The Billionaire Regret

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aded with familiarity. She leaned into Daniel as though the seat beside me were empty, as though I were nothing more than a

a reminder of a world that kept moving even as mine stood still. My fingers curled into my dress until the fabric wrink

elt like stone. The servants waited in two neat lines as we entered, their faces lowered in pr

murmured, voice shaking with

front of everyone. Right

old the whole crowd

g her? In

burden. Said he couldn

one. The words lingered like smoke, impossible to clear. And then

mistress is fading. The master doesn't look at

t, my chin lifted higher, and I walked past them with the grace drille

sed a small bottle into my palm

," he said flatly. "Take it be

No concern. J

curved into a smirk that dared me to resist.

er against my tongue, swallowed dr

a touch that was too familiar, too intimate. As if it belonged there. Her laugh followed h

he warmth, slow, almost harmless. But it spread quickly, curling in my stomac

d of color, eyes sunken into shadow. The glow I once carried had

the mind. But Elizabeth's voice haunted me still, a cruel

gh the crack beneath my door. Servants

has already ordered

Elizabeth. She's al

he youngest mai

night. He doesn't want her weakness in his chamb

by a sigh. "Poor Mrs. Cobbs. A

iel stood there, face blan

from now on," he said. No hesitatio

im, perfume thick in the air, h

wrapped around me like armor. My steps carried

are, the air hollow. Stripped of warmth, stripped of h

s to my ears, desperate to block out

ing, the same tone he once used for me. Then the rhythm. Their rhythm. The sounds I had

sigh. A wound I

ars stung, but I refused to let them fall. Instead, I

t stolen piece by piece. Not dying, not yet, but poisone

the frailty, something stirre

erased. They wa

laughter and moans, I whispered th

t

t give the