one night to steal my heart のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 11 - チャプター 20

Elowen POVBy noon there were reporters outside my building.I saw them first from the kitchen window, a cluster of them on the sidewalk across the street, cameras slung around their necks like they were waiting for wildlife to emerge from the treeline instead of a single terrified mother trying to keep her son fed and unaware that his entire existence had become public property overnight.Noah, thankfully, had no idea. Ava had come by with Sienna to keep him occupied with cartoons and building blocks in the living room, the two of them shrieking with laughter over something on the television while I stood frozen at the window, watching my worst fear assemble itself in real time on the pavement below.I counted seven of them at first, then lost count somewhere around eleven, watching more cars pull up and park along the curb like the street had turned into some grotesque parade. One of them had a long lens pointed directly at our front door, patient, unmoving, waiting for exactly the

Caspian POVI stayed at Elowen's house long after Noah had been put to bed, Reyes's men stationed at every entrance, the two of us sitting across from each other at her kitchen table with a legal pad between us covered in names I never expected to be suspecting of anything."Walk me through it again," I said. "Everyone who had access to the boardroom presentation. Everyone who knew about the shortlist before the public did."Elowen pressed her palms against her eyes, exhaustion carved into every line of her face. "Diane Castellanos. The board members. Whoever handled the internal scheduling.""That's still a dozen people at minimum." I dragged a hand through my hair, frustration coiling tighter with every dead end. "None of whom should have had any reason to connect a five year old boy to a one night stand five years ago, unless someone specifically went looking.""What about hotel staff? Whoever was working that night, five years ago. If someone remembered us together, remembered the

Caspian POVI stared at Reyes for a long moment, certain I'd misheard him."Say that again.""The transfer, sir. Authorized under your father's digital signature. Twelve million dollars, moved into an offshore account two days after he passed." Reyes's voice was careful, measured, the tone of a man delivering news he knew would detonate something. "Your father was already gone when that authorization went through."The room tilted slightly. I sat down on the arm of the couch before my legs made the decision for me, Elowen's hand finding my shoulder without either of us discussing it, grounding me in a way I desperately needed."That's not possible," I said. "Signatures like that require biometric verification. A retinal scan, a fingerprint. He would have had to be alive to authorize it.""Unless someone had access to his credentials before he died and simply waited," Reyes said. "Or unless someone found a way to override the verification system entirely. Either way, sir, someone moved

Elowen POVCaspian reached the door before I did, throwing it open with a force that made the hinges groan.There was nothing there. No person, no obvious threat, just the quiet dark of my front porch and the distant hum of the city beyond the security lights Reyes's team had installed two days earlier. For one brief, dizzying moment, I let myself hope it had been an empty threat, a bluff meant to terrify without substance behind it.Then Caspian's flashlight swept across the doormat, and his entire body went rigid.A single toy airplane sat propped against the door frame. Noah's favorite, the same blue and silver model he carried everywhere, the one I'd tucked into his backpack that very morning for his after school program.Except Noah was upstairs, asleep, and his backpack was hanging exactly where I'd left it, by the coat closet.My knees nearly gave out. "That's not possible. I checked his bag this morning. It was in there.""Someone's been inside our house," Caspian said, voice

Elowen POV"Absolutely not."I said it before I'd even fully processed the words on his screen, my voice sharper than I intended, but the idea of Caspian walking into some private meeting with a man capable of stealing forty three million dollars and possibly worse made every protective instinct in me flare at once."Elowen, I have to go. If I ignore this, he'll find another way to force my hand, and I'd rather control when and where that happens.""He said come alone. Do you have any idea how many ways that sentence could end badly for you?""I know exactly how it could end. That's why I'm not going without protection stationed nearby, even if he doesn't see them." Caspian was already standing, already moving toward the study door with the restless energy of a man who'd made up his mind before the conversation even started. "But I need to hear what he wants directly. If there's a chance he's willing to negotiate, to walk away quietly instead of dragging this into a public fight that