Semua Bab The Billionaire I’ll Never Marry: Bab 1 - Bab 10

By the time Callum reached the room where Eilidh had been dressing, the wedding had become an incident.His mother was downstairs with guests who had not yet been told whether to leave. Malcolm Campbell had shut himself into a private room with his son and two advisers. Callum's father had already asked, twice, where Eilidh was.Callum had the same answer both times.He didn't know.He stepped past the abandoned flowers and looked at the chair where Eilidh's coat should have been. Her phone was gone too. Good. At least she had taken it."Preserve whatever shows how she left," he told venue security. "Sequence only. No search for her."Sinclair Group security could answer the same question from the evidence already available.That distinction cost him.He gave them one limit: establish whether Eilidh had acted under her own control, then stop.He ended the call before anyone could mistake urgency for permission.On the dressing table, a glass of water sat untouched beside a row of hair

Callum should have left when Ailsa Fraser opened the door for him.Instead, he stood beside the small meeting table and called his sister again.The first attempt went to voicemail.Ailsa did not offer to intervene.That annoyed him enough to notice.He called a second time. Eilidh answered before the fourth ring.“Callum.”Relief did nothing useful. Her voice sounded steady. No crying, no panic, no obvious sign that someone was standing over her.“Are you safe?” Callum asked.“Yes.”“Are you alone?”A pause. “Does that matter?”“It matters to me.”“I’m safe.”Across the table, Ailsa had gone still. She was not trying to hear more than the room made unavoidable, but she was not leaving either.Callum looked at her. “I’m at Exit.”“I guessed.”“Ailsa is here.”Another pause.“Do you want me to step out?” Ailsa asked, directing the question toward the phone rather than Callum.Eilidh answered immediately. “No. Stay.”Ailsa sat down again.Callum put the phone on speaker and set it betwe

Callum had spent the morning being punished for a decision he would make again.That was inconvenient. It was not confusing.By noon, the Campbell-linked negotiations had been moved out of his control, two board members had requested written assurances about the family dispute, and Sinclair Group communications had produced six versions of a statement that said almost nothing.Eilidh, meanwhile, was still not marrying Lachlan.Callum had spoken to her once after the hotel meeting. She was safe, she had arranged somewhere private to stay, and she had no intention of reversing herself.He had not asked her to.That should have settled the personal part of the crisis.It had not settled anything else.Alistair summoned him to the Sinclair townhouse shortly after four. Malcolm Campbell was already in the library when Callum arrived.So was Iona Campbell.Callum stopped just inside the door.Iona sat in an armchair near the fire, one ankle crossed over the other, composed enough to make th

By seven that evening, Callum had discovered that pretending to be engaged required more rules than most acquisitions.Ailsa sat across from him at the conference table in his Edinburgh office, reading the latest draft from Sinclair counsel with a pen in one hand and an expression that suggested she had found something offensive on every page.Ailsa tapped the mutual-termination clause. "This goes. Either of us can end the engagement without the other's permission."Callum read it once. "And ending it does not touch Exit.""Even if I end it badly.""Even then."Her pen stilled.A boundary was not evidence that she expected betrayal. It was what made agreement possible.For Callum, that distinction was becoming impossible to miss now.They had already settled the practical shape of the arrangement: it had to end the replacement-marriage pressure, look credible in public, and never turn Ailsa's consent into an obligation.Appearances required consent whenever possible. Private devices a

At eight twelve the next morning, one of Exit's regular referral partners suspended referrals.Ailsa took the call in the small meeting room with Mairi beside her. Callum sat across the table. He had arrived with a communications proposal she refused to read until Exit understood the damage for itself.The director on the phone sounded apologetic, which left Ailsa nowhere useful to put her anger."We're not ending the partnership," the woman said. "The board wants a short pause while we review the conflict question.""There is no conflict in client services.""I believe that."Ailsa watched rain bead against the window. "Then why stop sending people to us?""Because the women we refer have to believe it too."Her eyes dropped to the ring on her left hand.The director said questions were coming from staff and clients. Could Sinclair Group see Exit's records? Would the family influence decisions? Had Ailsa's engagement changed who ultimately held power around the company?None of those