---- Chapter 19 Emerson Keller POV: | didn' t look back. | walked out of the observatory and into the cool night air, Keenan' s steadying hand on my arm. | didn' t allow myself to feel triumph, or pity, or anything at all. | felt... empty. The great, consuming fire of my revenge had burned itself out, leaving behind only ashes. Keenan led me to his car, which was parked just down the road. He opened the door for me, his movements gentle and solicitous. "It's over," he said softly, as he slid into the driver' s seat. "Yes," | said, staring out the window at the glittering city lights below. "It' s over." He started the car and we drove in silence for a while, the only sound the hum of the engine. "What now?" he finally asked. "Now," | said, a sense of finality settling over me, "we go home." But the word "home" felt strange on my tongue. The ---- penthouse was no longer my home. It was a crime scene. The villa in Lake Como was a beautiful cage. | had no home. "I' ve taken the liberty of purchasing a property for you," Keenan said, as if reading my mind. "A place you might remember. Your family' s old summer house in the Hamptons. The one Carroll sold off after the takeover. | bought it back." Tears sprang to my eyes. The summer house. It was the only place | had ever been truly happy, truly safe. A place filled with memories of my parents, of long, lazy days on the beach, of a life before Barron. "How?" | whispered. "| have my ways," he said with a small smile. When we arrived back at the penthouse, it was swarming with Keenan' s security team. They moved with a quiet, professional efficiency, securing the premises. "Barron had a massive heart attack," Keenan informed me, his face grim. "His man, Marcus, got him to the hospital. He 'sin critical condition." | felt a flicker of... something. Not satisfaction. Not pity. Just a profound, weary sadness for the man he could have been, for the love we could have had. "Take him to the west wing basement," | said, my voice cold. "When he' s stable enough to be moved. Let him wake up in the same room where he tortured me." ---- Keenan nodded, his expression unreadable. "And then?" "And then," | said, "| want him to feel everything | felt. The fear. The helplessness. The pain." | looked at Keenan, my eyes hard. "l want you to find a way to replicate his little electric shock machine. He needs to understand. He needs to Pay. Keenan didn' t argue. He simply gave a crisp order into his communication device, and | knew it would be done. | walked through the penthouse, a conquering queen returning to her captured castle. | went to the basement, the real one, where Cydney had been held. It was empty now, but the air was still thick with her terror. Keenan' s men had found her journals. She had documented everything. Her schemes, her manipulations, her twisted, obsessive desire to take my place. It was all there. More fuel for the legal fire that was about to consume Barron. Later that night, Barron was moved. He was unconscious, hooked up to a portable medical monitor. | watched, my face impassive, as Keenan' s men carried him down to the dark, fire-scorched basement and strapped him to the same gurney where | had suffered. | went down there myself. | stood over his unconscious form, looking at his pale, still handsome face. Even in this state, he radiated a dangerous power. An arrogant certainty that the world belonged to him. ---- "Wake him up," | said to the doctor Keenan had brought. The doctor administered a stimulant. Barron' s eyelids fluttered open. He looked around, disoriented, his eyes struggling to focus in the dim light. Then he saw me. "Emerson," he rasped, his voice weak. He tried to sit up, to reach for me, but the restraints held him fast. He looked down at the leather straps on his wrists and ankles, and a flicker of understanding, of horror, dawned in his eyes. He knew where he was. "Welcome home, Barron," | said, my voice devoid of emotion. | picked up the electrodes. "It' s time for your first lesson in empathy." In "CEO, That Intern is Actually Your Wife" by CrushReel, delve into a captivating romance where a billionaire CEO becomes contractually linked to an unexpected partner. When faced with the urgent need to fund her grandmother's critical surgery, our protagonist finds herself in a unique situation—entering a one-year contract marriage with a stranger. As the story unfolds, themes of love, sacrifice, and the complexities of modern relationships come to light. The novel offers a fresh take on the familiar billionaire romance genre by exploring the dynamics of office relationships and the intricacies of contract lovers. Discover this modern tale of unexpected connections and heartfelt emotions, available to read at CrushReel.