All Chapters of The Price of Ashbourne : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

49 Chapters

The Past Came Knocking

Chapter 21"How much farther?"Mia was already leaning forward, both hands braced on the seatback, eyes locked on the pulsing blue line of the navigation screen as though she could will the car faster by sheer attention.The driver flicked a glance at the dashboard. "Forty minutes, give or take.""Forty.""You did say it was urgent.""It is."She dropped back against the seat and pressed her phone flat between her palms, as if she could feel Elena's pulse through the glass. Behind them, the town she'd grown up in had already dissolved into a smear of gray light in the side mirror. Ahead lay nothing but highway — long gray ribbons of it, indifferent to her, carrying her toward DeVille City, toward the glass-and-steel headquarters of Ashbourne Holdings, and — if the fragments she'd stitched together over three sleepless nights were still true — toward Elena.She scrolled through the search results again, though she'd long since memorized every line. After Damien shut every door in her f

Last Updated : 2026-08-30

Puzzle pieces

**Chapter 22** Mia had rehearsed what she would say at least a dozen times.None of it sounded right anymore.She stood across the street from the glass tower of Riverside Architectural Group, staring up at the name engraved above the entrance. Her fingers tightened around the strap of her handbag. Elena was somewhere inside that building. Or at least she was supposed to be.Mia crossed the street and pushed through the revolving doors. The reception area was quieter than she expected—polished floors, low voices, the soft click of heels against marble. A few employees moved through the lobby with coffee cups and folders tucked under their arms.She approached the desk.“Excuse me. I’m looking for Elena Hart.”The receptionist looked up, then checked her screen. “Elena Hart?”“Yes.”“She isn’t in yet.”Mia’s shoulders dropped slightly. “When will she be here?”“She should be arriving shortly, but if you’re looking for her personally, I’d suggest coming back tomorrow. She’s still gett

Last Updated : 2026-08-31

The Last Time

Chapter 23“Please, can you go faster?”Mia leaned forward from the back seat, eyes fixed on the crawling traffic beyond the window.The driver glanced at her in the mirror. “I’m trying, madam. This road is blocked.”“Try harder.”He gave her a brief, incredulous look but said nothing. Mia checked her phone again. The address for Riverside Architectural Group remained open on the screen. She had spent the entire journey rehearsing what she would say when she finally saw Elena. Every minute now felt like a threat.“What if I miss her?” she murmured.“What?”“Nothing. Just keep going.”The driver muttered under his breath and pushed forward through the congestion. By the time the car finally reached the building, Mia was already reaching for the door handle before it had fully stopped.“Thank you.”She stepped out quickly.“Madam!”She heard the driver call after her but kept walking.“Madam! Your payment!”Mia stopped short, turned, and hurried back. She handed him the money without lo

Last Updated : 2026-08-31

The Price Of Ashbourne

**Chapter 24****The Price of Ashbourne**The farther they drove from DeVille, the less familiar the city became. Glass towers gave way to older buildings, then quieter streets, then long stretches of road bordered by trees.Elena sat with the photograph resting in her lap, her thumb moving absently over the faded corner. She still could not fully reconcile the smiling girl in the picture with the woman she had become."You really were my best friend?"Mia looked at her. "I was. For years."Elena lowered her gaze to the photograph. "And this life—before everything?"Mia hesitated. "You were engaged. To Ethan.""Engaged.""You loved him. Or you believed you did." Mia's jaw tightened. "The wedding was supposed to be the start of something better for you."Elena's fingers tightened around the edge of the photo. "What happened to the wedding?"Mia didn't answer right away. She looked out the window first, like she was deciding how much of it Elena could take."He never showed up."Elena w

Last Updated : 2026-08-31

Remains in the Dark

Chapter 25Elena woke to darkness.For several seconds she could not place herself. The cold came first—sharp, persistent, settling into her bones through the thin fabric of her clothes. Then the pressure at her wrists. She tried to move her hands and felt the restraints immediately. Her arms were bound behind the chair. Her ankles were secured to its legs. Something covered her eyes, pressed tightly against her skin. Another strip of cloth kept her from calling out.Panic surged.She pulled hard against the bindings. The chair scraped across the floor. Nothing else moved. Elena forced herself to breathe—slowly, carefully—until the worst of the disorientation began to clear. Then the memories returned in fragments.The road.The black SUVs.Mia’s hand tightening around hers.The sharp sound that had shattered the silence inside the car.Elena’s chest constricted. She tried to speak her friend’s name, but the sound died against the covering over her mouth."Please be alive."She did no

Last Updated : 2026-09-01

Echoes of the Bloodline

Chapter 26Damien returned to the Ashbourne estate still wearing the clothes from the search.Dust clung to the cuffs of his trousers. The collar of his shirt had lost its shape hours earlier. He walked through the main entrance without acknowledging the staff who stepped aside the moment they saw him. The house felt unnaturally quiet, as though even the walls understood that something essential was missing.He climbed the stairs without slowing. When he reached the suite he shared with Elena, he paused only long enough to close the door behind him. The room looked exactly as it had the morning she left for work. Her book still lay on the nightstand, a thin ribbon marking the page she had last read. Her perfume lingered faintly near the vanity. A soft cardigan remained draped over the back of a chair, one sleeve trailing toward the floor.Damien’s gaze moved to the empty side of the bed.He stood there for a long moment, the silence pressing in around him. The controlled urgency that

Last Updated : 2026-09-01

Different Faces of Power

Chapter 27By eight that evening, Damien had called every senior member of the Ashbourne inner circle into the west conference room.No one asked why.The message had been brief, sent directly from Damien's office, and the urgency behind it was enough to make even the people who had spent decades inside the Ashbourne organization arrive without complaint.Damien stood at the head of the table when the last person entered.He had changed his shirt, but nothing else about him suggested that he had rested since the previous night. His sleeves were rolled to his forearms, his tie was gone, and there was a tiredness around his eyes that even his usual control could not completely conceal.He waited until everyone had taken their seats.Then he placed both hands against the edge of the table.“My fiancée is missing.”The room went still.A few people exchanged quick looks.Damien noticed every one of them.“She was taken yesterday afternoon,” he continued. “We have confirmed that she was he

Last Updated : 2026-09-01

The Truth Beneath Her Name

Chapter 28Damien found Austin in the east corridor before the older man could reach the elevators.The conference room doors had only just closed behind the last of the senior members. Austin was already scrolling through his phone, the picture of a man who had somewhere more important to be, when Damien’s voice cut through the quiet hallway.“Austin.”Austin stopped. He didn’t turn immediately. He finished whatever he was reading, locked the screen, and slipped the phone into the inner pocket of his jacket with deliberate care. Only then did he face Damien.“You wanted something?”Damien walked toward him until only a few feet remained between them. The corridor was empty except for the two of them. Distant elevator chimes sounded somewhere below. Outside the tall windows, the city lights glittered without interest.“What do you know about Elena?”Austin’s expression shifted—barely. A slight narrowing of the eyes, a fractional tightening around the mouth. Then the familiar composure

Last Updated : 2026-09-01

The Name Before Hers

Chapter 29Damien had stopped looking at the clock hours ago.The city outside his office windows had gone fully dark, reduced to scattered towers of light and the distant, restless movement of traffic far below. Inside the room the only illumination came from the desk lamp and the soft blue glow of the monitors still running search feeds. Elena’s file remained open in front of him, pages spread across the polished surface like evidence from a life that refused to stay coherent. He had already read every document twice.Birth records. School records. Medical reports. Addresses. Her mother’s information. The accident.And then there was Hart Robinson.Damien’s fingers rested against the edge of the folder. Something was wrong—not with the information that was present, but with what continued to be missing. Entire stretches of time simply stopped. Names appeared and then vanished without explanation. Documents that should have connected to one another refused to do so. The gap

Last Updated : 2026-09-01

The Door He Left Open

Chapter 30“I’ve been indebted to Austin for years.”Elena looked up.Daniel stood on the other side of the small room, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket. He had closed the door behind him, but he had not locked it. That alone made Elena uneasy.“What does that mean?” she asked.Daniel glanced toward the hallway before looking back at her. “It means I do what he asks. I clean up problems. I move things that aren’t supposed to be seen. I make sure certain people disappear from places they shouldn’t be.”Elena’s fingers tightened around the edge of the chair. “And now I’m one of those problems?”Daniel didn’t answer immediately. That was answer enough. She swallowed.“Why are you telling me this?”His eyes dropped briefly to the bruising around her wrists before returning to her face. “Because I don’t think you belong here.”Something in Elena’s chest tightened. “You work for the man keeping me here.”“I know.”“You’ve been standing outside that door every day.”“I know.”

Last Updated : 2026-09-02

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