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.

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

and walked out like nothing

to be well

man who was supposed to disappear

sleeping

they'd smuggled out wasn't

into bed and lay down beside Caroline. Like she had some internal radar tuned to his presence, she immediately rolled over in her

A Terrifying

220 min left

around her and gave her back

his chest, and

a heavy breath escaped

for Secret Obliterator,

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

now crystal clear. Gordon had caught his wife

had shattered their

even Gordon couldn't escape

destroyed

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

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

Grapici

tightening her grip, controlling him more fiercely than

her grip only tightened around

out. After all, her younger brother

their right mind would

appease her. It

extreme.

dominate expanded to those

at the time, Lillian Ashbourne, who later reverted to

man and not so easily manipulated. As for

It drove Paige mad.

the day Lillian, with quiet firmness, told her that no one else

family lived. From that moment

Lillian explicitly said she didn't want advice on how to raise her daughter, or on

really thinks she

203 A Temmying netu

made her

Paige's machinations, Lillian was

leave everything behind, but only

take Caroline with her.

Gordon refused.