Semua Bab The Antidote To His Ruin : Bab 1 - Bab 10

Suzan’s POVThe double doors of the grand library were left slightly ajar, a thin sliver of warm, amber light cutting across the dark hallway of the Sterling estate.I stopped dead in my tracks, the porcelain teacup in my hands rattling against its saucer. I had only come downstairs to get some hot water to soothe my restless stomach, a stomach that had been turning with a faint, persistent nausea for the past week."You are throwing away a diamond for a piece of glass, Draven!" Grandma Eleanor’s voice was uncharacteristically sharp, echoing with fierce disappointment. I had never heard her speak to her grandson with such venom."Suzan is a brilliant, gentle girl," Eleanor continued, her cane tapping aggressively against the hardwood floor. "She has stood by you for two years, endured your absolute neglect, and protected this family's reputation while you treated her like a ghost in her own home! How can you stand there and tell me you want to end this?"I held my breath, my chest tig

Suzan’s POVFive years later.The coastal winds of Spruce Harbor, Maine, were relentless, but they no longer cold-shouldered me. For five years, the salt air had been my sanctuary, a place where the noise of New York and the suffocating shadow of the Sterling name couldn't reach me.In this quiet haven, I had shed the skin of the neglected, broken wife. To the scientific community and the global market, I was no longer Suzan Roland. I had legally taken my late mother’s maiden name.I was Dr. Suzan Wells.And right now, Dr. Suzan Wells was the most sought-after woman in the pharmaceutical world.My breakthrough, the Wells Targeted Delivery Protocol, had done what no other research team in the world could achieve. It was a highly specialized cellular delivery system that could safely transport cancer-destroying agents directly to tumors without destroying healthy tissue. It was a medical miracle, the very same research Draven had once dismissed as "clumsy" on the night of the gala."Mo

Suzan’s POV"S-Suzan?"The sound of my name on his lips was raw, fractured, and heavy with a disbelief that vibrated off the high glass walls of the boardroom. Draven took a sudden, unstable step forward, his knuckles white as his large hands gripped the edge of the mahogany table. His dark grey eyes, the exact, terrifyingly familiar shade of my daughter’s, searched my face with a frantic, wild intensity, as if trying to tear through reality itself to prove I was a phantom constructed by his own crumbling mind."No... that's... that's impossible," he rasped out, his chest heaving under the crisp white linen of his dress shirt. "Where have you, where were you? I searched... God, Suzan, I searched for months. The police, the private investigators, the car service..."I didn't flinch. I didn't step back. I didn't let a single flicker of emotion breach the calm, impenetrable surface of my eyes.Five years ago, a whisper like that from Draven Sterling would have brought me to my knees. It

Draven's POV I used to hate her with a fervor that bordered on disease.Seven years ago, on the night I placed a five-carat diamond on Suzan Roland’s finger, I didn't see a bride. I saw a venomous, calculating monster wrapped in white lace, i’m using to secure my place as the heir.I remembered every detail of our wedding night. I had walked into the penthouse suite, my blood boiling with a toxic cocktail of alcohol and disgust, throwing the thick folder onto the bedsheets between us. The photos, crude, humiliating, compromising, and the chat logs Cassandra had tearfully handed me days before."Look at them, Suzan!" I had sneered back then, grabbing her jaw, feeling her tremble beneath my hands like a terrified bird. "Cassandra wept in my arms, begging me not to cancel this wedding because she didn't want our families ruined. You bullied her, you tormented her, you slept around just to spite her, and now you sit there wearing a saint's expression!"I had locked her away. I turned ou

Suzan’s POV"Lead the way to the research lab, Mr. Sterling," I said coldly, tucking a stray curl behind my ear and keeping my eyes fixed straight ahead. "I want to inspect the Phase II clinical equipment before the end of the business day."Draven didn't move for three agonizing seconds. I could feel his heavy, suffocating gaze burning into the side of my face, practically vibrating with a thousand desperate questions he was forcing himself to hold back."This way," he finally rasped, his voice rough and uneven.We walked side by side down the glass-lined corridor, our footsteps echoing in a tense, rhythmic cadence. The silence between us was an active force, heavy with the weight of five missing years, secret tears, and a little girl with steel-gray eyes. Every instinct in my body warned me to keep my distance, but my pulse betrayed me, hammering wildly against my ribs simply because he was standing within reach.When we stepped into the state-of-the-art Sterling laboratory, the coo