บททั้งหมดของ The Trapped Heiress: บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

She swallowed hard. "Yours." The room suddenly felt suffocating. "That's the problem, Noah."Her voice trembled now, not from fear but from heartbreak."No matter what happens, they are your people."She placed her hand against her chest. "And somehow I always end up being the outsider in my own company that was established by my father and me."Noah's expression shifted slightly; for the first time, uncertainty flickered in his eyes.But Laurel was already speaking; months of pain were finally spilling out. "When Sherry needed help, you were there." When the Hamiltons needed contracts, you found a way.""When your pack needed support, you moved mountains."Her eyes locked onto his. "But when it comes to me...” Her voice broke, just for a second. "...you believe strangers before you believe your own wife."The accusation hung between them, heavy, unavoidable.Laurel felt tears burning behind her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.She had cried enough over Noah, enough over Sherry

Laurel walked into the company lobby, badge already in hand, mind still replaying the warmth of Wyatt's smirk from lunch. She noticed the stares almost immediately, heads turning, whispers dying the moment she passed, and eyes darting away when she caught them. Her jaw tightened, but she kept her chin high.Let them talk. It's just yesterday's gossip. It will die down.She reached the lobby and swiped her card. A red light blinked back at her. She frowned and tried again, pressing it more firmly against the sensor, as if the problem were her own hand and not the machine.Denied, again."That's strange," she muttered, more to herself than anyone, and glanced up to find the security guard, a man she had personally approved for hire two years ago, who had always greeted her with a cheerful "good morning, ma'am," now refusing to meet her eyes."Daniel?" she said, his name coming out uncertain. "My card isn't working. Can you let me through?""I—" He swallowed, glancing anxiously toward th

The word landed in his chest like a physical blow, and beneath it came a second wave, uglier and sharper: he had done this. His hands actually itched with the urge to strike himself, to knock some sense into his skull for every cruel word, every humiliation, every time he had chosen Sherry's fragile feelings over his wife's dignity.He had pushed her to that point, and he had no one else to blame. His chest heaved, each breath dragging in and out like it had to fight its way past something lodged there. Inside him, his wolf roared up with a fury Noah had rarely felt it turn on himself before, snarling, vicious, and utterly disgusted with the man wearing its skin. Heartless, it spat at him. She is our mate, our wife, and you let this happen to her. There was no arguing with it. Noah didn't even try."Why wasn't I told the moment it happened?" His voice came out low and dangerous, barely leashed, more growl than words by the end of the sentence.Talon didn't flinch, though Noah heard th

Laurel had built the company from nothing; as before, she took over. It was a modest local operation her father left behind, a company that, before her, had never once looked past its own borders. She was the one who had pushed it outward, market by market, deal by deal, until it stood as one of the most respected names to come out of the region. After their marriage, and after their two names became legally tied to the same ventures, he had thrown his own resources and ambition behind it, expanding it further than even she might have managed alone, five countries in a year and a half. It was an extraordinary achievement, and it belonged to both of them exactly as much as it belonged to neither of them, built on her vision and both their labor.He had a company of his own; after all, his family's business was built on herbal medicine and fine linens, respected and profitable within werewolf territory and a handful of Asian markets, pulling in more than five hundred million a year with

She listened to her mother's footsteps fade down the hallway before she finally shut off the water and stepped out, wrapping herself in a towel that did nothing to stop the trembling still running just beneath her skin.She caught her reflection in the mirror and stopped.Her eyes were red-rimmed, swollen at the edges in a way no amount of concealer would fully hide, evidence of exactly how long she had stood under that water doing far more crying than washing. She splashed cold water over her face, again and again, until some of the redness eased and her breathing steadied into something more manageable.Then she made herself look into the mirror. The woman staring back at her had changed drastically after the sixteen months of self-exile, with sharper brows around the eyes and a steadier jaw, nothing at all like the girl who had once let people walk over her, who had shrunk herself smaller and smaller inside her own marriage until there had been almost nothing left of her to find."