Todos os capítulos de MY HUSBAND'S BILLIONAIRE RIVAL: Capítulo 11 - Capítulo 20

Chapter Twelve: What Isabella KnowsIsabella Cole agreed to meet her at a small tea house on the edge of the city, far enough from both the Vance and Cole family orbits that neither husband nor son was likely to hear about it before Elena wanted them to.Elena almost hadn't sent the message. She'd found Isabella's private number tucked in an old contact list she hadn't deleted from her engagement years, a relic of a life where the Coles and Rossis still exchanged holiday cards and pretended, however thinly, at friendship. She typed and deleted the message four times before finally sending it, uncertain what she hoped to gain beyond some fragile scrap of understanding.Isabella was already seated when Elena arrived, a woman who carried herself with the same quiet elegance Elena remembered from childhood galas, though time and evident sorrow had etched deeper lines around her eyes than Elena recalled."You look like your father," Isabella said, by way of greeting, gesturing for Elena to

Chapter Fourteen: The Bakery SabotageThe call came at 5:47 in the morning, Elena's phone buzzing against the nightstand hard enough to jolt her fully awake before she'd even registered the sound."Ms. Rossi?" Her part-time assistant Marisol's voice was shaking, panicked. "You need to get down here. Now."Elena was dressed and in the car within four minutes, Damian pulling on a jacket behind her, insisting he was coming whether she wanted him to or not. Neither of them spoke during the drive, the pre-dawn streets empty and gray, dread coiling tighter in Elena's stomach with every block that passed.She smelled it before she saw it — smoke, faint but unmistakable, threading through the cool morning air two streets before they even reached the bakery.The front window was shattered. Black scorch marks streaked up the brick facade beside the door, and yellow police tape already cordoned off the sidewalk, a single fire truck parked at an angle across the street, its lights still spinning

Chapter Sixteen: Closing RanksDamian had a new security detail assigned within the hour, positioned outside the penthouse, trailing Elena's car, present even in the elevator up to Sofia's office the following morning — a level of visible protection that made the threat feel more real than the message on her phone already had."This is excessive," Elena said, watching a broad-shouldered man in a dark suit take up position outside the conference room door."This is necessary," Damian said, not looking up from the documents spread across the table. "Victor doesn't make idle threats, Elena. Whatever he's planning next, I'd rather be overprepared than caught flat-footed."Sofia entered a moment later, tablet in hand, expression sharper and more focused than Elena had seen it since the investigation began. "I found something," she said, without preamble. "A former employee of the shell company that paid both the photographer and the arsonist.""Found how?" Damian asked, straightening immed

Chapter Eighteen: The Price of ProofTwo days after their meeting with Marcus Feld, Elena arrived at the penthouse to find Damian already on the phone, his voice low and clipped in a way that told her immediately something had gone wrong."When?" he was saying, pacing the length of the living room, free hand pressed against his temple. "Is he safe? Sofia, I need a straight answer."Elena set her bag down slowly, dread pooling in her stomach as she waited for him to finish the call. When he finally lowered the phone, his expression was grim in a way she hadn't seen since the morning of the fire."Marcus is missing," he said without preamble. "He didn't show up to work this morning. His apartment's empty — no forced entry, no signs of struggle, but his neighbor said she saw a black sedan parked outside late last night.""The same one from the traffic camera footage," Elena said, her voice barely above a whisper."Possibly." Damian's jaw tightened. "Sofia's trying to trace him now, but i

Chapter Twenty: The Second WillThe lawyer's office smelled of old leather and older money, the kind of space Elena hadn't set foot in since her father's estate had first been dismantled by creditors two years earlier."Mr. Alderman specializes in historical trust disputes," Damian explained, as they waited in the firm's reception area, Sofia seated beside them with a thick folder of her own research clutched against her chest. "If there's a legitimate second will, he's the man to verify it quickly and quietly."They'd found the attorney through one of Sofia's contacts at the city registrar's office, a name attached to an obscure filing from decades earlier that had resurfaced during her deeper dig into the original Vance-Cole Ventures partnership agreement. The discovery itself had come almost by accident — a cross-reference search for Antonio Rossi's name that had turned up a sealed amendment to an old family trust, one neither Elena nor, apparently, Victor Cole had known still exis