The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 195

Chapter 175: Diana’s Breakdown pt 3

Diana POV

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Caleb arrived minutes later. When he saw me, an expression flickered across his face that he didn’t bother to hide.

He lingered in the doorway, assessing the room. His hair was windblown, as if he’d driven with the windows down.

He glanced at Bella; she gave him a small nod. Then his eyes settled on me. I watched a look take hold of him that I couldn’t quite name.

“Hey,”

“Hey,” I said.

He crossed the room and sat on the other side of me from Bella and didn’t say anything else for a

moment.

“I’m not going to ask if you’re okay,” he said finally.

“Good,” I said. “Because I’m not.”

“Okay.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, looking at the floor. “Do you want to talk about it or do you want to just sit here?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“That’s fine,” he said. “We’ve got time.”

The three of us sat in the quiet hotel room, neither of us talking.

Then Caleb spoke. “Tell us about the documents. Both of them.”

I looked at him. “You know there are two?”

“Bella told me,” he said, glancing at her. “Like the summary.”

I nodded and picked up the first document. “This one is about me. The trust Victor set up when I was born -the one he said would be mine at twenty-five.” I set it down. “He redirected every penny to his own foundation, It is gone.”

Caleb’s jaw tightened, but he remained silent.

“It’s not the money,” I added quickly. “I don’t need it. It’s that there was no anger or guilt in what he did. It wasn’t a punishment, I was just a line item he deleted, like I never existed.”

The room fell silent.

“You existed,” Caleb said, his voice low and certain.

“I know that now. I’m just telling you what the document says.”

1:3

Chapter 175 Chena’s Breakdown pt 3

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He nodded once, his throat moving. We sat with it for a moment, the three of us, the first document still face down between us.

“He told me about it,” Caleb said quietly. “The trust. When I was maybe ten, he said” He stopped. Pressed his lips together. “He said it was yours and you’d have it at twenty-five and it would mean you were always taken care of even if something happened to him.” He looked at the floor. “He said it like he meant it.”

“He probably did mean it,” said. “At the time. Before I became inconvenient to him.”

“Diana”

“I’m not being self-pitying,” I said, my voice even. “I’ve just had time tò process it. He wasn’t consistent. Cruelty you can guard against, but inconsistency keeps you hoping.”

Bella squeezed my hand.

“I spent years wondering what I did to change things,” I continued, looking at the ceiling. “How I went from the daughter with a trust fund to the one sent away with a suitcase. But there was no tangible reason. I just stopped being useful, so he moved on.”

“He was wrong,” Caleb said simply.

“Yes,” I said. “He was, now to the second one,” I said, picking up the Hale document and placing it on the bed between us. “This isn’t about me. It’s about all of us. Victor had an early partner, Robert Hale. Hale helped build the foundation of Black Enterprises. Victor bought him out in 1987, but the buyout included a clause for ongoing equity in everything built since. Victor buried it, and Hale died before he could contest

it.”

Bella’s eyes raced across the pages, her fingers tracing it. I watched her find the clause as reality dawned.

“His family,” she said.

“Has the original documents,” I confirmed. “I don’t know how, but I think they have them.”

“If it holds,” Bella started.

“It’s not a payment,” I said. “It’s a stake. In everything built since 1987.”

Caleb went still-a habit from our childhood. It used to precede something cold, but now, he was just thinking. “Okay,” he said finally.

“Okay?”

“We deal with it.” He looked at Bella, and a silent shorthand passed between them-the look of two people who had survived worse. “Not tonight. Tonight we’re here for you,” he told me. “The rest we handle in the morning.”

The silence that followed was lighter, as if a long-carried weight had finally been set down.

I looked at Bella. She looked exhausted, yet she had managed everything-the drive, the documents, Caleb-without once making me feel like a burden.

“You should go home,” I said. “Both of you. Grace will need”

Chapter 125 Una’s Breakdown pt 3

“Nadia has Grace,” Bella interrupted. “And Tom sleeps until seven. We have time.”

“You drove here for me.”

She gave me a patient look. “Diana. Yes. For you.”

I shook my head, feeling something loosen in my chest. “How is Grace, actually?”

Their faces softened with that helpless parental warmth.

“She’s a lot,” Bella laughed. “She has very strong opinions for a baby.”

“She sounds like you,” I said.

“That’s what I keep saying,” Caleb added.

“She has his stubbornness,” Bella countered. “She’ll only sleep on her left side and make her feelings

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