All Chapters of The Billionaire DNA Match: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

[Emily]He was gone. Elias Lockwood had returned to New York, and the office felt different without him. I couldn't explain it, but the air felt lighter. People moved more freely, and conversations happened at normal volumes. The executive floor no longer felt like a forbidden area.But I couldn't stop thinking about him.Monday night, I lay awake staring at the ceiling, replaying every conversation we'd had in my head. The day he'd spoken to me in Tasha's office. The way he'd cornered me at the launch, demanding to know why I hated him.What would he have done if I'd told him? If I'd said, "I've been afraid of you for six years, and I hate you because I watched you murder a man in front of me, the first time I'd been exposed to so much violence."Would those blue eyes have gone cold? Or would he have looked at me with confusion and said, "What? That wasn't me?"I rolled and grabbed my phone. The time read 2:47 a.m. I typed his name into the Google search bar for what felt like the hu

[Emily]One week, seven days of packing, planning, and explaining to a tearful six-year-old why Mommy had to go away for a while."I don't want you to go," Hayden had wailed the night before my flight, his small arms locked around my neck with surprising strength. "Two weeks is too long. That's like… that's like a hundred days!""It's fourteen days." I'd corrected gently, then kissed his wet cheeks. "I don't want to leave you either, but this is the only option. Don't worry, dear. I'll video call you every single night. I promise."Mary had stood in the doorway, her expression soft with understanding. "Don't you worry about this little man. We'll have so much fun he won't even notice you're gone."We both knew that was a lie. Hayden would notice; I would notice, every second of every day.I hugged him, kissed him on the cheek and whispered, "I love him," to which he returned before leaving.But this was for the best. My time in New York would be chaos, and I'd barely have time for him

[Emily]I blinked at him, caught off guard by the edge in his voice. "That's a rather cynical thing to say about someone who's dedicated his life to helping sick children, Mr Lockwood."Elias's expression didn't change, but something shifted in his eyes. A flicker of something I couldn't name. "I'm not questioning his work. The Connor Foundation does excellent things. But the man himself…" He trailed off, then shook his head slightly. "Never mind. Forget I said anything.""No, sir." The word came out before I could stop it. "You can't just say something and then tell me to forget it. What do you mean?"He leaned back in his chair, studying me with those impossibly blue eyes. For a long moment, he said nothing, and I found myself noticing things I'd never let myself notice before. The way the afternoon light caught the silver threading through his dark hair. The slight shadow along his jaw, as if he hadn't shaved as carefully this morning. The way his shoulders seemed to carry a weight

[Emily]The first week in New York passed in a blur of meetings and hospital visits. I sat with administrators who asked endless questions about NEXUS, with doctors who wanted to understand the technology, and with parents who wanted to know if this machine could save their children. Those conversations stayed with me the longest. The hope in their eyes, the desperate grasping for anything that might help.And through it all, Elias Lockwood was a constant but quiet presence, one that could be compared to a fly on exposed food. And somehow we'd gotten… closer. Were we though? Would you count dropping someone off at the hotel they were staying at as close? You could, but if you end up sitting in awkward silence until you get down, then maybe not.He didn't hover over me or interfere overwhelmingly. It's just that he was always there. Did the man have nothing to do? He was always there during the briefing, and he'd occasionally appear at my temporary desk where he'd had them set up for m

[Elias]"A Truce? What truce?" She'd asked as if that didn't explain why we were standing face to face on a sidewalk with no glare on her petite face. Did she know that his eyebrows pulled together in a way that was both annoying and, I dare say, cute, in the past? By past, I mean about two weeks ago, if not more. "I say truce because you're not glaring at me as you used to."She scoffed, "Ha, I do not glare at you, Mr Lockwood.""Elias, call me Elias," I said instead, deciding to let the matter rest. She rocked her gently, and I noticed how she was trying to create more space between us. "You should go in then," I said, and hesitantly took a step back before I did anything stupid."Uh, Yes. Goodnight, Mr—Elias." I watched her disappear into the hotel lobby, the glass doors sliding shut behind her, and stood there like an idiot for a full minute after she'd gone.What the hell was that? Why the hell did I touch her? I'd almost kissed her. I'd wanted to kiss her more than anything