All Chapters of The Secret Billionaire's Return : Chapter 41
- Chapter 50
73 chapters
She's not even the real mother
Vivian wiped the last perfect tear from her cheek and looked straight into the camera.“I’m only a mother,” she said, voice soft and shaking. “All I want is my little girl back safe. Please, if anyone knows where she is, tell the police. Help me bring Chloe home. Help me save her from the people hurting her. Thank you.”She blew a tiny kiss, ended the live, and the screen went black.The room was silent for three seconds.Then Vivian threw her head back and laughed. Real, loud, ugly laughter. She kicked off her heels, fell backwards onto the huge bed, and rolled like a teenager who just won the lottery.“Yes! Yes! Yes!”She grabbed her phone again and scrolled the comments.Lawyer here—happy to take your case pro bono Another lawyer: Sue for full guardianship This mother deserves justice Chloe is sick, someone save her Poor woman, I’m cryingShe hugged the phone to her chest and squealed.“No way that boy crawls out of this hole,” she whispered to the ceiling. “He’s finished.”
the mask is gone
Vivian stood in the middle of her bedroom, breathing like she had run a mile. Her hands shook. Her perfect makeup was smudged. Outside the window, cameras flashed like lightning.“If I walk out now they’ll tear me apart,” she whispered.She pressed her back to the wall and forced herself to think.Nothing was proven in court yet. Photos could be fake. Papers could be lies. The public was stupid; they loved a crying woman. She just needed one person to stand beside her and swear the story was different.Duncan.He hated Chloe and Leo more than she did. He had disappeared after the last scandal, but Vivian still had his secret number.She called. No answer. She called again. Third time, he picked up.“What?” Duncan’s voice was ice.“Duncan, listen,” she said fast, keeping her voice low. “I don’t have time. I can give you Leo and Chloe on a plate. They’re destroying me right now, but if you help me, we destroy them together.”He laughed, cold and mean. “Your plans always fall apa
Every man for himself
Warning: This chapter contains explicit adult content.Adrian sat on the edge of the hotel bed, boots still on, television flickering with the news. Vivian’s tear-streaked face filled the screen one second, the next it was the prison video, then her own bedroom confession. The whole world was tearing her apart in real time.He watched it all with a blank stare.For one short hour he had really believed it was over. Leo and Chloe ruined, Vivian in power, Darwin smiling from his tower. Easy.But they slipped away again.“Always,” he muttered. “They always slip away.”The purple light under his skin flickered, angry little sparks. The Void whispered in the back of his head: Kill them. Finish it.He pressed his palms to his eyes until he saw red. “Not tonight,” he said out loud. “I need quiet tonight.”Plus Darwin had told him to disappear for a while, let the smoke clear. “Stay quiet, stay low,” the man had said, voice calm as glass.So here he was, two towns over, cheap hotel, fake na
Your turn to run
The kitchen in the little house on the hill was warm. Sunlight came through the windows. Chloe sat at the small table. She had pulled her knees up to her chest. She was wearing Leo's big hoodie. It was huge on her, like a blanket with sleeves.Leo stood by the window. He wasn't really looking at anything. His arms were crossed."We're right in the middle of it now," Chloe said. Her voice was quiet. "All of it. Vivian. The board. The news. Darwin. And whatever weird thing Adrian is doing. We're the only ones who can stop this whole mess. But Leo... I don't even know where to start."Leo rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know either. Victoria was supposed to be our guide. Our map. Now the map is gone. I keep thinking someone else has to know the old stories. The rules. But I can't find them."He turned to her. He tried to smile, but it looked tired. "Let's take one problem at a time, okay? First, we eat. I'm starving. And you haven't eaten real food in two days."Chloe gave a little
You're killing him
The world went still. Just for a second. Then, everything broke.Leo did not run. He just was not there, and then he was. He moved so fast it made no sense. One moment he was a distance away. The next, his fist hit Adrian’s chest. It felt like getting hit by a train made of light. The air left Adrian’s lungs with a whoosh. He flew backward, tumbling through the air before crashing into the dirt. He rolled, coughing. The blood that came out of his mouth was a strange purple color. It steamed on the cool grass.Adrian pushed himself up, his arms shaking. A dark, stone-like shell began to creep over his skin, trying to protect him. But it was either too late or too slow.Leo laughed. It was not a happy sound. It was wild and low. He looked like he was going mad.Then he moved again in that impossible blur. His hand closed around Adrian’s throat. He lifted him right off the ground with one arm. Adrian’s feet kicked at the air, finding nothing.“Do you feel that?” Leo’s voice was quiet. A
Chloe is gone again
Adrian’s lips moved but No sound came. Just more blood. The glowing fist hung there, ready to fall.STOP!A voice exploded inside Leo’s head. It was not his own. It was Iden’s voice, and it cracked through his thoughts like a whip."You are killing him, boy! This is not justice. This is murder. Look at what you are doing! Just look at him!"The golden haze in Leo’s mind shattered. He blinked, as if waking up from a deep sleep. He looked down.Adrian was lying broken in the dirt. He was barely breathing. One of his arms was bent at a terrible angle. A dark pool of blood was spreading under his head. The purple light in his veins was just a faint pulse now, weak and slow.Leo’s hand dropped to his side. The fierce glow around him faded, growing dim. He was breathing hard, his chest rising and falling fast.He stared at his own hands. They were covered in blood and little cuts from the black stone. Then he looked back at Adrian’s ruined body.A new thought entered his mind, clear and hor
He'll meet his end
Leo was just standing there, right in the middle of their empty bedroom. That gold light? It was still there, flickering over his skin. Like he was a match that someone had struck and couldn’t blow out. He couldn’t catch his breath. His heart was beating way too fast.All he could see in his head was that picture. The one from Adrian’s mind. Chloe. On her knees. He couldn’t shake it. His thoughts were all scrambled, running in circles.Where would a guy like Darwin take her? That old stone tower on the edge of town? Some nasty warehouse down by the docks? A basement somewhere? Every minute he spent standing here guessing was another minute she was stuck there, probably terrified.He lost it. Just for a second. He spun and drove his fist straight into the wall. Crunch. Plaster and dust went everywhere. “Where ARE you?” he yelled. The words just bounced off the empty walls.And then… he heard a laugh. Soft. Coming from the hallway.Leo whirled around, his hands coming up, already glowin
The world would be ruined if you fail
The words didn’t feel like words. They felt like a punch right in the chest. Leo couldn’t breathe.And then he noticed movement. From the side.Chloe.She was running across the stone floor. She crashed into him so hard he stumbled back a step. Her arms locked around his neck, her face was buried against his shoulder. He could feel her whole body shaking.“You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay,” she kept saying. It was like a chant. A prayer.He held onto her. Tight. So tight he was afraid of hurting her. She just held on tighter. Her hair smelled like woodsmoke and salt. He just breathed her in. For that second, nothing else existed.When he finally looked up over her shoulder, he saw another woman. Standing off to the side, watching.it was Liana. Victoria's daughter. but the intensity with which he looked at him made him uncomfortable. it was the look of one waiting for her long lost lover. Leo gave Liana just the smallest nod. That’s all. Then he turned his attention back to the
Letting go is not an option
The last torch coughed and went dark. Only the faint red glow from the coals was left, and Victoria’s slow, raspy snores from the far cot. Liana hadn’t moved in hours; she slept like someone who’d learned long ago how to disappear even while breathing.Leo stared at the ceiling and counted cracks in the stone instead of sheep. Every time his eyes drifted shut he saw the same picture: Chloe on black rock, gold and red spilling out of her. His chest hurt like someone had parked a truck on it.He sat up, rubbed both hands over his face, looked over. Her cot was empty. Blanket folded the way she always did, corners sharp like she was still running board meetings in her sleep. The air left his lungs in one hard push.Boots on, jacket grabbed, up the stairs without a sound.The night outside hit him cold and clean. The hidden door had already sealed itself; grass had grown back like nothing had ever moved. Moonlight poured down thick as milk. Everything silver and quiet.And there s
You stole it from me
Morning came slow, grey light sneaking down the stone stairs like it was afraid to wake anybody. Leo was already up, sitting on the edge of the cot, pulling his boots on. Chloe watched him from under the blanket, hair a mess, eyes still soft from sleep. Neither of them had said much yet. They didn’t need to. Last night still clung to their skin.A low rumble rolled through the chamber: footsteps on the hidden stairs. Victoria was on her feet in a blink, hand on the silver knife she slept with. The door in the earth lifted. Two men stepped down.The older one had white hair tied back, face carved deep with lines, eyes the colour of winter sky. The younger one, maybe twenty-five, the same height as Leo, lean muscle under a plain black shirt, walked half a step behind him. Same sharp cheekbones, same straight nose. No one needed to say anything for you to know they were father and son.The old man spoke first, voice low but clear. “Name’s Elias. This is my boy Rowan.” He look