All Chapters of Betrayed, I Become The CEO'S Contracted Bride: Chapter 281 - Chapter 290

Elara found Mira at the desk by her bedroom window with a mathematics problem open across two pages. The pen moved through the margin in small, fast corrections.Elara knocked against the open door.Mira looked up. The pen stopped against the paper before she set it down. "You're leaving."Elara had rehearsed the first sentence on the walk from the annex. Mira removed any use for it before Elara entered the room."I'm relocating the subjects' care to a secure Vance Biomedical site.""When?""After the medical transfer is approved.""That wasn't my question."Elara stayed near the door. Sitting would suggest a conversation she had already reduced to a decision."Within the week."Mira turned the pen until it lined up with the edge of the paper. "How long?""Indefinitely.""Who runs my care day to day?""I do, through the secure medical link. Dr. Chen keeps the usual rotation here.""And

The following evening, Elara returned to the annex bench and opened a new document.The relocation file already held the site specifications, medical transfer plan and staff clearances. Those pages covered equipment and people. The directors on the Vance Biomedical board would still ask why its chief executive intended to leave her own estate and run two vulnerable subjects from a building known only to operations staff.She selected the board's risk memorandum template.Unlike the operations file, the template required a source beside each claim and a person responsible for every safeguard. Elara opened Hammond's logs on a second screen and lined them up with the empty fields.The first field was Change proposed. Elara entered the secure site's address, the transfer date and the operations that would move with her. Lucia's protocol would remain at the receiving clinic until her doctors approved travel. Mira's care would continue from the estate under Dr.

Alexander sat at the study desk with a legal pad beside his laptop and his jacket folded over the back of the chair. The lamp lit the papers in front of him and left the rest of the room dim.Elara stopped at the open door with the relocation folder against her side.He looked up. His eyes moved to the folder, then returned to her face."Do you have a minute?" she asked.Alexander closed the laptop. "Yes."The chair across from him stood at an angle after the last person who used it. Elara walked past it and placed the folder on his desk. Standing kept the exchange inside the form she had prepared."I am relocating the active case work to the secure Vance Biomedical site," she said. "The directive takes effect in forty-eight hours."Alexander rested his pen beside the legal pad. He opened the folder and read the title page while she continued."Lucia will stay at the receiving clinic until her doctors approve a transfer. Mira r

Elara cooked because standing over the stove gave her hands a job.She found pasta in the pantry, tomatoes and garlic in the refrigerator, and half a loaf of bread that needed to be used. Alexander took out two plates. He set them at the kitchen island instead of carrying them into the dining room."The basil is dead," she said.Alexander looked at the pot on the windowsill. "It had a difficult week.""It had no water.""That would explain the difficulty."Elara cut the last usable leaves from one stem and dropped them into the sauce. She almost smiled. Her attention returned to the pan before he could see it.They ate at the island with the relocation file removed from the space between them. Alexander asked about Lucia's latest scan. Elara told him the inflammation had come down and that Hammond's team had recovered enough compound for Vance Biomedical to begin testing the withdrawal protocol."And Mira?" he asked."Dr

By five, Elara had moved her document case, travel bag, medical equipment and two sealed drives into the front hall.The transfer vehicle waited in the courtyard with its rear doors open. A second car would carry her to the secure site after Lucia's scan. Elara checked both registrations against Hammond's route sheet before she allowed the first case outside."The equipment list is already verified," the estate security officer said."Verify it again at the gate.""Yes, Dr. Vance."She lifted the document case herself. The officer reached for it, then changed direction and took the heavier monitor crate from the floor. Elara carried her case to the car and locked it into the bracket behind the passenger seat.Hammond called at five thirty."The route is clear," he said. "Your driver receives the final turn after you pass the clinic junction.""Who released the checkpoint window?""Thorne security. The authorization came