The CEO's Regret: His Lost Wife's Secret Twins novel Chapter 13

Chapter 13

ARIA

The tears came the moment I closed my bedroom door.

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Stupid. So stupid.

Three years of this contract marriage, and I still couldn’t kill whatever idiotic part of me hoped he’d care. I

pressed my bandaged hands against my face, trying to stop the crying. It didn’t work.

I’d thought-just for one second when he showed up outside-that maybe nearly bleeding out in a locked

wine cellar might matter to him.

Wrong again.

Emma calls, Blake runs. Same story. Always the same damn story.

Sleep didn’t come. How could it? Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him holding Emma’s hand over that tiny scratch while I’d been pounding on a wine cellar door until my fingers bled and the air ran out.

The comparison made me sick.

By morning, my eyes were so swollen I could barely see straight. Great. Just great.

I made it downstairs planning to grab something quick and head straight to the police station. Someone had drugged me. Someone had locked me in that cellar to die-either from blood loss or suffocation. Contract

wife or not, I deserved answers.

Blake sat at the dining table. “Going somewhere?”

“The police station.” I kept my voice steady. “To file a report.”

His cup hit the saucer. “No.”

“What?”

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Chapter 13

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“You’re not filing anything.” He didn’t look up from his phone. “Sit down.”

He can’t be serious.

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“Blake, someone locked me in that cellar. I nearly died.”

“I know.” He finally met my eyes. Cold. Flat. “Which is exactly why you’re staying quiet.”

My bandaged hands started shaking. “You’re joking.”

“Do I look like I’m joking?” He leaned back. “The second this hits the press, our stock tanks. The board loses

their minds. Investors panic. We’re closing a three-billion-dollar merger. I can’t have this kind of mess.”

Mess. That’s what I am to him.

“Someone tried to kill me.” My voice cracked. “You’re worried about stock prices?”

“I’m worried about protecting what actually matters.” Ice in every word. “The company employs fifty

thousand people. You want me to tank all that because you had an accident?”

“Accident?” I could barely breathe. “Blake, I was drugged. The door was locked from outside.”

“You don’t know that.” He picked up his coffee. “You were drinking. Maybe you wandered down there and

the door stuck.”

He doesn’t believe me. Worse-he doesn’t care.

“Look at my hands.” I held them up. White bandages. Dried blood seeping through. “Look at what I did

trying to get out.”

Something flickered in his eyes. He stared at my hands. Then my face. Taking in the swollen eyes, the pale

skin, the trembling.

“You look like hell,” he said.

That was it. No warmth. Just observation.

“Here.” He pulled a tissue from the box and held it out. Not offering. Commanding. “Your makeup’s running.”

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Chapter 13

I stared at the tissue. This was care, Blake Morgan style. A tissue. Because my ruined face might embarrass

him.

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I didn’t take it.

“Please.” I hated the desperation in my voice. “Just let me file a report. Quietly. No press. Just a record in

case-

“In case what?” He set the tissue down. “In case it happens again? Then what? We question all our guests?

Drag Morgan Global through every tabloid in New York?”

“Better than ending up dead.”

His jaw tightened. “You’ll be fine. I’ll double security. Get you a bodyguard. But no police.”

“You mean I don’t get to go to police.”

“Correct.”

He’s choosing his company over my life. Actually choosing it.

The tears came. Hot. Angry. Impossible to stop with these useless bandaged hands.

“Stop that.” Edge of irritation in his voice. “This is the smart move. After the merger closes, we can revisit.”

“Revisit?” The laugh that came out was broken. “You mean wait until everyone forgets? Until there’s no

evidence?”

‘I mean wait until the timing’s better.” He stood, adjusting his cufflinks. Those expensive silver ones I’d

bought him last Christmas. “You’re tired. Emotional. Not thinking straight.”

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The CEO’s Regret: His Lost Wife’s Secret Twins