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CHAPTER 11: WHISPERS AND SCENT TRACES
publish date:
2026-10-24 17:02:23
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CLAIMED BY MY EX'S ALPHA UNCLE CHAPTER 24: THE SALE
CHAPTER 24: THE SALE Dr. Harris had told me to rest. I went home instead and found James still awake in the study with the lights low and a stack of reports he had not opened. He looked up when I came in. "You're late. And you're pale." "I'm tired." I took off my coat slowly so he would not see my hands. "James, I need to talk to you about Mercer Holdings." He set down his pen. "Sit down first." I sat. The pain was gone but my legs still felt unsteady. I had practiced the words in the van and they came out calmer than I felt. "I think the only solution left is for me to sell it." "To whom?" "To you." The silence stretched. James did not move. "I don't want to keep fighting," I said. "I don't want myself or the baby anywhere near this anymore. I want a quiet life and I want to move past all of it. I'll sell you the majority of the shares and leave my father a small stake so the family name stays on the register. I won't keep anything." "No." He said it before I finished. He
CLAIMED BY MY EX'S ALPHA UNCLE CHAPTER 23: THE PLAN
CHAPTER 23: THE PLAN After the lawyers I sat in the BMW with the folder on my lap and did not start the engine for a long time. When I finally drove I took the long way round, and by the time I reached Charles's street it was four hours since I had left the office tower. I should have known from the corner. Reporters had worked out that I came to the bakery every day, and now a crowd waited outside the shop with cameras and microphones. A man stood on the pavement describing the building to a lens as if it were a crime scene. I parked a block away and went in through the back lane. Charles had the door open before I knocked. The shop was dark except for the kitchen. Chairs sat upside down on the tables. The display cases were still full of croissants and bread and snacks that should have sold out by now. Not one tray was empty. "Is it always like this now?" I asked. "Since the leak." Charles shrugged but his shoulders were stiff. "Half my regulars stopped coming. The other half
CLAIMED BY MY EX'S ALPHA UNCLE CHAPTER 22: THE DROP
CHAPTER 22: The numbers came in at market open.I was in James's study when Arthur turned the monitor toward us. A red line ran down the screen like a cut. Vance Enterprises had lost twenty percent in the first hour."It's the story," Arthur said. "Analysts are calling it a governance risk. They think the CEO was deceived by his own husband.""Deceived," James repeated flatly."That's the word on three financial channels."James didn't look at the screen again. He looked at me. "It will recover.""Will it?" I asked."Markets forget." He said it with great calm but his fingers pressed white against the edge of the desk.By noon the loss had grown to twenty-six percent. The board called an emergency meeting and James left for it with his jaw set. He kissed my forehead at the door. I stood in the quiet study afterward and listened to the car pull away.I turned on the television in the sitting room and muted it but the ticker kept crawling beneath the anchors. VANCE SHARES SLIDE. INVEST
CLAIMED BY MY EX'S ALPHA UNCLE CHAPTER 21: THE LEAK
CHAPTER 21: The headline hit before breakfast.Arthur stood in the dining hall doorway holding a tablet out in both hands. "Sir, you need to see this. Both of you."James took it first. I watched his jaw tighten as he read.MERCER HEIR'S CONTRACT MARRIAGE EXPOSED. WAS THE VANCE HEIR A BUSINESS DEAL?Below it was a scan of our contract with my signature at the bottom, small and neat."Where did they get this?" James asked quietly."The tabloid says an anonymous source," Arthur said. "It came in at five this morning. By six it was everywhere."Everyone in the room looked unsteady. Arthur's hands were perfectly still."Matthew," I said. "It has to be Matthew.""His lawyers have had him since yesterday," James said. "But he could have passed it along before that. Or Tyla could have.""Either of them would have wanted this," Arthur agreed. He took the tablet back gently.I read the article over James's shoulder anyway. It spoke of a cash-strapped Mercer and a billionaire uncle and a marri
CLAIMED BY MY EX'S ALPHA UNCLE CHAPTER 20: THE COUNTER-ATTACK
CHAPTER 20: Matthew paced behind his desk like a caged animal. His phone buzzed against the floor, and he scooped it up and pressed it to his ear. "Where are you? What happened?" he demanded. "Did you get anything? "He knows, Matthew! He knows everything!" Tyla's voice cracked with terror over the line. "James caught me, and now they're saying Soren is carrying his baby. We're finished! James is going to destroy us! The phone slipped from Matthew's fingers and clattered onto the desk. His face drained of color. Every careful plan he had built was coming apart. Early the next morning, the counter-attack began. The boardroom of Mercer Holdings was glass-walled and silent, the board members stiff in their leather chairs. James walked in first, his presence filling the room. I walked beside him in a sharp, tailored suit, my head held high, one hand resting briefly at my stomach before I let it fall. Arthur followed and laid a copy of the audit files in front of every board
CLAIMED BY MY EX'S ALPHA UNCLE CHAPTER 19:
CHAPTER 19: Tyla was still choking on the rug when James called for security. "Get him out of here," James said, his voice low and cold as guards flooded into the library. "If he ever sets foot on this estate again, or if any of you let him through those gates, your employment ends before you hit the ground. Tell him this from me: not even Matthew will be able to save him." Two guards hauled Tyla off the floor by his arms. He was weeping now, too terrified to fight. I listened to his cries echo down the corridor until the front doors swallowed them. The crushing weight of James's aura slowly lifted as the library door clicked shut. I stood frozen near the bookshelf, my hands still hovering over my stomach, my bare neck burning where the patch had been ripped away. Light rain and smoked cedar still hung thick in the air between us. James turned toward me. The rage in his silver eyes melted away, replaced by something raw and tender that I wasn't ready to look at. He took a slow
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