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CHAPTER FIVE
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2026-03-21 07:33:39He glanced at the room. Derrick’s smirk, Lucian’s thinly veiled eye-roll, Vivienne’s narrow smile. Helena’s patience masked ambition. Howard and Margot nodded politely, but their eyes glittered with calculation.
Everything his grandfather had built, everything he had fought to uphold, was suddenly alive in the tension that filled the room. And Adrian knew marriage or not, these people would try to take what they could. The lawyer paused. “And finally, should Adrian Vale fail to meet the condition of marriage within the three-month period, his shares shall be redistributed equally among the other children.” The words landed like stones. Silence followed, heavier than the chandeliers above. Adrian’s fists clenched. Seraphina hadn’t replied to his calls. And now, the clock wasn’t just ticking it was screaming. The burial of his grandfather was done in private with just family members and few of the board members. And everyone went their way planning to ensure he is left with nothing. Elara POV Elara hated herself for it. Not him. Not the night. Herself. The morning after, she had walked away with her head high, but inside, something burned with shame, anger, disappointment tangled into something sharp and unbearable. You knew better, she kept telling herself. He wasn’t supposed to matter. He was just a man who paid her fees. A mistake wrapped in a suit and silence. And yet she had let herself forget everything focusing on her brother in the hospital, her mother depending on her, her future hanging by a thread. For what? A moment. Life didn’t pause for regret. Elara threw herself back into routine like survival depended on it because it did. Morning lectures. Afternoon hospital visits. Night shifts at work. She barely slept. Barely ate. She moved through her days like a machine, ignoring the lingering weight in her chest every time she remembered his face… or the way he had looked at her after. Cold. Like she was something he needed to erase. “Focus,” she whispered to herself constantly. “Just focus.” But her body was starting to betray her. The exhaustion deepened. Her head spun more often. Food made her nauseous. She blamed stress—what else could it be? Her life was already too much. Until the day everything stopped. She was at work when it happened. The café was busy, voices blending into noise, the smell of coffee thick in the air. Elara gripped the edge of the counter, blinking hard as dizziness washed over her. “Are you okay?” someone asked. “I’m fine,” she murmured. She wasn’t. The room tilted. Her vision blurred. And then—darkness. When she woke up, the world felt quieter. Too quiet. White walls. A faint antiseptic smell. A soft beeping sound somewhere close. Hospital. Her heart dropped instantly. Her brother. She sat up too quickly. “My brother…. ” “He’s fine,” a nurse said gently. “You’re the patient.” Elara froze. The doctor came in shortly after, calm, professional, holding a file that suddenly felt like it contained her entire life. “You’ve been overworking yourself,” he began. “Your body is under a lot of stress.” “I know,” she said quickly. “I just need rest, I’ll be fine….” He shook his head slightly. “There’s more.” Something in his tone made her chest tighten. “Elara,” he said carefully, “you’re twenty six days pregnant.” The world didn’t just stop. It collapsed. “No,” she whispered. The word came out weak, broken. Like if she said it enough times, it would undo itself. “That’s not possible.” But it was. Her mind raced back to the unwanted, uninvited incident at the club. The car. The mistake she had tried so hard to bury. Her hands began to shake. “No… no, I can’t…” Her voice cracked. “I have school. I have bills. My brother….” Her breath hitched painfully. “I can’t have a baby.” Tears spilled before she could stop them. Not soft tears. Not quiet ones. These were desperate, terrified, overwhelming. She pressed her hands to her face, shaking. “How am I supposed to do this?” she cried. “How am I supposed to carry a child when I can barely carry my own life?” Fear wrapped around her throat. Disappointment settled deep in her chest—heavy, suffocating. Not just in the situation, but in herself. She had worked so hard to stay in control. And now everything was slipping. Her education. Her future. Her stability. All hanging by a thread she didn’t know how to hold. And the worst part? Adrian didn’t even know. She laughed weakly through her tears, the sound hollow. “Of course,” she whispered bitterly. “Of course this would happen to me.” For the first time in a long time, Elara felt truly lost. Not tired. Not overwhelmed. Lost. And this time, there was no simple way out.
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Billionaire Second Choice Chapter fifty six
Seraphina POV Seraphina had been living in the village for three weeks.She'd chosen it specifically for what it offered distance. Quiet. A place so far removed from anything connected to the Vale name, the company, the world she'd spent the last several months trying to fully exit, that nobody here had ever heard of any of it. She rented a small house at the edge of the village. She'd told them, when she arrived, the simplest version of a story that explained her presence without inviting questions.My husband travels for work, she'd said. I needed somewhere quiet while I wait for him.It wasn't entirely a lie.It just wasn't the whole truth either.She heard about the stranger from the woman who sold vegetables at the small market a foreigner, found near the forest road, can't remember his own name, the nurse says he's getting better though.Seraphina had nodded politely.Hadn't thought much of it.It was three days later needing supplies for a cough that had been bothering her,
Billionaire Second Choice Chapter fifty five
The room went still. Everyone looked at her. She kept her face completely even. "Before Adrian left," she said. "I called Mr. Osei. The transfer was completed." She held Derrick's gaze. "The fifteen percent is already in Adrian's name. There's nothing to sign." Helena looked at her. The flowers-and-tea voice was gone. What was underneath it was considerably colder. "You're lying," she said. "Call Mr. Osei," Elara said simply. "We will," Lucian said. "Good," she said. She held her ground. Three people and the weight of everything they'd done in the last weeks pressing against the single fact she'd just put in the room. True or not true she'd bought herself something. Time. She just needed— The elevator opened. Jonas came through the door at speed. He took in the room in one second — Derrick, Lucian, Helena, Elara standing against the wall with her hands flat at her sides and her face composed and doing something with her eyes that he read immediately
Billionaire Second Choice Chapter fifty four
A pause. We haven't found the second passenger yet sir. The car went into the embankment. We're still searching. Jonas held the phone. His name was Adrian Vale,Jonas said. Yes sir, the voice said. We know. That's why we called this number. Is there family we should contact? Jonas looked at the wall of his office. Thought about the penthouse. About Elara at the kitchen table with her notebook. About a baby at fourteen weeks whose heartbeat he'd heard. I'll handle it, he said. He hung up. Sat on the floor. For approximately thirty seconds he allowed himself to be a person who had just received that information. Then he stood up. And started making calls. Elara POV She knew something was wrong before Jonas said anything. He called at seven. She was making tea. His voice had the specific quality of someone who has prepared what they're going to say and is delivering it carefully. "There's been an accident," he said. She set the kettle down. "Adrian's car," he said. "O
Billionaire Second Choice Chapter fifty three
Adrian POV Adrian was already awake he'd been awake since four, which had become a pattern since the kitchen counter and I'm sorry and the ceiling he'd stared at for two hours afterward. He picked up on the first ring. Jonas. "You need to come in," he said. "Now. It's the Meridian infrastructure contract." Adrian was already out of bed. "What happened." "Someone filed a disclosure complaint with the regulatory board. Anonymous. Claiming financial irregularities in the original bid process." A pause. "It's detailed, Adrian. Too detailed to be random. Someone with inside knowledge filed this." Adrian stood at his window. The city was still dark. "Lucian," he said. "That's my read too." "How bad." "Bad enough that the regional board in Harwick wants a full audit. And the partner company in Harwick is threatening to pull their investment pending investigation." Another pause. "If they pull the whole project stalls. And if the project stalls during audit—" "T
Billionaire Second Choice Chapter fifty two
She said nothing. He didn't look at her face but he felt the change in the air beside him. Something that went very still. "You reminded me of her," he said. "Physically." He set the plate down. "That's why I paid the fees. Initially." She handed him another plate. He took it. "And the second time?" she said. Quietly. The forced quality of the question like she was asking something she needed the answer to even if the answer cost her. He dried the plate. Looked at the window above the sink. "The club," he said. "Yes." "You were wearing red," he said. "Dark red. Dancing and not caring who was watching." He paused. "You looked—" he stopped. Chose. "The word I thought was free. Like someone who had decided to take up exactly the amount of space they wanted and wasn't apologizing for it." He set the plate down. "I noticed you before you noticed me." She was looking at the water. "And then you turned around," he said. "And I thought—" he stopped. "What," she sai
Billionaire Second Choice Chapter fifty one
Seraphina POV She heard his office door close. Stood in the corridor for a moment after. Then she went upstairs. She showered quickly the good kind, the kind that washed the day off properly. Changed into something simple. Dark jeans, a soft cream top that Camille had picked and she'd grown to love for its particular quality of being comfortable without looking like she'd given up. She looked at herself in the mirror. Pressed her hand briefly to her stomach. "Dinner," she told the baby. The baby offered no objection. She went downstairs. She didn't know why she cooked. Or she did know — she just didn't examine it too carefully. Cooking was the thing she did when she wanted to do something real with her hands. When the day had been full of performed things and she needed one genuine one. She went through his kitchen with the confidence of someone who had been learning it quietly for weeks which cupboard held which, which burner ran hot, where the good pan was kept rather t
Billionaire Second Choice Chapter twenty five
She was beautiful in the specific way of women who had been told so their entire lives and had organized their personalities around it. Long legs crossed at the ankle, wine glass balanced in one hand, dark hair falling perfectly over one shoulder. She looked up from her phone with the unhurried eas
Billionaire Second Choice Chapter six
The number was unreachable.Again.Adrian lowered his phone slowly, his jaw tightening as the automated voice repeated the same lifeless message. “Damn it,” he muttered under his breath, dragging a hand through his hair.Three weeks.Three weeks since she disappeared without a trace. No goodbye. N
Billionaire Second Choice CHAPTER FOUR
The cool night air hit them as they stepped outside, a sharp contrast to the heat they’d created. The city hummed around them, unaware. Streetlights glowed softly, casting shadows that felt private, intimate. His car was parked just across the lot. Every step toward it felt like walking further int
Billionaire Second Choice CHAPTER THREE
The club was loud, pulsing with lights and heat. Music throbbed through the floor, through her bones. Drinks kept appearing in her hand. One turned into two. Two into something warmer, heavier. For the first time in months, Elara laughed without thinking about hospital bills. And while being a lit
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