The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 92

Chapter 83: Tom missing his parents

Bella pov

+25 Points

We drove to Maya’s in tense silence, both processing what had just happened. I’d kissed him. I really kissed him and I wanted more.

Tom was crying when we arrived, inconsolable despite Maya’s best efforts. The moment he saw us, he reached for both of us. “Mommy, Daddy, don’t leave me again.”

“We’re right here, buddy.” I held him close while Caleb rubbed his back. “We’re not going anywhere.”

“Promise?” Tom’s grey eyes were wet with tears. “Promise you’ll both stay?”

Caleb and I looked at each other over Tom’s head, the question hanging there. “We promise,” Caleb said finally.

We took Tom back to the penthouse, both of us tucking him into bed together. He fell asleep holding both our hands, his breathing finally evening out.

“We should talk about what happened,” Caleb said as we left Tom’s room.

“Not tonight.” I was exhausted, emotionally wrung out. “Tonight I just need to sleep.”

“Okay, but Bella, we are going to talk about this. About the kiss, about what you want, about where we go from here.”

“I know.” I moved toward my room. “Just not tonight.”

I closed my door and leaned against it, touching my still-tingling lips, remembering the way Caleb had kissed me like I was oxygen. I’d crossed a line tonight, Multiple lines. And I had no idea how to uncross them.

My phone buzzed with a text from Ethan: “Had a wonderful time tonight. Looking forward to our dinner. How’s next Friday?”

I stared at the message, at the simple offer of an uncomplicated date with a good man, and felt nothing but guilt. Because Caleb was right, I didn’t want Ethan.

I wanted the man down the hall who’d heard me moaning his name, who’d called me out on my bullshit, who’d kissed me like I was the only thing that mattered.

I typed out a response: “Friday works. Looking forward to it.”

Then I climbed into bed and tried to convince myself I’d made the right choice.

Ethan POV

I sat in my study, scotch in hand, thinking about Bella Hart. She’d said yes to dinner. After months of watching her navigate the corporate world with brilliant intensity while Black circled her like a predator, she’d actually said yes.

Everyone in the business world knew about the Hart Worldwide CEO who’d built an empire from nothing.

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Chapter 83 missing his parents

+25 Points

But watching her destroy her father’s schemes and take his company with cold intensity, had been something else entirely.

She was magnificent and she deserved better than Caleb Black. I’d done my research on their history. The contract marriage, the pregnancy, the abandonment. Black had treated her like garbage and now he was trying to win her back through proximity and manipulation. Bella deserved better.

She deserved someone who’d valued her from the start, who saw her brilliance and strength, who wouldn’t hurt her just because he was too damaged to recognize what he had.

Someone like me.

I wasn’t arrogant enough to think one dinner would change everything. Bella was clearly still tangled up with Black emotionally, still working through whatever complicated feelings existed between them.

But I was patient. I’d built Pierce Industries from a $10,000 loan into a billion-dollar empire through patience and strategy. I could apply the same principles to winning Bella Hart.

My phone rang. My COO, Joe. “Sir, I have those financials you requested on Black Enterprises.”

“Send them over.” I’d been analyzing Black’s company for weeks, looking for weaknesses, opportunities to create distance between him and Bella.

The files came through and I studied them carefully. Black Enterprises was solid, well-run, profitable. But there were areas of potential conflict with Hart Worldwide, markets where their interests competed rather than complemented.

If I could position Pierce Industries as a better partner for Bella’s expansion plans, show her that working with me offered advantages Black couldn’t match, she might start to see him as a competitor rather than a collaborator. It wasn’t underhanded, this was business.

And if business happened to create personal distance between Bella and the man who’d destroyed her, well, that was just a fortunate side effect.

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