Semua Bab The Billionaires Greatest Regret: Bab 21 - Bab 30

POV: Vivienne Ashford"Mama, Roman wants to know if he can come to my birthday party," Maya announced over breakfast, spooning cereal into her mouth with the casual air of someone delivering entirely unremarkable news, though Vivienne noticed her daughter watching for a reaction all the same."He asked you directly?" Vivienne said, raising an eyebrow."He asked me to ask you," Maya clarified. "He said it's called going through proper channels."Vivienne laughed despite herself, recognizing Roman's careful diplomacy even secondhand, six months into an arrangement that had slowly, deliberately, evolved from supervised recital visits into something steadier, something that no longer required careful negotiation before every shared moment with the twins."Tell him yes," Vivienne said, and Maya beamed, already sliding off her chair to relay the message, though Vivienne suspected the message had likely already been sent the moment Maya finished chewing.Six months had reshaped nearly every

POV: Vivienne Ashford"Mr. de Luca is here," Marcus said, appearing in the doorway of Roman's office with an expression that suggested the visit was neither expected nor welcome. "He doesn't have an appointment, but he says he'll wait as long as necessary.""Send him in," Roman said, exchanging a glance with Vivienne, who had come to the office that morning specifically to review the profile Roman's team had compiled on Caius de Luca, unwilling to be caught unprepared a second time by a threat circling their family from the shadows.Caius de Luca entered with the unhurried confidence of a man who had never once doubted his welcome anywhere he chose to appear, tall and precisely dressed, his dark eyes settling on Vivienne with an intensity that made her spine straighten instinctively."Vivienne Castille," Caius said, his accent lending the name a formality she hadn't heard applied to it in years. "You've grown into someone considerably more formidable than the girl I remember from our

POV: Vivienne Ashford"The documentation is authentic," Caius said, sliding a folder across the conference table toward Vivienne's father, his voice carrying none of the cold formality from their first meeting weeks earlier. "My uncle's signature appears on three separate shipping manifests connected to the arms shipments. My father never knew."Vivienne watched her father absorb the confirmation with a slow, weary nod, fifteen years of an unspoken accusation finally settling into something closer to resolution. "I'm sorry it took this long to reach you, Caius. I should have found a way to tell your father directly, regardless of the ongoing investigation's restrictions.""You couldn't have known my uncle would let my father die still believing the accusation baseless," Caius said. "That failure belongs to him, not to you.""What will you do now?" Vivienne asked."My uncle is still alive, still managing what remains of the family's shipping interests in Naples," Caius said, his jaw ti

POV: Vivienne Ashford"The financial records confirm it," Arthur said, spreading a series of decades-old wire transfer documents across the conference table, the Naples courtroom's preliminary discovery request having unearthed far more than anyone anticipated. "Eleanor Ashford maintained a private account linked to Caius's uncle's shipping operation for over a decade, beginning three years before Vivienne's original betrothal was even arranged."Roman stared at the documents, his jaw tight, the particular exhaustion of a man confronting yet another layer of his mother's deception settling heavily across his features. "She was profiting from the arms trafficking too.""The transfers suggest a quieter arrangement," Arthur said carefully. "Payments that increased significantly in the months following the original betrothal's collapse, consistent with someone being paid for silence rather than active participation. My best assessment is that Eleanor discovered the uncle's crimes around t

POV: Vivienne Ashford"Hold still, Ms. Maya, or the flowers are going to end up in your hair instead of the basket," the wedding coordinator said, chasing Maya across the garden for the third time that morning, the little girl clearly more interested in practicing her flower-scattering technique at full sprint than at the measured pace rehearsal required.Vivienne watched from the terrace, already dressed, her mother fussing with the final pins in her hair while Leo sat nearby in his small suit, solemnly guarding a velvet pillow with the rings as though it were a mission of the utmost national importance."Nervous?" her mother asked, meeting her eyes in the mirror."No," Vivienne said, and found, with some surprise, that it was entirely true. "I was nervous the first time, twelve years ago. I didn't know yet what could go wrong, so everything felt like a risk. This time I know exactly what can go wrong, and I'm marrying him anyway, with my eyes fully open. That feels like the opposit