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.

contacting Derek, a disposable one purchased from System Store. He dropped it into the toilet. Within seconds, the card dissolved like ice, leaving

flushed, turned, and walked out like nothing had

to sleep. Got to be

for Derek, the man who was supposed

sleeping peacefully at

crate they'd smuggled

down beside Caroline. Like she had some internal radar tuned to his presence, she immediately rolled over

A Terrifying Need

220 min left

around her and gave her back a couple of

his chest, and

close, and a heavy

Obliterator, Alistair would've never connected

have never imagined that Caroline's mother and the miserable, broken Derek had

the memory was now crystal clear. Gordon had caught his wife cheating,

had

even Gordon couldn't

marriage had been destroyed by his own

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

had simply fallen out of love. What

Grapici

responded by tightening her grip, controlling him more

grip only

out. After

their right mind would want

his silence didn't appease her. It

extreme.

to dominate expanded to those around her, like

at the time, Lillian Ashbourne, who later reverted to

so easily manipulated. As for Lillian, she

It drove Paige mad.

the day Lillian, with quiet firmness,

moment

advice on how to raise her daughter, or on what to wear or how to behave, Paige took it as a direct challenge

She really thinks she

Temmying netu tur

made

Paige's machinations, Lillian was

divorce and to leave everything

take Caroline with her.

Gordon refused.