Chapter 440
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Chapter 440:
Elouise stared at the glowing red letters. She didn’t need to call the bank. She already knew. The Stein family’s total collapse had finally trickled down, triggering the clauses that had wiped out her personal accounts. She had nothing. No family. No husband. No money.
Her knees buckled. She slumped against the cold plastic of the ATM machine and slid down until she was sitting on the dirty bank floor. She let out a hollow, broken laugh that sounded like a dying animal.
She was finally, completely alone.
Thousands of miles away, the Caribbean sun beat down on the pristine white sand of the private island.
W𝘩𝖺𝘁 e𝗏er𝘺𝗈𝘯е іs 𝗋𝖾а𝗱𝘪𝘯𝘨 o𝘯.с𝘰𝘮
Jocelyn lay on a plush beach towel wearing oversized sunglasses. The rhythmic crash of the waves was a perfect, unhurried lullaby.
Her phone buzzed on the small wooden table beside her.
She picked it up. A barrage of texts from her bridesmaid Bella had flooded the group chat.
Bella: I am literally going to murder my parents.
Bella: They forced me to go to this horrific old-money blind date mixer.
Bella: The guy is a total arrogant prick. I want to hire Gaston’s security team to break his kneecaps.
Jocelyn laughed out loud — bright and clear and entirely unguarded. She typed back quickly.
Jocelyn: Maybe you should ditch the prick and see if Senator Hayes is at the bar.
A long pause followed. The typing bubble appeared and disappeared three times.
Bella: Shut up. (But also… he did text me this morning p>
Jocelyn smiled, locked her phone, and set it face down on the table. The drama of New York felt like it belonged to a different universe entirely.
A shadow fell over her.
Gaston stood above her, blocking the harsh sun. He held two fresh coconuts with straws. He handed one to Jocelyn and settled into the sand beside her towel.
“What has you smiling like that?” Gaston asked, his voice a low, warm murmur.
Jocelyn took a long sip of the sweet coconut water and looked at her husband — the man who had torn down the world to build her a safe place inside it.
“Nothing,” Jocelyn said softly, reaching out to trace the J.W. ink on his chest. “I was just thinking that our friends are about to start their own messy, beautiful stories p>
Gaston caught her hand and brought her knuckles to his lips. He kissed her skin slowly, his dark eyes filled with absolute, eternal devotion.
“Let them,” Gaston murmured. “Our story is the only one I care about p>
Jocelyn pulled him down into the sand and kissed him as the tide rolled in, finally at peace.
The Caribbean sun beat down on the pristine white sand of St. Barts.
Jocelyn lay perfectly still, her bare back pressed flush against Gaston’s hard, warm chest. The steady, powerful thud of his heartbeat vibrated directly through her spine. She held her encrypted phone up, the screen shielding her eyes from the harsh glare of the sun.
The screen was exploding with a rapid-fire string of text messages from Bella.
Bella: I am sitting across from Senator Hayes right now.
Bella: He just spent twenty minutes using fake Washington buzzwords to explain how much he respects the Douglas family’s “philanthropic vision p>