Todos los capítulos de Too Late to Regret: Claimed by my Stepbrother: Capítulo 11 - Capítulo 20

Tristan had shown up at Rose’s office a full hour early, the warm container of freshly made lasagna still giving off that rich, cheesy smell she had always loved.The second he stepped inside, though, his eyes moved over the room and his whole face tightened. The place was bare, cold, and empty. Nothing about it felt like her.The sight pulled something sharp and aching through his chest. It was obvious she had stopped making space for herself. Every bit of her energy had gone into that bastard, rearranging her whole life around a man who didn’t deserve even a second of it.His jaw flexed hard. He pulled out his phone and made a quick call. In under thirty minutes a small team arrived and got to work.Even if she only had a few weeks left in this office, Tristan wanted the room to feel like somewhere she could actually breathe. Somewhere that could settle her after a rough day instead of boxing her in with four dead walls.Soon her favorite flowers filled tall vases around the room, s

Her mother's call came early, slicing through the morning quiet like a blade. "Rose, Jason and Tristan keep saying we shouldn't come to your graduation. We can't accept that." Sadness pressed heavy in Rose's chest, a weight she couldn't shake loose. More than anything, she wanted her family from Manhattan there on such an important day. She wanted to see their faces in the crowd, her mother and step father’s proud smile, Jason and Jasper’s knowing grin, just as her other cousins. She wanted to celebrate with them, to have them witness this moment she'd worked so hard for. But fear held her back. What if Cruz changed his mind if he found out about them? What if everything she had been planning fell apart before she could finish it? "Mom, please." Her voice came out thinner than she wanted. "I promise I'll make it up to you." It wasn't what Cassie wanted to hear. "Rose, you've been away so long." The tearful ache in her mother's voice squeezed Rose's heart hard, wringing it like a

Rose excused herself at the sound of Cruz's voice, her heart lurching into her throat. But Tristan followed her as she muted the call, her fingers trembling slightly against the screen before she told him, her voice dropping to a whisper, "It's him. He wants to take me to graduation and claims he has a surprise for me.""Tell him no," Tristan said seriously, his eyes dark and hard, a protective fury simmering just beneath the surface.But Rose explained, her mind already racing, calculating. "I have ignored his calls for days. He'll become suspicious.""So what do you intend to do?" Tristan asked, his brow furrowing with concern.Rose smiled, a slow, knowing curve of her lips, and said, "You'll see."She unmuted the speaker and spoke up, her voice bright and airy, a performance worthy of an Oscar. "Cruz, I'm glad you are here. My friends, Meadow and Hazel, are here too. I hope you don't mind?"Indirectly, she was telling him that she would be joined by her friends. The reluctance from

Cruz had changed as quickly as he could, his hands still trembling with barely contained fury as he yanked off the soaked suit and pulled on a fresh one.But when he arrived, the program had already begun, so he sat among the other families and watched the whole thing from the back, his eyes scanning the sea of graduates until they found her.When Rose was mentioned as the valedictorian of her batch, he was stunned. A sharp, unfamiliar pang of something—pride? surprise?—twisted in his chest.He hadn't known. She'd never told him. Just when the program was over, he realized he had left the roses in the car and went to get them, his footsteps hurried, eager to present them to her.But returning, something strange moved in his chest, a hot, feral thing that clawed at his ribs when he saw an unfamiliar man embracing Rose so tenderly.The man's arms were wrapped around her like she was something precious, something to be protected. And Rose, his Rose, was leaning into it, her body soft and

Rose's breath caught. Her grip on the phone tightened until her knuckles went white, the plastic creaking under the pressure. A cold, sharp thrill shot through her veins, followed by a wave of bitter satisfaction that settled deep in her gut like a stone.So this was it. The moment she'd been waiting for. She smiled, slow and dangerous, her eyes glittering in the dim light of her room like shards of broken glass."I'll be right there," she said, her voice soft as silk, before ending the call and rising from her bed.The game was far from over. In fact, it was just getting started.Rose got out of her room toward Tristan's, her steps muffled so as not to wake her two friends who were sleeping soundly in the guest room.The hallway was dark, lit only by the faint glow of the moon filtering through the curtains. When she reached Tristan's room, the lights were on, spilling a warm rectangle of gold beneath the door, so she knocked and entered without waiting.Tristan had just stepped out