The Billionaire Fell For The Widower のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 101 - チャプター 110

Vivienne stood frozen at the bottom of the cellar stairs for a long moment, the portrait still clutched in her trembling hands, before the detective's voice finally cut through the fog settling over her."Ms. Kingston." His tone was gentle but firm, pulling her back to the present. "I understand this is a lot to absorb at once. But I need to move on the arrest warrant now, before Patience has any chance to disappear again. We can address everything else once she's in custody."Vivienne blinked, forcing herself to surface from the shock, and nodded slowly. "You're right. Go. I'll deal with the rest of this after."Lucas squeezed her hand gently. "Are you sure?""I have to be." Vivienne exhaled shakily, setting the portrait down carefully on the small table, resolve hardening beneath the residual shock. "Patience has caused enough damage. I want her behind bars before she has the chance to run, or destroy anything else, or hurt one more person who never deserved it."The detective nodde

The problem, Lucas discovered quickly, was that planning a surprise for a woman who'd spent the last several months learning to trust nobody's schedule but her own required a level of coordination that made Kingston Holdings' financial audit look simple by comparison."She wants to sit in on every single meeting now," he told Chloe over a hurried phone call, ducking into a stairwell between appointments. "Ever since Patience's arrest, she's been determined to personally review every account, every transaction, every name connected to the fraud investigation. I love that about her. I also cannot get five uninterrupted minutes to call the florist.""Then we work around her schedule instead of against it," Chloe said, entirely unbothered. "When does she actually leave your side?""Board meetings, mostly. She still won't let me sit in on the ones involving legal strategy, says something about optics." Lucas rubbed his temple. "And Tuesday mornings, apparently, because she insists on perso

Vivienne stared at the message for a long moment, Lucas reading it over her shoulder, both of them going quiet with the same instinctive caution that had kept them alive through months of exactly this kind of message."He wants you alone," Lucas said slowly. "After everything we've learned about anonymous messages promising the truth if you show up without backup.""I know." Vivienne's thumb hovered over the reply field. "But this is Derek. Not an unknown number. Not Patience playing games. He gave us the adoption certificate. He's been trying to make things right since Rosedale.""That doesn't mean it's safe.""No," Vivienne agreed. "But I don't think it means it's a trap either." She typed a careful reply.VIVIENNE: I'm not doing alone. Lucas comes, or I don't come.The response arrived within a minute.Fine. Just him. Nobody else. Meet me at the old company warehouse on Bishop Street. I know that place has bad memories for you, but it's the one location I'm sure nobody's watching a

Vivienne stared at the message, her hands going numb around the phone.UNKNOWN: Charles is safe. He's with me. And he finally has something very important to tell you — something even Patience never fully understood about what really happened thirty years ago."Lucas." Her voice came out strangled. She turned the phone toward him, watching the detective and Derek both lean in to read it over her shoulder."'Even Patience never fully understood,'" Derek repeated slowly. "That means whoever this is knows more than she did. That means this was never just about her."The detective's jaw tightened. "Ms. Kingston, I need you to reply. Carefully. We need to establish contact, buy time, figure out where they're holding him."Vivienne's fingers trembled as she typed.VIVIENNE: Who are you? What do you want?The response came almost instantly, as though whoever was on the other end had been waiting, phone in hand.Meet me. Alone this time, Vivienne — truly alone, no detective trailing three car

Vivienne stared at James's message for a long moment, the ambulance's steady hum filling the silence around her.James: Ms. Kingston, I think you should know — Adaeze Effiong's bank records show a deposit three days ago, right before all of this started. Half a million dollars, wired from an account we haven't been able to trace yet. Someone was already paying her, before Charles ever went missing."Lucas." She showed him the message, watching his expression sharpen despite the exhaustion pulling at both of them."Someone financed this," he said slowly. "Which means Adaeze wasn't acting entirely alone, whatever she claimed.""I know." Vivienne pressed her fingers to her temples, the weight of yet another thread threatening to unravel further than she had energy left to follow tonight. "But I can't chase that right now. Charles needs proper care, and I need to actually sleep before I'm capable of thinking clearly about any of it.""Then we don't chase it tonight." Lucas squeezed her ha