All Chapters of Off Limits: The Butler's Daughter Is Mine.: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

ROSE.I stood between them, my heart pounding so loudly I was certain everyone in that room could hear it.Drake's eyes held mine, wet and pleading, the flower trembling slightly in his outstretched hand.Hunter waited behind him, silent, his jaw tight, the small velvet box still open in his palm, and the candlelight catching the small ring inside it.My mind drifted back, unwillingly, to everything Drake had just whispered against my ear.The years of waiting.The letters he never received.The walls he built around a heart that had already buried itself beside mine.Part of me wanted to reach for him, to fold myself back into the only love I had ever truly known as a child, back when the world had still felt simple and safe, back before either of us understood what our families actually were.But then another memory rose up beside it, sharper, colder.Drake's face in that hospital room.The way he had looked at me like a problem to solve rather than a woman carrying a child.The way

DRAKE.I did not go straight home after walking out of Rose's house.I could not stand the thought of sitting alone in those quiet rooms, replaying the image of her standing there in Hunter's arms, his hand pressed protectively over the child that might or might not be mine.I drove instead, with no real destination in mind, until I found myself parked outside the same club where all of this had started months ago, back when Rose was still just a stranger who threw wine in my face and I still believed I understood exactly who I was.I went inside and ordered a drink, then another, then lost count somewhere after the fourth.The music pulsed around me, loud and meaningless, pressing against my skull in a way that almost felt like relief, something loud enough to drown out my own thoughts for a few seconds at a time.I sat alone at the far end of the bar, staring at nothing, replaying every version of the truth I had been handed in the last twenty four hours.Roseina, the one person I t

ROSE.The gunshot had barely finished echoing through the room when something small and metallic landed on the marble floor near Rose's feet.A thin hiss followed, and within seconds, thick gray smoke began pouring out from it, swallowing the chandeliers, the guests, the entire room, in one suffocating wave.Screams erupted everywhere.People coughed and stumbled blindly, bumping into furniture, into each other, into me.My eyes burned instantly, tears streaming down my face as the smoke thickened, and I could no longer see even a foot in front of me."Sharma!" I screamed, my voice cracking as I pushed through the chaos, reaching out blindly for anything familiar. "Sharma!"Nobody answered.The room had become a storm of bodies and panic, voices overlapping into one deafening roar, and no matter which direction I turned, I could not find her, could not feel her hand, could not hear her voice calling back to me through the smoke.A hand wrapped suddenly around my arm, pulling me hard,

LYDIA.The hospital hallway smelled like medicine and cold floors as I reached for Drake's hands."Drake..." I said softly.He pulled his hands away like my touch had burned him, and the guilt dropped into my chest like a stone."So you are working for my dad?" he said, his voice was bitter and low. "Look at you, are you happy now? You came into my life to take revenge on Rose, didn't you?""No." I shook my head. "Drake, I promise you, I never meant for it to end this way. We all wanted to work with your dad, right? You worked with him too, I just made a choice.""Shut the fuck up!" His eyes were red and angry. "You are not from this family, you don't know what it means to work for the Machorace. You don't know anything!"I said nothing because what could I say? He was right about one thing, I had never really understood what I was stepping into.Drake took a step closer, and I could see his jaw shaking. "Did you actually tell Charlotte about her brother?"My throat went dry and I swa

Rose.Drake walked into my room slowly, and I knew from the look on his face that whatever he was about to tell me, I would not like hearing it.I pushed myself up a little on the hospital bed, my whole body still aching from the fall, the thin blanket pooling around my waist."Where is Hunter?" I asked.Drake pulled a chair close to my bed and sat down, his hands clasped tightly together in front of him. "Security took him out of the building. He will not be coming back tonight.""Why??" I asked, my voice small.He looked at me for a long moment, like he was trying to find the gentlest way to say something that had no gentle way to be said, his jaw working before the words finally came. "Lydia came to me. She overheard Hunter on the phone with my father. They were planning to kill you tonight, Rose. Here, in this hospital. They wanted it to look like you simply did not wake up."The words landed slowly, one piece at a time, like my mind refused to accept them all at once. "What??""H