All Chapters of Too Late To Love Me : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Ariana's POVI opened the car door and slid into the passenger seat, removing my hat, mask, and sunglasses in one practiced motion, letting them drop into my lap as the door clicked shut behind me, sealing out the cold alley air.For a long moment, neither of us spoke. The cigarette smoke curled lazily between us, filling the small space with the same bitter, familiar scent that had followed me through most of my childhood, clinging to the corners of every room he ever occupied.The old instinct rose immediately, familiar and unwelcome, some buried child's voice urging me to apologize, to explain myself, to offer some justification for disappearing without warning years ago, for abandoning the empire he had spent decades building in order to chase a sister I barely remembered. I pushed it down quickly, the way I had trained myself to push down every unnecessary impulse since childhood. Apologies meant nothing to people like him. He hadn't raised me to value sentiment. He'd raised me t

Valarie's POVChloe and Lana arrived not long after Osborne finally left, both of them armed with snacks, magazines, and the kind of bright, overeager energy people bring when they've decided someone needs cheering up whether that person wants it or not."Okay, we brought everything," Chloe announced, dropping a tote bag onto Elle's bed. "Face masks, your favorite chips, that rom-com you've been wanting to watch. We're going to get your mind off all of this.""You look exhausted," Lana added, settling into the chair beside the bed. "Seriously, El, when's the last time you actually slept?"Elle managed a weak smile, pulling her blanket tighter around herself. "I don't even remember."I hovered near the ceiling, watching the two of them fuss over her, offering suggestions in rapid succession, a spa day, a trip somewhere far away, a new phone number to escape whatever was haunting her old one. None of it seemed to land with any real weight. Elle simply nodded along, accepting their chatt

Osborne's POVThree days of relentless online chaos passed before my father finally called for a press conference, and I stood at the back of the room watching reporters pack themselves into neat rows, my stomach twisted into knots of dread I couldn't fully explain. Part of me expected him to walk out and expose every lie we'd carefully constructed over the past weeks. Another part of me, exhausted beyond measure, almost hoped he would.Instead, he stepped up to the podium with the composed, measured confidence that had built our family's reputation across decades, and began speaking."I have personally reviewed every piece of information circulating online over the past several days," he said, his voice carrying easily across the room. "The altered documents, the manipulated footage, all of it. I can assure everyone here that these materials have been deliberately fabricated in an attempt to damage this family's reputation."My breath caught."My daughter Valarie," he continued, his

Valarie's POVThe television in Elle's room played the press conference on a loop, my father's calm, practiced voice filling the space again and again as he defended a lie he now understood completely. I hovered near the screen, watching his composed expression, the warmth in his voice as he spoke about loving me, about never allowing anyone to harm his family.It hurt more than I expected it to.I had spent my whole short life believing my father was the one person in that house who genuinely cared for me, even if that care always seemed to come in smaller portions than what he gave Elle. Now I watched him stand before cameras and an entire nation, knowingly protecting the people who let me die, burying the truth as carefully and deliberately as my brothers had.Something hollow opened inside me, wider than grief, colder than anger. I wondered, distantly, if this was how spirits eventually stopped feeling sorrow and became something else entirely, something bitter and vengeful, somet

Valarie's POVI drifted into the study ahead of my father, finding my three brothers already gathered there, each of them carrying a tension in their shoulders that hadn't been present even during the worst of the past week's chaos. Osborne stood near the fireplace, his phone held tightly in one hand. Gerald sat stiffly in one of the leather chairs, his fingers drumming an anxious rhythm against the armrest. Caspian's wheelchair had been positioned near the window, his face set into the same hard, suspicious expression he'd worn toward Elle since the moment he regained consciousness in that hospital bed.Elle entered last, settling onto the small couch near the center of the room, her expression carefully arranged into something soft and uncertain, the same mask she'd perfected over the past several days.The moment the door clicked shut behind her, Osborne lifted his phone."I think you should hear this," he said, his voice dangerously controlled.He pressed play, and Elle's own voic