Flash Marriage to a Stunning CEO (Alistair and Richard)

Chapter 203

Chapter 203 A Terrifying Need for Control

Eloise felt torn.

If Alistair and Caroline could go too, there wouldn't be any dilemma at all.

Thankfully, there was still over a month before the peak of summer. She had time to think it through.

That night, only Alistair and Caroline returned home. After a warm shower and some whispered conversation in bed, Caroline fell asleep in his arms.

Alistair lay there, eyes open, adjusting to the darkness. He studied her sleeping face in the faint light and then gently pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Sleep well, my girl.

He had let too much slip through his fingers. But now, he was here to stay, and he wouldn't miss another moment.

While their evening at Ashbourne Manor had been filled with laughter and peace, elsewhere, Derek was carrying out a plan on Alistair's orders. Dressed neatly and trying his best to look presentable, Derek had agreed to meet a woman who'd invited him out.

Chapter 203 A Terrifying Need for Cont...

After all, beauty was a trap that never stopped working. Subtle or not, it always pulled people in..

For someone like Derek, who had been beaten down by life and left crawling in the gutter for over a decade, the illusion of validation was almost impossible to resist.

His pride had long since been worn thin. Now, with a woman throwing herself at him, his instincts screamed for the chance to feel like a man again. At least, that was what Paige, or rather, her enabler Theresa, was counting on.

Theresa had clawed her way up by using her looks. She believed in the power of seduction more than anything.

Around midnight, Alistair gently eased out from under Caroline's sleeping form and slipped into the bathroom without turning on the light. He hadn't turned it on at night since they started sleeping together. Caroline had always struggled with sleep, but since he'd been beside her, she slept deeply, often through the whole night.

He closed the door softly behind him. The glow from his phone lit his face in pale, sharp contrast.

Derek had checked into a motel that evening.

Just past midnight, a large wooden crate was quietly wheeled out of the motel's

back exit. Under the cover of darkness, it was loaded into a truck that immediately headed north.

By morning, Derek would have vanished without a trace.

Where did he go? No one could say.

Maybe he got drunk and drowned in a ditch. Maybe he fell off a cliff. Maybe something worse happened.

Maybe, after years of being beaten down and humiliated, Derek had finally reached the end of the line.

steady gaze and then wiped them all. He removed the special SIM card he'd used solely for contacting Derek, a disposable one purchased from System Store. He dropped it into the toilet. Within seconds, the card dissolved like ice, leaving

walked

sleep. Got to be well rested

who was supposed to disappear

sleeping

crate they'd smuggled out wasn't

beside Caroline. Like she had some internal radar tuned to his presence, she

A Terrifying Need for

220 min left

gave her back a couple of

nestled deeper into his

her close, and a heavy

hadn't been for Secret Obliterator, Alistair would've never connected the

have never imagined that Caroline's mother and

clear. Gordon had caught his wife cheating, and the man

moment had shattered

Alistair that even

marriage had been destroyed by his own

perfection and control. Her domineering personality had driven her husband to the edge until he finally asked

that request was the ultimate humiliation. She didn't believe he had simply fallen out of love. What she believed was

Grapici

by tightening her grip, controlling him more fiercely than

only

it, afraid to speak out. After all, her younger brother was

their right mind

her.

extreme.

need to dominate expanded to those around her, like her

wife at the time, Lillian Ashbourne, who later reverted to her maiden name,

Gordon was a busy man and not so easily manipulated. As for Lillian,

It drove Paige mad.

remembered the day Lillian, with quiet firmness,

dictate how her family lived. From that moment on, Paige

her daughter, or on what to wear or how to behave,

really thinks

203 A Temmying netu tur

made

machinations, Lillian was labeled a

leave everything behind, but only if she

take Caroline with her.

Gordon refused.