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Chapter Seventy Five
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2025-12-06 23:46:26
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Bound by Deception Chapter Eighty Nine
EPILOGUE THREE YEARS LATER Dakota sometimes stood still in the middle of her living room and wondered how life could change so completely and yet feel so right. The house was filled with sound. Not noise exactly, but life. The soft thud of little feet racing across polished floors. A high, breathless laugh that always made Dakota smile before she even realized she was smiling. The faint hum of music playing somewhere in the background because Elias believed silence was meant to be filled with warmth. Dakota stood by the wide living room window, one hand pressed to the small of her aching back, the other resting protectively on her swollen belly. The late afternoon sun streamed in, warm and golden, casting long shadows across the space. Outside, the garden Elias had insisted on planting was in full bloom. He had said he wanted their children to grow up knowing what it meant to nurture something and watch it thrive. Behind her, Wren was in constant motion. At three years old, Wre
Bound by Deception Chapter Eighty Eight
Life did not pause after the gavel struck wood in the courtroom. Dakota had expected something dramatic after the sentencing, some sharp shift in the air, some undeniable sense of finality. She thought she would wake up one morning and feel lighter, as if the weight of everything that had happened would simply lift because justice had finally been served. Instead, life continued in its quiet, relentless way. Mornings still came too early. Nights still felt too long. And grief, she learned, did not vanish just because the people who caused it were finally paying for their crimes. The house felt fuller now. Not louder exactly, but fuller in a way that settled into her bones. Wren’s presence had changed everything. The tiny sounds she made in her sleep, the soft breaths that rose and fell from her chest, the way her fingers curled instinctively around Dakota’s finger as if she already understood what safety meant. Dakota had not expected to love her the way she did. She had told h
Bound by Deception Chapter Eighty Seven
The day of the trial arrived quietly, without ceremony, without warning bells, without the kind of drama Dakota had once imagined justice would come wrapped in. There were no thunderstorms, no sudden downpour, no ominous signs in the sky. The morning was ordinary, almost cruelly so. The sun rose like it always did. Traffic moved. People went to work. Somewhere, someone passing by laughed. Somewhere else, someone complained about the weather.She stood in front of the bathroom mirror longer than usual, adjusting the collar of her blouse even though it already sat neatly on her shoulders. Her hands trembled slightly as she reached for her bag. She told herself that she wanted to see justice served today. She told herself that this was necessary. That everything that had happened had led to this moment.Still, there was a knot in her stomach that refused to loosen.Elias watched her quietly from the doorway. He did not rush her. He had learned that some moments needed patience. When she
Bound by Deception Chapter Eighty Six
The decision did not come all at once. It came in fragments, in the quiet moments Dakota did not expect to be heavy. It came while she was rocking Wren at dawn, when the baby’s cries softened into sleepy whimpers and her tiny fingers curled instinctively around Dakota’s thumb. It came while she watched Elias sleep on the couch because neither of them had the energy to argue about who deserved the bed more. It came when she folded impossibly small clothes and wondered how a life could be so fragile and yet demand so much responsibility. And it came, most of all, in the silence. Dakota had learned that silence was dangerous. Silence allowed lies to grow roots. Silence allowed people like Helen to rewrite reality and convince everyone else to live inside it. She had lived too much of her life inside someone else’s silence. She was not going to do that again. Telling Diana the truth terrified her, even though she told herself she had no reason to be afraid. Diana had hurt her in wa
Bound by Deception Chapter Eighty Five
Sleep became a luxury Dakota learned to stop expecting. It came in fragments now. Short, shallow pockets that dissolved the moment Wren whimpered or stirred or simply shifted in her crib. Nights no longer belonged to silence or rest. They belonged to soft cries, warm bottles, pacing footsteps, and the quiet hum of the house staying awake with them. Sometimes Dakota wasn’t even sure if she had truly slept at all or if she had simply closed her eyes long enough to pretend. Wren was small. Smaller than Dakota had imagined newborns to be. Fragile in a way that made Dakota’s chest tighten every time she held her, like one wrong movement could break something sacred. Her tiny fingers curled instinctively around Dakota’s thumb, her grip weak but determined, as though even in sleep she was afraid of being left behind. The first night home, Dakota sat on the edge of the bed with Wren pressed to her chest, afraid to put her down. Elias had watched her quietly, leaning against the doorframe,
Bound by Deception Chapter 84
Dakota didn’t expect preparing for someone else’s baby to feel this heavy.The next three days moved in a strange blur. Equal parts quiet panic, tenderness, hesitation, and a silent kind of bravery she didn’t even know she possessed. She had spent her whole life fighting to prove that she deserved love… but now she was preparing to give love to a child who wasn’t hers. A child whose mother had caused her more pain than half the world combined. And yet, whenever she pictured that tiny baby, the fear always softened into something warm… something she didn’t have a name for yet.Elias was the steady center of everything.He didn’t complain when she paced the living room at midnight reading long articles about newborn sleep cycles. He didn’t tease her when she ordered too many onesies because she was terrified of “not having enough.” He didn’t even roll his eyes when she stress-cried in the aisle of an upscale baby store because diapers apparently had too many confusing size options.Ins
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