All Chapters of Too Late To Love Me : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Valarie's POVCaspian stirred sometime past midnight, his eyes fluttering open slowly, unfocused and clouded by the heavy medication still working through his system. His words came out slurred and broken, each sentence trailing off before it fully formed, and the nurse who checked on him quickly explained that this was normal, that he needed rest, that proper conversation would have to wait.I hovered near the ceiling, watching the three of them, Osborne, Gerald, and Elle, arranged in uneasy silence around his bed, and felt something heavy settle over me that I could not quite name.Everything had spiraled so far beyond anything I could have imagined that night the coffin lid sealed shut above me. My brothers, who had once stood united enough to build me a glass coffin together, now eyed one another with open suspicion. Caspian had become the family's prime suspect. Whatever strange, careful hand was orchestrating all of this had managed, in a matter of days, to turn three brothers a

Ariana's POVTen years old.I remember the exact weight of her hand in mine, small and warm, fingers curled tight around my own as though she already understood, even at four years old, that something terrible was about to happen.The orphanage hallway had smelled like bleach and old wood, the kind of smell I still catch sometimes in hospitals and government buildings, the smell that instantly drags me back to that moment no matter how many years separate me from it. The Vitz family stood near the front desk, patient and composed, waiting for the paperwork that would make me theirs."Just her," the woman had said, glancing briefly at Valarie before looking away. "We only have room for one."I had begged. I remember that clearly too, the desperate, childish begging that accomplishes nothing against adults who have already made their decision. I clung to Valarie's hand and told them I wouldn't go, not without my sister, not without the only family I had left in the entire world.It didn

Valarie's POVOsborne burst through the warehouse doors just as the screen clicked off, plunging the room back into shadow except for the distant glow of the overhead lights still humming above. He found Elle crumpled on the concrete, Gerald close behind him, both of them rushing forward with wide, panicked eyes."Elle! Elle, can you hear me?"She didn't respond. Gerald checked her pulse quickly, his hands shaking, before nodding with evident relief. "She's breathing. She's just unconscious."They lifted her carefully between them and carried her out to the waiting car, driving straight back to the mansion without a single word exchanged along the way. I followed, hovering silently above them, still trying to make sense of everything I had witnessed in that warehouse.By the time they settled Elle into her own bed, tucking blankets around her still form, both brothers looked thoroughly shaken, more rattled than I had seen either of them throughout this entire exhausting week. Gerald m

Gerald's POVI bolted outside the moment my legs remembered how to move, scanning the loading area and the street beyond for any sign of a delivery vehicle, a van, anything that might explain how that box had ended up in my building.There was nothing. No truck idling at the curb. No driver hurrying away. No camera footage that any of my staff could recall capturing. It was as though the box had simply materialized on the counter without a single living soul responsible for placing it there.I stood in the alley behind my building for several long minutes, forcing air into my lungs, trying to steady the frantic pounding in my chest. I could not afford this. Not today. The showcase I had spent months preparing for sat only hours away, and I needed every ounce of composure I possessed to get through it.I went back inside, instructed Gia to dispose of the box immediately without asking questions, and buried myself in the final preparations with a desperation that bordered on obsession.

Osborne's POVI read the email three times before the words finally settled, and even then they refused to make sense, arranging and rearranging themselves into something I couldn't quite accept.I pulled up the story with trembling fingers, scrolling through the preview images the journalist had already attached. Two documents sat side by side on the screen, both official, both bearing our family's seal, both claiming to be Valarie's death certificate.They listed different times of death. Hours apart.My stomach dropped straight through the floor of the car.I nearly didn't see the vehicle braking ahead of me, swerving hard at the last second and pulling onto the shoulder with my heart hammering against my ribs. I sat there, engine idling, staring at my phone screen as the horror of what I was looking at slowly crystallized into something undeniable.The post came from an anonymous account, untraceable, no identifying information linking it to any name or location I could investigat