set the box down on the table and pushed it away from himself like it had done something wrong. Derek found his voice first. "How long?" "The whole time I've been here. Before that too." "How many times?" I didn't answer straight away. Lena turned her glass in her hands and waited, and the clock on th

Last Updated : 2026-09-25

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