Page 84 of The Billionaire’s Contract Bride

“Your video message said he saved your life.”

“Both are true,” Celeste murmured, her gray eyes dead serious. “When he learned I had betrayed the firm, he held a loaded gun to my temple. He pulled the trigger.”

A cold dread settled in Aria’s stomach.

“The chamber was empty,” Celeste continued. “He wanted me to hear the click of death before he offered me an escape route.”

The heavy oak doors at the back of the church creaked open.

Damien stepped into the candlelight alone, his silhouette towering in the doorway. “And yet you accepted the money,” he said smoothly, his eyes fixed on his mother.

Celeste’s hand darted inside her coat.

Aria immediately stepped between them, her arms raised. “No weapons!”

Damien halted five paces away. “She has one.”

“So do you.” Aria turned to face him directly. “Did you pull the trigger?”

“Yes,” Damien answered. The stark honesty was unblinking.

“Were you going to kill her?”

“For one second,” Damien admitted, his voice raspy, “I did not know.”

Celeste slid the silver case across the stone floor toward Aria’s feet. “That is the man you married.”

Aria knelt and secured the case. “I know.”

Lucien entered the scene, and Aria slid the case to him. He verified the chemical markers on the vials and rushed the antidote to the hospital under heavy escort.

During the chaos of the transfer, Celeste vanished back into the night.

On the ruined altar where she had stood, she left behind a high-clearance key card bearing Augustus Blackthorne’s private crest.

And beside it, a folded handwritten note:

THE MAN WHO PROVES LUCIEN INNOCENT IS ALREADY BESIDE YOU.

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Missing Bride

The antidote began working before dawn.

Evelyn’s heart rhythm stabilized, and her elevated liver markers finally stopped rising. For the first time in twelve excruciating hours, Dr. Patel used the word hopeful.

While the medical team monitored her mother’s vitals, Aria sat by the bedside in the quiet room. Damien stood outside the glass partition, giving her space. He hadn’t pressed her about what Celeste had revealed in the church. He knew she would speak when she was ready—or walk away if she was not.

Evelyn shifted against the pillows, her eyes fluttering open. Her frail fingers reached out and gently squeezed Aria’s hand.

“Baby..,” Evelyn whispered, her voice barely a thread.

Aria leaned in close. “I’m here, Mom. I’m right here.”

Her mother’s faint, tired gaze drifted downward, settling on Aria’s abdomen. A soft, knowing smile touched Evelyn’s pale lips.

Aria froze, her heart skipping a beat. “How did you know?”

“A mother knows,” Evelyn breathed weakly, an almost chuckle leaving her lips.