Alle Kapitel von He had always been mine : Kapitel 31 – Kapitel 40

BRANDON POV The report arrived at 6:14 a.m.I was already awake. Sleep had been thin and fragmented, the kind that left the body rested enough to function and the mind still turning over the same unresolved details. I had been standing at the window with a black coffee in hand when the encrypted notification lit up my phone. Remington’s name. No subject line. Only the file.I opened it without sitting down.The summary was clean, professional, and carefully limited to surface information the way I had ordered. Ambrose Ward. Age fifty-eight. Younger brother of Killian’s father. Current residence in a midtown building that sat just outside the most expensive tier but still well above ordinary. Primary business interests listed under a private investment group with holdings in commercial property and two smaller logistics firms. No recent bankruptcies. No public scandals. No criminal record that appeared in the usual channels. Married once, divorced twelve years ago. No children on reco

KILLIAN POV I woke to the sound of small feet trying very hard to be quiet and failing.The hallway floor always gave her away. A soft creak. A pause. Then another creak closer to the door. I kept my eyes closed and waited. Beside me Maya shifted but didn’t fully wake. The apartment still held that early Saturday stillness—pale light at the edges of the curtains, the faint smell of last night’s rain coming through the cracked window.The door pushed open.A whisper, loud enough to fill the whole room:“Good morning, Daddy.”I opened my eyes. Leigh stood at the side of the bed in her favorite blue pajamas, hair sticking up in three different directions, holding her stuffed tiger under one arm like a solemn offering. Her face was very close to mine, eyes wide with the particular seriousness she reserved for important morning announcements.“Good morning, troublemaker,” I whispered back.She grinned, climbed up with zero grace, and planted herself between me and Maya. The mattress dippe

KILLIAN POV The private room smelled like polished wood and the kind of quiet that only money could buy.I sat with my back straight and my hands under the table so he couldn’t see them. The water glass in front of me stayed untouched. Condensation ran down the side in thin lines that I watched instead of looking at him. Brandon Hale occupied the chair across from me the same way he occupied every room now—like the space had already rearranged itself around his presence. The black suit fit him too well. The calm on his face was the same patient calm he had worn when he raised the paddle and bought my painting for a number that still didn’t feel real.One hundred million.The words still sat in my ears like something that belonged to someone else.Mr. Lang had smiled when he left us alone. The same bright, relentless smile he used when the outcome had already been decided for me. *Be polite. Be professional. Do not make this difficult.* The door had clicked shut and the quiet that fol

KILLIAN POVWe stepped out of the school into the late afternoon light.Leigh was in Maya’s arms, her bandaged knee resting carefully against her mother’s side, stuffed tiger still clutched in one hand. I kept my hand on the small of Maya’s back and guided her toward the car. For a few steps it almost felt normal again.Then I saw him.Brandon stood near the black car at the curb. He hadn’t left. The moment he saw us he stepped forward—not close enough to crowd, but close enough that the space became deliberate. His eyes moved from Leigh to Maya, then settled on me.“Does she need a hospital?” he asked. Voice even. Measured. “I can arrange it. Proper check, just to be sure.”Every part of me wanted to tell him to leave. But Leigh’s head was on Maya’s shoulder and Maya was right there. This was not the place for the real version of what I felt.“She’s fine,” I said, keeping my tone level. “The nurse already checked her. We’re taking her home.”Maya looked between us, still holding Leig

BRANDON POV I stayed in the car until their taillights disappeared around the corner.The driver knew better than to speak. The partition stayed up. Outside, the front of the school emptied as the last of the staff locked doors and walked toward the lot. I watched none of it. My mind was still fixed on the three of them standing on the sidewalk a few minutes earlier.Killian’s wife had thanked me.She had looked straight at me with open, uncomplicated gratitude and said the sale changed things for their family. She had smiled. She had kept thanking me while Killian stood beside her with his face carefully blank and his daughter’s head resting on her shoulder. He had introduced me as the client who bought the painting. Nothing more. And then he had accepted her thanks on my behalf by saying nothing at all.I leaned my head back against the seat and closed my eyes once.The child had been smaller than she looked from a distance. Dark hair. The same stubborn set to her mouth that Killia