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Semua Bab A Second Life With The Billionaire : Bab 21
- Bab 30
30 Bab
Chapter Twenty-One – The Replacement
“You’re still here?” Logan asked as Luna walked back into the hall. Luna stopped by his table, she picked up the champagne flute on it and downed its contents in one gulp.“Yep,” she turned to Logan and gave him a dry smile, “it’s like I want to deliberately punish myself, you know?”Logan smiled, the crease by his eyebrows showed, reminding Luna of how she always loved to see him smile. She had never seen that crease on Justin’s face, because he has never smiled. At least not that she knew of, and definitely not to her.“I’d be the first person to say my family’s not easy,” Logan said. “I’ve always admired your fairness and grace when talking about Justin and Moira to other people, considering they’re the two people who made your life miserable for years.”Luna shrugged and gave a wry smile. “Well, if I had said negative things about them, I surely would have paid for it in tenfold now, wouldn’t I? It would definitely find a way to come back and affect me, she always found a wa
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Chapter Twenty-Two – The Aftermath
Matt pulled up in the front of the hall, Luna got into the car and he drove off again. “How was the party?” Matt asked as he merged with the city’s traffic.Luna knew he was only asking as a courtesy, so she managed to drum up a smile for him.“It was nice,” she said.Matt nodded. “Good.”Luna gave him another managed smile, Matt continued driving, in silence. Luna rubbed two fingers on her forehead, there was a slight headache already brewing there. There was a dull pounding in her head too, but Luna knew that was the aftermath of the glasses of champagne she had downed at the party. And she was tired, not so much physically, but mentally. She was tired in her soul. Her heart was sick, she rubbed a hand over her chest where her heart was, there was a stinging pain there and she didn’t know what to do about it.She thought she had passed that phase. She thought she’d passed the phase where Moira’s words could still get to her and hurt her, she thought she’d passed the stage
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Chapter Twenty-Three – The Night-Storm
A hour later, Luna walked out of her room and into the living room as she heard banging. Her brows furrowed as she stared at the front door, someone was pounding loudly at it from outside. Where was Rahim? she wondered. Rahim was her head of security for her house, and anyone who ever wanted to gain access to her would always have to go through him. And anyone who wanted access this late rarely got through, except it was an emergency.An emergency. Oh God, Luna thought instantly, an emergency, alarm filling her as her mind immediately went to her mother and sister. The thought propelled her to move towards the door, as she neared it, she heard voices. They were arguing, she realized as she got even closer, their voice were muted through the door but she could tell they were arguing.Luna opened the door, and the alarm and fear that had been in her head did a rude three-sixty into shock as she saw who was standing there. Justin. Rahim stood next to him, obviously trying to make
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Chapter Twenty-Four – The Rejection
Justin’s hands framed her face as he kissed her. His fingers spread over her cheeks, his palms cupped her chin and jutted it forward as he deepened the kiss. And Luna’s heart just pounded against her ribs.Luna had been certain she wouldn’t be missing Justin ever again when she came back into his life. She had been certain because not only had she told herself, as a rule, that she wasn’t going to get entangled with Justin romantically ever again, but she had also planned to move on in the most permanent way possible from him.And now he was kissing her. He was kissing her, and she was feeling all sorts of things. Passion, desire, heat, pulsing energy, consuming fire. All was rolling through her in maximum intensity, all at once, and her heart was pounding fast in her chest.Her head, the loud roar in it was like the headache she had nursed all through the ride home from the party till she went to bed. After taking a painkiller before bed, the headache has started to subside when sh
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Chapter Twenty-Five – The Quarterly
Luna walked into the boardroom, Jaden trailed in behind her. Most of her executives were already seated, some were chatting idly while some typed away on their laptops. They all turn to look at her as she walked in.Greetings rang out as she made her way towards her chair at the head of the long conference table. Luna smiled and waved a little, Jaden started to pull out her chair but she stopped him. “I can pull out my own chair, Jaden, but thanks,” she said. She gave him a smile as she turned to take her seat. She looked around the room at large. “Hmm, must have been some weekend, ya’ll out here looking fresher than me.”Muted chuckles rang out amongst her employees, a handful of them smiling at her joke. “Then our weekends are your regular days because-”“Because I look good every day,” Luna helped the employee who had spoken, out, when she trailed off. She smiled at her. “Thank you, Janine.”At Luna’s acknowledgement, Janine blushed and smiled. Janine Waters, financial exec
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Chapter Twenty-Six - The Mail
Everybody in the room turned to look at Cash, Luna could feel their eyes on her as they slowly turned to look back at her too. Luna’s eyes remained on Cash, she stared without saying a word, waiting for him to look at her. After a few silent seconds, he did. His eyes skittered away for a moment when they met her direct ones, he looked back at her, he shrugged.“That’s just my opinion,” he said. “I’m sorry-”“No, you’re not,” Luna interjected.Cash blinked, he shifted a little in his seat, his gaze flittered away from hers again.“I’m just saying-”“If you want to, you will sit up when you do it,” Luna cut him off again. “I am not your buddy.”The authoritative tone in Luna’s voice was like a slap. Her gaze intentionally remained direct and fixed on Cash’s face. He blinked again, he cleared his throat, and sat up on his seat. The boardroom was quiet now.Cash opened his mouth to speak again, Luna interjected smoothly.“I did not hire you, Mr. Brooks, for your advice on the eve
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Chapter Twenty-Seven - The Delay
Luna pressed a hand to her stomach as she stared at Dr. Gina.“Are you sure?” she asked, hoping the answer would be different the second time around.But Dr. Gina just shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry, Luna, but it would be dangerous for you to go ahead with the insemination process right now. Your cervix is looking weaker than it was the last time you were here, and the situation’s just too delicate right now. I only have your best interest at heart.”Luna exhaled a breath, she raised a hand to wave away the other woman’s sympathy and worries.“I know, Gina, I know,” she replied. “I just,” she shook her head, disappointment sagging her shoulders, “I was looking forward to this, you know?”Gina gave her friend a sympathetic look. “I know,” she said softly.“I really thought this was it, that this would finally be it. The time where I got to have my baby, safe and healthy, and alive. But now you’re saying if I go ahead and do this now, I might not carry the baby to term, is that
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Chapter Twenty-Eight - The Grave
Luna navigated the car through the rocky road leading to the memorial ground. After her meeting with Gina, Luna needed to talk to someone, she needed to talk with someone she could tell her feelings to, her fears, her worries. She needed to sort through her feelings, like Gina had advised, and she needed to feel that special connection that came with talking to a person she trusted and loved the most in the entire world. And the person she was going to see had all these qualities in him. All of it, and more.Luna drove up to the iron gates closing the memorial ground from the outside world, the gates slid open as she drove up. She drove through them and up the also rocky paths leading to the cemetery.Rows and rows of tombstones lined up in an arranged order as Luna drove past, Luna glanced at the names on the tombstones as she always did whenever she came to the memorial ground.Lisa Hackney III (the third), Jaime Crow Sullivan, Kira Langdon, Larry Samuels II (the second). and as
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Chapter Twenty-Nine - The Venting
I’m sad because I’m not getting to have my baby,” Luna continued, her eyes already watering as she talked. “I just came from Dr. Gina, and she said how I was going to have to wait for a while before I can start the insemination process.”Luna sat down on the cemented ground around her father’s grave, she continued stroking his grave.“She said it was most likely stress that caused the delay, emotional stress,” Luna swallowed. “And I know the cause of the stress.”Luna fell silent as she stared at her father’s tombstone. She remembered the last six months before his death. She remembered the toll his thoughts and guilt had taken on him. His thoughts about how he could pay off the debts he’d owed the Lakes, and his guilt at having to ship off his first daughter to the same family to be married as collateral for not paying off his debts.Luna remembered all, and that was why she couldn’t even say his name in front of her dad now. Her dad hadn’t so much said the words before he died,
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Chapter Thirty - The Rumor
“I am so sorry that I had to call you like that, I know you were with your dad, I hated having to pull you out of your time with him.”Luna turned her head to look at Rita, they were both walking towards the conference room.“You had to,” Luna said. “We both know letting this circulate any longer than it already has, and the results would be even more disastrous than it already is.”Rita nodded, the two women both walked briskly through the hallway that led to the conference room, Jaden trailing behind them.“I know, I know,” Rita said again, letting out a breath, “That doesn’t make it easier to accept.”Luna placed a hand on Rita’s arm, she gave her a small smile.“It’s all good,” she said, reassuring Rita. “I got to have my time with him before your call came in, I’m fine.”“That’s a relief then,” Rita said.They got to the conference room, through the square opening in the door of the room, Luna could see that the press was already in full force in there. About a dozen of t
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