Lahat ng Kabanata ng TRAPPED WITH MY DAD'S BESTFRIEND: Kabanata 301 - Kabanata 310

The elevator hummed downward, the red glow of the emergency lights painting everything in blood hues. Victor slumped in the corner, breathing heavily, his white dress shirt soaked with sweat—and possibly someone else's blood.Lucia’s voice crackled in my earpiece.“Bridgette, confirmation: Coral Tower’s lower levels haven’t been accessed in years. I’m sending Marcus with backup, but you’ll get there first.”“Copy,” I whispered.Victor looked at me. “You’re really going through with this.”“I didn’t drag you into the fire to play tour guide,” I snapped. “You’re leading me to that vault.”He coughed out a bitter laugh. “You’re just like your father.”“No,” I said, coldly. “He died protecting secrets. I’m here to burn them down.”When the elevator doors opened, we stepped into a long-forgotten part of Miami. Cracked tiles. Rusted metal gates. And silence that hummed with buried sins. Coral Tower had been built atop one of the first subway expansions—abandoned before it ever saw passenger

The days after Thiago left the room felt like they stretched on forever. Every hour seemed to pass more slowly than the last. The weight of his words—those final, desperate declarations of love—still hung in the air like a smog I couldn’t shake off.Victor had stayed close, a constant, reassuring presence that kept me grounded. He helped me process everything that had happened, though I knew that this wasn’t a matter I could resolve easily. I was torn between my feelings for Thiago and the reality of what he’d done to me. I couldn’t ignore the betrayal, but at the same time, I couldn’t dismiss the love I’d once felt for him.I had a decision to make, and it felt like the hardest one of my life. But before I could sort through my emotions, I had to face the truth of what had been uncovered. The deal. The one that Thiago and my mother had made for me. The one that had turned my life into something I didn’t recognize.Sitting at my desk, I sifted through the papers once more, reading the

Three days. Three days since I last saw Thiago, since that damn marina. Three days of pacing, re-reading legal drafts, and trying to focus on work—anything other than him. Anything other than the gnawing frustration that settled in my gut every time I reached for my phone, praying for a message, but finding nothing.Not that I wanted him to contact me. Not that I cared.Except… I did. And it was infuriating. My mind raced with questions, with thoughts I couldn't untangle. What was he doing? What was he thinking? But more than anything, what did he want from me?I shoved my phone aside and straightened, glancing at the papers scattered across my desk, the deals that were still waiting for my signature. Work. Focus on work. It’s what I’d been doing, at least until Victor decided to break the silence.I turned to face him as he leaned casually against the glass wall of my penthouse office. His eyes tracked my every movement, his arms folded, a smile playing at the corners of his lips. It

The silence in the room felt like a living thing. Thick, heavy, and suffocating.Thiago stood just a few steps inside the door, his broad frame blocking the light from the hallway. He didn’t look at anyone else. His focus was entirely on me. And that, more than anything, made my pulse skip erratically.I hadn’t expected him to come here, to walk into the heart of my territory, uninvited and undeterred. But here he was, as dangerous and charismatic as ever, and suddenly I was more uncertain than I wanted to admit.I stood still, facing him, my back straight, my expression a carefully constructed mask of control. Inside, however, my thoughts were a mess—shattered, scattered like a thousand pieces of broken glass. He was the last person I ever wanted to see again, but now, with him standing there, I wasn’t sure if I could keep pretending that I didn’t want him to stay.“You shouldn’t be here,” I said, my voice cold, even though my heart was anything but.Thiago took a slow step toward me

I didn’t cry.Not in the elevator. Not in the town car. Not even when Lucia tried to hug me and I nearly elbowed her in the face out of sheer, unfiltered tension.Crying was for women who lost. I hadn’t lost.Not yet.But as I walked back into my office that evening, I felt like something inside me had been surgically removed without anesthesia. A piece of me I hadn’t realized was still latched to Thiago. Something raw and messy, still clinging to the illusion that he wasn’t a monster in a custom-made suit.“Was it done?” Victor asked without looking up from his laptop, his tie loosened and his sleeves rolled.I threw the USB drive on his desk. “Not yet. But soon.”He finally glanced up, eyebrows lifting. “You didn’t use it?”“I showed it to him.”“Jesus, Bridgette,” he muttered. “That was leverage.”“It still is,” I said tightly. “But I needed him to know I’m not bluffing.”Victor leaned back, fingers steepled under his chin. “You went to see him, didn’t you?”“He asked me to come up