Semua Bab Married To The Forgotten Heir : Bab 61 - Bab 70

Aurora stared at her phone for a long moment before finally pressing play on the voicemail, some old, familiar dread settling low in her stomach even before she’d heard a single word.Felix’s voice filled the speaker, rougher than she remembered, edged with something unstable that hadn’t been there in the polished, arrogant version of him she’d once known.“Aurora, it’s me. I know you probably don’t want to hear from me, but I need you to listen. Just once. That’s all I’m asking. One real conversation, not security guards dragging me away in front of strangers. You owe me that much, after everything we had.”Aurora’s jaw tightened, though she let the message continue playing, forcing herself to listen through the discomfort rather than delete it unheard.“I’ve been doing some digging, actually. About your husband’s family. Interesting stuff, Aurora. Things you probably don’t know, given how careful they all seem to be about their reputation. You should really talk to me before you get

“Walk away, Felix,” Damien said again, his voice dropping lower, more dangerous. “This is your last warning.”“You don’t get to give me warnings,” Felix snapped, something unraveling behind his carefully controlled exterior now, his earlier calm cracking open into raw, ugly desperation. “I loved her first. Before you, before your money, before any of this. You think buying her a ring and a mansion erases that?”“Felix….. ” Aurora started.“No,” he said, louder now, cutting her off entirely, “you don’t get to shut me up either. Everyone deserves to hear this. She still loves me, Damien. Whatever you think you have with her ….. it’s temporary. She’ll figure that out eventually, and when she does…..”“That’s enough,” Aurora said sharply, her voice cutting through the sidewalk noise, though Felix barely seemed to register it, spiraling further into his own desperate narrative.A few passersby had slowed their steps now, drawn by the raised voices, curiosity pulling them closer despite the

Damien held her gaze a long moment before he finally answered, something careful and honest working behind his usual composure.“It started as a message to him,” he said quietly. “I won’t pretend otherwise. I wanted him to understand, completely, that there was no version of tonight where he was walking away with anything to hope for.”“And then?” Aurora asked, her pulse still not fully settled.“And then it stopped being about him at all,” Damien admitted, something almost surprised in his own voice, like he was still working through the realization even as he spoke it aloud. “The moment I actually kissed you, Aurora, I forgot he was standing there. I forgot the crowd. I forgot the cameras. I don’t think I’ve ever forgotten anything that completely, not once, in longer than I can remember.”Aurora sat with that for a moment, warmth spreading slowly through her chest despite the lingering adrenaline from the sidewalk. “That’s a very honest answer.”“I’m trying,” Damien said. “You aske

Emily lingered at Aurora’s desk a moment longer, her too-bright smile never wavering. “Anyway. I just wanted to say congratulations, in a manner of speaking. That kind of publicity doesn’t hurt, does it? Especially this early in a new job.”“I didn’t orchestrate anything,” Aurora said flatly. “It wasn’t planned.”“Of course not,” Emily said, in a tone that suggested precisely the opposite, before pushing off the desk and drifting away toward her own workstation, leaving the too-sweet coffee sitting untouched between them.Aurora watched her go, unease settling deeper into her chest. She’d learned, over the past several weeks, to recognize the particular shape of Emily’s cruelty ….. never open, never accusatory enough to be reportable, always wrapped carefully in compliments and casual observations that left just enough deniability to survive any direct confrontation.By midday, the shift in the office had become unmistakable.Colleagues who’d warmed to her since the coffee incident we

Aurora sat frozen for a moment, staring at the timestamp, before her instincts sharpened into something colder and more methodical.She scrolled backward through the access log carefully, checking dates and times against every complaint, every strange leak, every unexplained moment of unease she’d collected since her very first week at Veloura Couture. Emily’s name appeared periodically throughout the record, ordinary enough during her earlier tenure as a senior designer with legitimate archive access.But the entry two nights before the HR complaint stood out clearly ….. logged well after Emily’s access privileges had been officially restricted following the plagiarism investigation, a restriction that should have made this particular entry impossible without someone deliberately bypassing normal security protocols.Aurora kept scrolling, methodically checking further back, curiosity turning into something closer to grim determination as she searched for any other irregularities in t