Too Late, Mr. Billionaire: You Can't Afford Me by Thedora Birnir

Chapter 1424:

Her respiratory rate accelerated as unbidden moisture gathered along her lower lashes before escaping in glistening rivulets down the planes of her cheeks.

The dam of composure she had maintained throughout the endless evening suddenly fractured, releasing a torrent of suppressed emotion. “Must you persist in this reckless disregard for your well-being?” she demanded, her voice breaking beneath the weight of her concern.

“Hadley! Please forgive me— the responsibility lies entirely with me!” Eric exclaimed, contrition saturating every syllable.

Galvanized into action, Eric’s arm encircled her shoulders, drawing her against his chest while his palm curved protectively around the delicate contours of her skull.

Beneath his ribs, his heart thundered with such ferocity he wondered if she could feel its percussion through his chest wall.

Words tumbled from his lips in halting fragments. “I recognize the impropriety of this confession… but witnessing your tears shed on my behalf… fills me with an inexplicable joy.”

anger as she struggled to comprehend the bizarre

palm gently cradled her jaw, tilting her face upward until her tear-glazed eyes met

yourself. Perhaps, beneath layers of resistance, genuine

of his searching gaze, her cognitive processes momentarily suspended. “You remain Joy’s father,

of his unspoken desires, her acknowledgment nevertheless kindled a spreading

dampened curve of her cheek, collecting teardrops

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to safeguard my existence and attend

Hadley’s voice constricted around the words, her emotional equilibrium precarious at best. “Inscribe

claimed him, forgiveness would have remained forever beyond