Semua Bab FAT, BARREN, AND REJECTED: Bab 61 - Bab 70

ELLA’S POV“Absolutely not.” Jason’s voice carried a firmness I recognized immediately as protective rather than dismissive, though the distinction did little to soften my own determination. “The council can manage the press response. You don’t need to expose yourself directly, especially not now, with Sherwood clearly willing to escalate however necessary.”“That’s exactly why I need to do this myself.” I kept my voice steady, though I understood his concern came from genuine care rather than any desire to control me the way Sherwood once had. “Every response so far has come from the council, from your formal statements, from lawyers managing damage on my behalf. People are reading a story about me without ever hearing my own voice included in it. That’s exactly the dynamic that let Sherwood’s original lies about our marriage take root so thoroughly, all those months ago. I won’t let it happen the same way twice.”We stood in his study, the morning after the second scandal’s fallout

ELLA’S POVThe weeks that followed the press conference settled into something I hadn’t quite dared to hope for—a fragile, hard-won peace, built through shared crisis rather than despite it.Jason and I found ourselves, almost without deciding to, developing a rhythm together that felt considerably more natural than the careful, guarded dynamic of our earliest weeks. He included me in the ongoing efforts to identify the mysterious conglomerate threatening Silvermoon’s stability, valuing my perspective on financial records and business strategy in a way that made me feel genuinely useful rather than simply protected. I found myself, in turn, sharing pieces of my own history more freely than I had with anyone since before my marriage to Sherwood—the business I’d built in the human world, the quiet satisfaction of proving myself capable entirely on my own terms, the loneliness that had underscored even my proudest accomplishments during that year of exile.“You built all of that alone,

ELLA’S POVI hadn’t fully processed how close we’d come to real disaster until the adrenaline finally faded, leaving behind a hollow, shaking exhaustion that settled into my body sometime during the quiet hours after Jason’s admission about the message’s connection to our unnamed corporate rival.I sat curled in the window seat of our shared quarters that evening, one hand resting against my stomach, replaying the drive’s final moments over and over—the sudden, sickening lurch as the brakes failed to respond, the driver’s controlled panic as he wrestled the emergency brake into action, the terrifying seconds where I genuinely believed, with total clarity, that I might lose everything in a single moment of mechanical betrayal.We had been so careful. Full security detail, a driver Jason trusted completely, a vehicle inspected regularly as a matter of routine protocol. And still, somehow, someone had reached through all of that careful protection to tamper with the one thing standing be

ELLA’S POVThe babies. That’s what this has always actually been about.Jason’s words echoed through my mind long after he’d relayed the interrogation’s horrifying conclusion, settling into my chest with a terror considerably sharper than anything Sherwood’s cruelty or Chloe’s opportunism had ever managed to inspire in me.“I want you somewhere safer,” Jason said, pacing the length of our quarters with barely restrained agitation, the composed authority he usually carried replaced now by raw, protective fear. “A secure location, away from Silvermoon entirely, until we understand exactly who we’re dealing with and exactly how they intend to move against the children.”“No.” The word came out of me immediately, with a certainty that surprised even myself given the fear currently gripping my chest.“Ella, someone was just murdered inside a secure holding facility to prevent information about a threat against our children from reaching me.” His voice carried genuine desperation now, a raw

ELLA’S POVJason relayed the full conversation with Vivienne that evening, his voice carrying a weary heaviness I understood came from carrying yet another layer of his family’s buried history, this time with consequences considerably more dangerous than anything we’d uncovered before.“Thirty years,” I said slowly, processing the full timeline of Damian Cross’s patient, methodical grudge. “He’s been planning this for thirty years, and it’s only now, because of us, that he’s finally decided to act on it.”“Not because of us specifically,” Jason said, though I could hear him working through the same uncomfortable logic I was already turning over. “I think the scandal simply gave him an opening. A moment when Silvermoon looked vulnerable enough, distracted enough, for him to finally move without excessive risk to himself.”“That’s almost worse,” I said quietly. “Knowing we didn’t cause this, but that our own crisis handed him exactly the opportunity he’d apparently been waiting decades