Lahat ng Kabanata ng he mistreated me I married his rival: Kabanata 71 - Kabanata 80

Chapter 71: Elena’s POV ​The question hung in the quiet air between us, heavy with meaning yet gentle enough not to demand an immediate answer. Carter’s hand stayed warm against my cheek, his fingers brushing back a stray lock of hair as he waited patiently for me to respond. The stress of the past forty-eight hours, the sterile smell of the London hospital, the toxic noise of Chloe's lies, and the exhaustion of the international flight all seemed to fade away into the background, leaving only the steady, grounding presence of the man standing right in front of me. ​I looked up into his dark eyes, seeing the absolute sincerity and devotion reflected there. For years, I had kept my walls locked tight, treating every relationship as a transaction or a strategic alliance where letting your guard down meant handing your opponent a weapon. With Carter, there were no games, no hidden agendas, and no power struggles. There was only mutual respect, shared ambition, and a quiet, enduring af

Chapter 73: Damian’s POV​The private recovery room at St. Jude’s Medical Center smelled heavily of antiseptic wipes and stale coffee. I sat propped up against a stack of stiff hospital pillows, the dull, throbbing ache in my fractured ribs reminding me of every second of the car crash that had nearly ended my life. My shoulder throbbed where the internal bruising ran deep, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the ice-cold fury burning straight through my chest.​Elena’s voice still echoed inside my head. The calculated indifference in her tone, the sheer disrespect of refusing to give a single drop of blood when I was dying on an operating table, and the arrogant way she had dismissed me on the phone last night had erased every lingering doubt I ever had. She wasn't the woman I used to know. She was an adversary who needed to be dismantled, piece by piece, until she had nothing left to stand on.​The heavy door to the recovery room clicked open, and Chloe slipped inside, loc

Chapter 75​Damian’s POV​"And I have found the girl."​Chloe’s voice cut sharply through the heavy silence of the Manhattan apartment, pulling my attention away from the blueprint spread out across the desk. I turned to face her as she dropped the manila folder down onto the polished wood right beside my hand.​"Vanessa Sterling," Chloe continued, her eyes sharp and gleaming with malicious intent as she pulled out a chair and sat down. "She just accepted the initial outreach on the secure line to Chicago. She's taking the red-eye flight tonight, and she'll be checking into a private suite near Central Park by tomorrow morning."​I reached out, flipping open the folder to reveal her curriculum vitae, corporate financial statements, and a recent high-resolution photograph. The face looking back at me was composed, severe, and ambitious—a woman who had spent years nursing a bitter grudge after Carter rejected her advanced romantic overtures back during their university days in Chicago.

Chapter 77Elena’s POVThe front door clicked shut.I remained standing near the coffee table, watching the hallway for a few seconds after Vanessa disappeared from view. I could still hear faint footsteps outside before they eventually faded.The penthouse suddenly felt different.A few minutes ago, Carter and I had been talking about lunch and taking a break from work. Now we were standing in the same room, but the mood had completely changed.I looked toward the front door again.Vanessa had only been here for a few minutes, yet she had managed to leave me with more questions than answers.Carter’s footsteps sounded in the hallway as he walked back toward the living room, his keys jingling lightly in his hand before he dropped them onto the entryway console.I stayed by the edge of the coffee table, looking down at the empty spot where Vanessa had just stood.I could still remember the way she had looked at me.She hadn't exactly been rude. In fact, she had been perfectly polite.T

Chapter 79Elena’s POVBy Friday evening, the text messages had stopped coming entirely.I had noticed it sometime in the afternoon.At first, I tried not to think much of it. Carter had been busy since Thursday, and after everything that happened with Vanessa's consulting firm, I assumed he was still dealing with whatever had kept him away from the studio.But as the hours passed, the silence became harder to ignore.No message.No call.Not even a simple explanation.I sat alone at the long mahogany dining table in the penthouse, the food on my plate growing cold under the harsh glare of the overhead chandelier. The studio session had ended hours ago in a disjointed mess because Carter never made it back to sign the distribution clearances. When I tried his phone again at six o'clock, it rang twice before dropping straight to voicemail—not even a polite text to say he was tied up.I had spent most of the afternoon trying to keep the session moving without him.There were people wait