บททั้งหมดของ They Buried Me a Bride. I Returned a CEO: บทที่ 81 - บทที่ 90

George's POVThe weeks following our return from the coast settled into a strange, uneasy rhythm, the immediate danger resolved but the larger war with Alessia clearly still unfolding on multiple fronts at once. The kidnapping charges against the two women moved slowly through the legal system, the financial trail to Alessia's assistant strengthening with each passing week, though the direct connection to Alessia herself remained frustratingly just out of reach.Cora had started asking, in the particular blunt way of a seven-year-old who'd learned enough about the world's dangers to want to understand them better, whether the bad people from the beach were ever going to come back. We'd answered as honestly as we could without frightening her further, explaining that the people who'd tried to hurt her were locked away now, that the adults in her life were working hard to make sure nothing like that ever happened again. She'd seemed satisfied by that, mostly, though I'd noticed her slee

Camila's pov Darian called that afternoon, his voice carrying a quality I hadn't heard from him before, something between nervous anticipation and genuine excitement. "He's ready," he said, without preamble. "Tonight, if you and George can manage it. He wants to meet you both properly."I felt my pulse quicken, months of careful, cautious waiting finally reaching their conclusion. "Tonight works," I said, glancing at George, who'd looked up from his laptop the moment my voice shifted. "Where?""Our place," Darian said. "If that's alright. He said he'd rather meet somewhere that felt like it belonged to the family he's finally stepping into, not somewhere neutral and impersonal."I hung up and relayed everything to George, watching his expression shift through the same complicated mixture of curiosity and cautious hope I felt myself. "Finally," he said quietly. "After everything, we finally get an actual name."Cora was already asleep by the time the doorbell rang that evening, Ruth h

Camila's povPriya called an emergency strategy session the moment Darian relayed Selena's willingness to testify, her office filling quickly with the particular controlled urgency that had come to define so many of our meetings over this past year. She'd already begun coordinating with the district attorney's office, laying the groundwork for criminal charges that extended far beyond anything the custody case alone could have accomplished."This changes everything," Priya said, spreading documents across her desk with practiced efficiency. "We're not just looking at custody sanctions anymore. With Selena's testimony about the blackmail and coercion, combined with the financial evidence connecting her to the kidnapping attempt, and Darian's testimony about Alessia's own admissions, we have a case for conspiracy, extortion, and attempted murder charges.""Attempted murder," George repeated. "For the poisoning.""The toxicologist's report already established the pattern was deliberate a

Darian's povMy mother's house looked different when I arrived that evening, quieter somehow, fewer staff moving through the lit windows than I remembered from even a few weeks earlier. Word had apparently already spread, the particular exodus that always accompanied a powerful person's fall from favor already beginning to thin the ranks of people willing to be publicly associated with her.She was in the study, as always, though tonight she looked smaller somehow, seated behind the desk that had witnessed decades of careful, calculated family maneuvering, now apparently unable to fully protect her from the consequences finally closing in around her."You've been busy," she said, not looking up as I entered. "CEO now. Quite the promotion, given how recently you were testifying against me in a custody hearing.""I earned it," I said, sitting down across from her, refusing to let her careful, cutting tone unsettle the composure I'd been building toward this conversation for days. "The b

George's povTwo weeks after the arrest, Elias invited Camila and me to dinner, a small, quiet gathering that he explained, somewhat nervously, would include his mother. "I want you to meet her," he said, over the phone. "Properly. She's wanted to meet the people who helped finally bring some justice to what happened to our family, but I also think it would mean a great deal to her to simply be acknowledged by people connected to the Baldore name who actually see her as family, rather than an inconvenience."We arrived at Elias's apartment that Saturday evening, a modest, comfortable space that felt worlds away from the careful, curated grandeur of the Baldore estate, and found Adriana already there, a woman in her early sixties with the same watchful stillness I recognized from her son, though softened by decades of a life built entirely outside the family that had erased her existence."Thank you for coming," she said, her handshake warm despite an evident nervousness. "Elias has to