Reclaiming Her Heart

Raymond lit a cigarette and headed for the door, pausing only to deliver a final, hoarse statement.

"If I'd known women could be this heartless, I would've steered clear of relationships altogether," he said.

The words burned his throat raw as he spoke them.

He yanked the door open only to find Lucille standing there. She had been invited to the same venue and was running late, her friends already inside the private room.

"Raymond," she called, peering past him to see only Paul inside.noveldrama

Raymond vaguely recognized her. He gave a curt nod and attempted to leave, but after a moment's hesitation, Lucille grabbed his arm and pulled him back inside, shutting the door behind them.

"I'm only going to say this once," she said, glancing around to confirm there were no security cameras before continuing. "That day you were reviewing security footage at Sky Gallery I ran into Selena. She was wearing a server's uniform, seemed to be hiding from someone. The critical thing is... she's blind. I wanted to tell you sooner, but someone held a gun to my head that day."

She took a deep breath, patting her chest as if to calm her racing heart.

"Pretend you never saw me tonight. I don't know who those people were, but they treated Selena terribly forced her to consume something," Lucille added.

The cigarette slipped from Raymond's fingers. His mind went completely blank as his brow furrowed. "Did you say she's blind?"

"Yes. She bumped into me in the hallway and recognized my voice. She asked me to help her to a car. I was going to get her away, but another group showed up they were brutal, forcing something down her throat. Everything I'm telling you is true," Lucille replied.

With that, she hurried away. The threats she'd received were still fresh in her mind; she couldn't afford to be careless.

Raymond stood frozen, his thoughts crashing like a tidal wave.

Suddenly, he recalled the day he signed the agreement with Christopher-how Selena had sat in Christopher's lap the entire time, wearing a hat pulled low. He'd assumed she was devoted to Christopher, deliberately avoiding his gaze.

But what if she had been blind and trying to hide it from him?

Every muscle in his body tensed at once.

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Alone with Paul in the room, his eyes turned bloodshot. "What if Selena said those cruel things to prevent me from signing the transfer? If she's truly blind... could she have done it to protect me?"

Paul stood by the card table, momentarily speechless.

Part of him wanted to say, "Wake up-she doesn't love you."

But a stronger voice within him argued that Raymond might be right.

Even if Selena didn't love Raymond, she was fundamentally decent. Despite Paul's dislike for her, he had to admit she was a good person-incapable of the betrayal he'd accused her of.

Raymond flung open the door and raced toward the elevator, calling John as he ran. "Tell Christopher there's an emergency board meeting tonight. When he enters Montague Group, have someone jam his signal and cut the network at his villa. I need thirty seconds of blackout."

John didn't question him, immediately making arrangements as efficiently as he handled their recent acquisitions.

If you're loving the book, nel5s.com is where the adventure continues. Join us for the complete experience all for free. The next chapter is eagerly waiting for you! Christopher's alter personality was drinking at the villa when he received the call about Raymond's meeting. The Bailey family had been trying to reach Raymond through Christopher's alter for weeks.

With Raymond refusing all visitors, Christopher's alter jumped at the opportunity, heading to the Montague Group meeting and bringing several Bailey family members along.

As soon as Christopher was fifteen hundred feet from the estate, Raymond infiltrated the villa.

The thirty-second surveillance blackout gave him just enough time. Drawing on his military training, he subdued a guard, bound him, gagged him, and had his own men remove the unconscious body.

When the cameras came back online, Raymond had already assumed the guard's identity. The staff briefly considered investigating the glitch but dismissed it when everything seemed normal again.

The guard Raymond replaced had distinctive scarring across half his face. Raymond had come prepared with a prosthetic scar and a matching uniform. The disguise transformed his appearance half his face normal, half covered with an angry red welt. After searching the ground floor without finding Selena, he headed upstairs. His heart raced when he spotted several guards stationed outside a door.

One of them barked at him, "Get that dinner in there now. Don't keep Selena waiting on an empty stomach."