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

turned, and walked

to be

Derek, the man who

sleeping

crate they'd smuggled

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

A Terrifying

220 min left

and gave her back a

nestled deeper into his chest,

close, and a heavy breath escaped his

been for Secret Obliterator, Alistair would've never

that Caroline's mother and the miserable, broken Derek had

Gordon had caught his wife cheating, and the man

moment had shattered their

Alistair that even Gordon couldn't escape

been destroyed by his own

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

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

Grapici

by tightening her grip, controlling him

grip only tightened around

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

right mind would want

didn't appease her. It only made

extreme.

to those around her,

at the time, Lillian Ashbourne, who later reverted to her

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

It drove Paige mad.

day Lillian, with quiet firmness,

dictate how her family lived. From that moment on, Paige began scheming to push her

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

She really thinks she

203 A Temmying

made her

Paige's machinations, Lillian was

the divorce and to leave everything behind, but only if she

take Caroline with her.

Gordon refused.