Chapter 531:

🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙

The screen went dark, but Adam’s worried face remained imprinted on her mind. Her own grief was forgotten, burned away by the far more potent terror of his danger.

She couldn’t sit still. She paced the apartment, then opened her laptop and began frantically researching the Kensington family, their corporate structure, their internal feuds, their history of hostile takeovers.

The more she read, the heavier her heart became. This wasn’t a family; it was a dynasty, a ruthless machine of old money and ancient rivalries. Adam wasn’t just a wealthy businessman; he was a king fighting a civil war.

A profound helplessness washed over her. She was a player in her own game, but in his, she was a spectator, powerless to help, unable to even know if he was safe.

All she could do was wait.

The city lights outside glittered like a cold, indifferent galaxy. She curled up on the window seat, wrapped her arms around her knees, and watched the city breathe, her eyes fixed on the dark, silent screen of her phone, praying for it to light up with a message that he was coming home.

Allison didn’t sleep. She drifted in and out of a light, anxious doze in the window seat, waking with a start at every distant siren. The first pale light of dawn found her still there, eyes gritty and raw, a cold cup of tea on the sill beside her.

Jоі𝘯 𝘁ho𝗎𝗌𝘢𝗇𝖽𝗌 𝗈f 𝖿𝘢𝗇𝘴 o𝗻 g𝘢𝘭𝗻o𝘷еls.с𝗈𝘮

She had been refreshing news feeds since 5 a.m., searching for any mention of the Kensington family, any hint of trouble. Nothing. The silence was both a relief and a source of profound anxiety.

At precisely 8:00 a.m., her world exploded.

Her phone began to vibrate with a violence that made it dance across the glass coffee table. Push notifications, text messages, incoming calls cascaded across the screen in an overwhelming digital avalanche.

Her hands trembled as she picked it up. The top notification was from The Wall Street Journal.

The headline was stark, bold, world-altering: MK HOLDINGS ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC INVESTMENT EVALUATION INTO MONTGOMERY GROUP; ALLISON MONTGOMERY TO LEAD PROJECT.

Her breath caught. This was Adam’s promise, his “gift.” It wasn’t a quiet vote of confidence; it was a public coronation, executed with the force of a nuclear bomb. He hadn’t just endorsed her. He had declared her an extension of his own empire.

Before she could fully process it, another notification buzzed, TMZ. The headline was lurid, sensational, utterly devastating.

EXCLUSIVE: The Secret Past of Montgomery Heiress Cheyanne Montgomery, Vegas Quickie Marriage and Shocking Casino Debts.

Her finger shook as she tapped the link. The article was brutal: a scanned marriage certificate from a cheap Vegas chapel, issued to a “Tammy-Lynn O’Connell” and a man with a lengthy criminal record. The accompanying photo showed a younger, harder-looking Cheyanne, unrecognizable in heavy makeup and cheap clothes. Below it, court documents detailed tens of thousands in unpaid gambling debts to Caesars Palace.

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