Todos los capítulos de The Plus-Sized Bride No One Wanted: Too Fat to Love : Capítulo 81 - Capítulo 90

~ Ethan ~The clock on my desk said 1:14 in the morning. The house was dead quiet. The only sound was the low hum of my computer fan and the quiet click when I hit the enter key.On the screen, a private folder popped open. Marcus Webb had pulled it straight from the state records cache after what Lily blurted out on the terrace. Lily’s panic had given us a thread to pull. Now, the whole ugly mess was sitting right in front of me in black and white.It was an old bank ledger. For three solid years, Arthur Monroe had been hiding his losses at Monroe Textiles by pushing dirty money through fake vendor accounts. Rows of fake shell companies lit up the monitor. Fake payrolls. Fake warehouses. Fake cloth that never existed. It was basic, dirty cheating, set up to trick the banks into loaning him money he could never pay back.Then I scrolled down to the money coming out of Vance Global, and my stomach completely dropped.A single wire slip took up the middle of the screen.The amount was t

~ Ivy ~The television screen flashed bright blue, cutting across the wooden table in my studio. Maya leaned over my shoulder, pressing her palm flat against the desk."Ivy, look," Maya said, pointing her finger at the screen. "It is happening right now."A news reporter stood outside a tall stone building downtown. In bold black letters at the bottom of the broadcast, the words scrolled past: MONROE TEXTILES BOARD CONVENES EMERGENCY SESSION."Turn the sound up, Maya," I said, my voice steady.She grabbed the small remote and clicked the volume button. The reporter’s voice filled the room, sharp and fast."We have just received word from the corporate offices of Monroe Textiles. By a unanimous emergency vote of the board of directors, Arthur Monroe has been officially removed from his position as Chief Executive Officer. The vote comes less than forty-eight hours after allegations of systemic investor fraud and falsified accounting records were handed to the authorities. The company h

~ Ivy ~The morning news showed the front gates of Monroe Textiles. Yellow tape fluttered in the cold wind, and security guards stood with their arms folded across the company logo. On the next channel, a reporter held a microphone outside the city courthouse, reading the official audit report on Vance Global’s illegal shell accounts.My mother’s face flashed onto the screen. A photographer had caught her leaving her favorite boutique, covering her cheeks with a silk scarf while reporters shouted questions about the missing company funds. For years, she had spent hours choosing the exact shade of lipstick to hide every flaw. Now, the whole city was staring at the fear in her eyes.I turned the television off.The quiet studio in the Riverside Arts Quarter settled around me. The smell of turpentine, wet clay, and fresh acrylic paint filled the air. Rows of stretched canvases leaned against the white brick walls. My hands rested flat on the worktable, steady and still.I had waited mont

~ Ethan ~The iron gates of Knight Manor rattled under a crush of television cameras and shouting reporters.I stood behind the thick curtains of the front parlor, watching the red recording lights flash against the wet gravel driveway. My phone vibrated in my palm for the twelfth time in ten minutes. The name on the screen was the hospital board chairman. Before that, three news anchors had called. Before that, a state prosecutor.My father, stood at the mahogany sideboard, pouring black coffee into a heavy ceramic mug. He moved with the slow, steady calm that had carried our family through forty years of medicine and power. "The security team pushed the vans back to the main road," Richard said, sliding a coffee mug across the marble counter toward me. "They will stay outside the boundary line.""They should not be here at all," I said, my jaw tightening as I set my phone face down on the table. "Ivy is still upstairs. She needs quiet, not a public circus.""The whole city is watc

~ Ivy ~The studio door rattled against its frame. A cold draft leaked through the glass, making the flame on my desk candle dance wildly. My fingers clenched around the wooden handle of my palette knife. For a whole month, every sudden thump made my stomach drop into my shoes. I always expected another police car, another reporter with a flashing camera, or another scream from Chloe Bennett.Footsteps tapped on the garden flagstones outside."Ivy?" a deep voice called through the wood.The knot in my throat dissolved. I set the knife down on a clean rag and pulled the latch open.Ethan stood on the small porch. He wore a heavy black sweater and dark jeans, holding two steaming ceramic mugs. The cool autumn wind ruffled his dark hair, and the evening sky behind him glowed with streaks of orange and dusty purple."You left the porch lamp off," Ethan said softly. He stepped inside, letting the warm air wrap around him."I forgot about it," I answered, shutting the door tight against the