All Chapters of When the Loser Became rich heir: Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
58 chapters
CHAPTER 21
The Presidential Suite at the Grand Victoria Hotel stretched across the entire forty-seventh floor, wrapped in glass and silence, the city lights below shimmering like something untouchable. Everything about it screamed wealth—polished marble floors, gold-trimmed fixtures, and furniture that looked like it had never been used. It was the kind of place Luca didn’t belong in, no matter how many contracts he signed or how high he climbed. Water still clung to his skin as he stepped out of the bathroom, his damp chestnut hair pushed back roughly by his hand. His broad shoulders carried the weight of years spent working with raw materials—steel, concrete, sweat. Even now, dressed in nothing but a towel around his waist, he looked more like a man who built empires from the ground than one who sat behind glass desks. “Damn place is too quiet,” he muttered under his breath, glancing toward the skyline. Then it came. A sharp cry. Not loud—but sharp enough to slice through the silence like b
CHAPTER 22
Luca straightened abruptly, creating space between them, though the distance felt meaningless. The suite was massive—wide enough to host a private gathering—but at that moment, the air between them felt tight, stretched thin like a wire ready to snap. The warmth of her damp skin still lingered on his arms, a sensation he couldn’t shake off no matter how much he tried to focus. “Is it broken?” he asked, his voice low, controlled. Caterina shifted slightly, testing her ankle. The moment she applied pressure, her expression tightened, a small wince slipping through before she masked it. “Twisted,” she replied, her tone clipped but steady. “I don’t think it’s broken.” “You don’t think?” Luca frowned, folding his arms across his chest. “That’s not exactly reassuring.” “It’s not your ankle,” she said coolly. “You don’t need reassurance.” “Yeah, well, I’d rather not have my assistant crawling around like she’s half-dead tomorrow.” “I won’t be crawling.” “With that ankle? You might.”
CHAPTER 23
Luca moved toward the minibar without another word, the quiet stretching behind him like something fragile that neither of them wanted to break too soon. The soft hum of the refrigeration unit filled the silence as he crouched slightly, opening it with a quiet click. “Let’s see what kind of overpriced nonsense they’ve got in here again,” he muttered under his breath. Bottled drinks lined up like soldiers, tiny glass bottles of alcohol no one needed, and finally—a small plastic bag of ice tucked in the corner. “Found it,” he said, more to himself than to her. He grabbed the ice and shut the door with his hip, reaching for a hand towel from the counter nearby. His hands worked quickly, wrapping the ice securely, his movements practiced, efficient—like a man who had dealt with injuries more times than he could count. “Hold still,” he called as he turned back toward her. “I am not moving,” Caterina replied flatly. When he returned to the bed, he noticed she had already propped her f
CHAPTER 24
Luca cleared his throat, the sound cutting through the thick silence that had settled after the call. “I should—” “Could you give me a moment?” Caterina said, her voice steady on the surface, but there was something underneath it—tight, strained, like a thread pulled too far. He paused. “…Yeah. Of course.” He didn’t hesitate after that. He turned and walked toward the door, pulling it open and stepping out into the hallway between their suites. The door clicked shut behind him, sealing her inside and leaving him alone with the quiet hum of the hotel floor. Luca leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. “Yeah,” he muttered under his breath, staring at the polished floor. “That didn’t sound like nothing.” Through the door, faint and muffled, he could hear her voice. Not words. Just tone. Low at first, then rising. Uneven. Frustrated. “…Great,” he scoffed quietly. “Guy sounds like the kind who thinks barking orders makes him a king.” He shifted his weight
CHAPTER 25
Luca waited outside the bathroom, his back resting against the wall, arms crossed loosely over his chest. The faint sound of movement came from inside—careful steps, the rustle of fabric, the quiet shift of someone trying not to make noise. “…Don’t rush,” he called, his voice low but clear. “Floor’s still not your friend.” “I’m aware,” Caterina replied from inside, her tone calm, controlled. “Just making sure you don’t try to prove something again.” “I don’t need to prove anything.” “Yeah,” he muttered. “That’s what people say right before they fall twice.” Silence followed. A few seconds later— “Luca.” “Yeah?” “…Can you help me?” He straightened immediately, pushing off the wall. “Told you not to play hero,” he said as he opened the door and stepped inside. “I’m not playing anything.” “You’re terrible at lying.” She didn’t argue this time. He walked over to her, offering his arm again without hesitation. “Alright. Slow this time.” “I am going slow.” “Slower,” he corre
CHAPTER 26
“That’s not—” Luca started, his brows pulling together, the words catching somewhere between frustration and disbelief. “It’s fine.” Caterina cut him off with a small wave of her hand, dismissive but controlled, like she was brushing aside something insignificant instead of dismantling herself piece by piece. “I’m used to it.” “You shouldn’t be,” Luca said immediately, his tone sharpening. “I am,” she repeated, her voice calm, almost detached. “My position in the company sounds prestigious, but my rank is low. I don’t have the connections or the name recognition that my half-siblings have.” “So they treat you like you’re invisible,” Luca muttered. “Worse,” she corrected quietly. “Like I’m inconvenient.” He scoffed, shaking his head. “Yeah. That tracks. Rich families always got one they pretend doesn’t exist.” “I’m an embarrassment to the family,” she continued, her gaze fixed somewhere past him, unfocused. “The daughter my father shouldn’t have had.” Her voice didn’t shake. Bu
CHAPTER 27
“I want to be free of them.” The words came out of Caterina before she could stop them—raw, stripped of the careful control she had clung to all night. They hung in the air, heavy and unpolished, nothing like the measured sentences she usually delivered. “I want to make my own choices,” she continued, her voice quieter now but no less intense. “I don’t want to be sold to a man that I don’t want to spend my life being reminded that I’m not good enough… that I don’t belong… that everything I have is because someone took pity on me.” Her voice cracked. Just slightly. But enough. She pressed her lips together immediately, as if trying to force the weakness back inside, her chin trembling despite her effort to remain composed. “…Damn it,” she whispered under her breath. Luca didn’t interrupt. Didn’t move. He just looked at her. Caterina Russo—the woman who had spent six months standing beside him like a flawless machine, never faltering, never slipping. The woman who spoke in pre
CHAPTER 28
Caterina said nothing. For a long moment, the room fell into a silence so complete it felt deliberate, as if even the air had decided not to interfere. Her hands remained folded neatly in her lap, but the restless movement from before had stopped entirely. No more nervous picking. No more subtle fidgeting. Stillness. But not calm. Her gaze was fixed on Luca with an intensity that hadn’t been there before—sharp, searching, almost intrusive. It was the look of someone trying to peel back layers, to see beyond the surface, to understand something that didn’t quite make sense. “You don’t even know me,” she said finally, her voice quiet but firm. “Not really.” Luca didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he stood. Slowly. Deliberately. He walked past her toward the wide glass windows, his reflection faintly visible against the glittering cityscape beyond. The lights below blurred into streaks of gold and white, a thousand lives unfolding in the dark, none of them aware of the quiet w
CHAPTER 29
Caterina stared at him, her heart beating faster than it should have been. The room felt quieter now, but not in the same suffocating way as before. Something had shifted—subtle, but undeniable. The professional boundary she had carefully maintained for six months no longer stood intact. It had cracked, then fractured, and now it was gone entirely. In its place was something unfamiliar. Unstable. Real. He was still holding her hand. And the fact that he chose to—without necessity, without obligation—made her chest tighten in a way she couldn’t immediately understand. “You don’t have to do this,” she said quietly, her voice controlled, though softer than usual. Luca didn’t look away from her. “I know.” There was no hesitation in his tone. No second-guessing. Just certainty. He shifted slightly closer—not invading her space, but closing the distance enough to make the moment feel more personal than professional. His hand tightened around hers just slightly, as if grounding the
CHAPTER 30
In the other room, Caterina sat alone in the quiet. The space felt larger now, emptier in a way that had nothing to do with its physical size. The lingering warmth from Luca’s presence had faded, leaving behind a stillness that pressed gently against her thoughts rather than overwhelming them. Her hand remained slightly raised in her lap, fingers curling and uncurling once before settling again. The faint tingling where his palm had held hers refused to disappear completely, as if her body itself had registered the moment and decided not to let it go so easily. She lowered her gaze. Her swollen ankle rested on the pillow, the ice pack partially melted, its cold seeping into the towel beneath it. The contrast between the physical discomfort and the quiet calm of the room made everything feel strangely disconnected—like she was observing her own situation from a distance rather than living inside it. On the nearby table, her phone lay silent. It had not stopped vibrating earlier.