Alle Kapitel von The Billionaire's Chosen Bride: Kapitel 1 – Kapitel 5

The machine beside her father's bed beeped in a slow, steady rhythm. Layla had memorized that sound over the past week. She could hear it in her sleep now.A nurse slipped in to check his vitals, jotted something on a clipboard, and gave Layla a small, tired smile on her way out. It was the kind of smile that didn't promise anything. Layla had learned to stop looking for promises in it."You should go home," her father said. His voice had gone thin, but there was still warmth in it."I'm fine, Baba.""You have been here every night.""Where else would I be?"He tried to smile, and it cost him something. She saw it in the way his breath caught. "Sleeping in your own bed. Taking care of your sister and brother.""Mrs. Alvarez is watching them. They're fine.""Layla." He said her name the way he always did when he wanted her full attention. "You cannot carry everyone forever."She didn't answer that. She reached for the paper cup on his tray table instead and helped him take a sip of wat

The flight from London had taken seven hours, and Ethan Harrington had spent every one of them working. Contracts. Term sheets. A due diligence report his team had chased for four months. By the time the car pulled up outside Harrington Group's Manhattan headquarters, the deal was finally signed, and he hadn't slept more than a handful of hours in three days.He didn't feel it. He never let himself feel it, not during business hours.Daniel Brooks was waiting for him in the lobby, two coffees in hand, one of which he passed over without being asked."You look like hell," Daniel said."Good morning to you too.""I'm serious. When's the last time you slept in an actual bed?""Define recently." Ethan took the coffee and started toward the elevators, Daniel falling into step beside him the way he had for the past twelve years, ever since business school, ever since the two of them had built half of Harrington Group's current strategy over late nights and cheap takeout."The London deal cl

Three weeks after the funeral, Layla's life had settled into a rhythm that left almost no room for grief, which she suspected was the entire point of staying this busy.Mornings belonged to Mrs. Chen's twins, two eleven-year-olds who needed help with math homework before school and paid better than Layla had expected for the privilege. Afternoons belonged to the accounting firm downtown, three days a week, part-time work that kept her skills sharp even as it paid barely enough to matter. Evenings, when she had the energy left for them, belonged to a second tutoring client near Grand Regent Hotel, a task that required crossing half the city on the subway after a full day already behind her.She was crossing that half of the city now, moving fast down a crowded sidewalk near the hotel's entrance, her bag heavy with textbooks she hadn't had time to return to the library.She almost missed the commotion entirely.A small crowd had gathered near the hotel's grand entrance, the kind of crow