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Chapter 10 Part 6: First Catch
publish date:
2026-06-17 03:54:28
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Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 10 Part 6: First Catch
Bastien did not sleep immediately.He stood at the window for a while after Adler and Rook had gone, which was not unusual. He often stood at windows. He found the city useful to look at when he was thinking, the specific pattern of it, the logic that became visible from above that was invisible from inside.He was thinking about Octavia Maddox.Not about the marriage. Not about the territory or the commission or the twelve months or the Maddox family's possible sabotage or any of the other pieces of the situation that had legitimate professional claim on his attention. He was thinking about her specifically, the particular texture of her, and he was doing it with the uncomfortable clarity of a man who had noticed something and could no longer unnotice it.She was beautiful. He had registered this at the gallery the way he registered things that were relevant and had set it aside in the professional category, which was where he put information that was present but not immediately acti
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 10 Part 5: First Catch
"Octavia Rose Maddox," she said. "Twenty-six. Born in Tripicity. No known biological family in the city. Entered the foster system at age four after a child protection intervention. Seven placements between four and eighteen. No adoption. No long-term guardian placement. Aged out at eighteen." She said it the way she said everything, without pause, without inflection, each fact delivered with the precision of someone who had read the file until she knew it rather than until she had finished it. "The last placement was a family in the Thornmere district. She left at eighteen. No contact recorded after that."Nobody said anything."No tenancy ever registered under her legal name. No property ownership. No hotel bookings. No residential address on any system at any point after she left the foster system." A pause. "Eight years of nothing.""Eight years," Bastien said."Eight years." Vex looked at him. "She has never had a registered address as an adult.""The art," Bastien said."Ash Van
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 10 Part 4: First Catch
Bastien was back at the Alderton by one in the morning.Adler was already there, which meant Adler had not gone to sleep and had not intended to. He was at the table with the legal pad and a coffee that was on its second hour and a specific expression that Bastien had come to associate with situations that were developing in directions Adler found professionally uncomfortable."The bank account," Bastien said."Monitored as of this morning." Adler turned a page on the legal pad. "The direct deposit from The Meridian is the only regular income. Cash transactions only elsewhere, no ATM withdrawals in any traceable pattern. The first installment of the commission is sitting in the account untouched.""She hasn't touched the commission.""Not yet. The autopayments continue. Gym membership, a storage facility in the grey zone, a prepaid phone service that cycles every four to six weeks." A pause. "The phone cycles make her difficult to reach by conventional means. Every time a number goes
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 10 Part 3: First Catch
Rook had positioned himself on the opposite side of Crane Street with a direct sightline to both the alley exit and the street, which was the correct position for someone who had been told to observe rather than intercept. He had watched Bastien come out of the front entrance of The Meridian and walk around to the alley exit with the patience of someone who had thought carefully about which exit she was using. He had watched the conversation play out on Crane Street, the specific quality of Occy's posture, the specific quality of Bastien's, which were very different from each other and interesting in their difference.He had watched her walk into a group of bar patrons and disappear.He had watched Bastien stand on the pavement looking at the space where she had been.He pressed his lips together very firmly.He maintained this for approximately four seconds.Then he took out his phone, because Adler was going to want to know, and because if Rook was going to document this situation a
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 10 Part 2: First Catch
"A shared interest," she said."The marriage benefits you materially. It benefits me politically. The twelve months is a defined period with a clear end point. I am not suggesting anything beyond the terms of the documents you signed.""The documents I signed thinking I was selling a painting.""Yes." He said it without flinching. "I understand that the circumstances of the signing were not what you believed them to be. I understand that's not a small thing. I am not asking you to pretend otherwise." A beat. "I am asking you to consider that the arrangement, despite its origins, serves your interests as well as mine."She looked at him for a long moment. The grey zone street moved around them, a group of people spilling out of a bar two doors down with the loose laughter of a good night finishing."The warehouse," she said. "Even if I accept that premise. You're asking me to spend twelve months as your wife.""I'm asking you to spend twelve months as the legally registered spouse of a
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 10 Part 1: First Catch
She should have seen him coming.That was the part that bothered her afterward, walking fast through the grey zone with the cold air cutting through her jacket and the specific residue of annoyance that came from being caught off guard by something she should have anticipated. She had clocked his people in the booth. She had gone out the back. She had taken three different routes to the gym over the past week and varied her timing and done everything that her working knowledge of not being found suggested she should do.She had not accounted for him coming personally.It was eleven-forty-five when she came out of The Meridian's back exit, gym bag over one shoulder, backpack over the other, the night cold and clear and the alley behind the club empty in the way alleys behind clubs at this hour were usually empty. She turned left toward Crane Street.He was leaning against the wall at the end of the alley with his hands in his jacket pockets, which was a cashmere jacket and therefore an
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 8: Adler's Problem
Adler had been doing this job for eleven years.In that time he had managed the legal aftermath of three territorial disputes, two hostile acquisitions, one extradition attempt that had required creative interpretation of four separate jurisdictions, and a situation in Monaco that he did not discus
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 7: Running in Heels
The window let out onto a narrow service lane along the east side of the building, barely wide enough for a delivery vehicle. The kind of passage that existed in the gap between what a building presented to the street and what it needed to function. She had noted it during her first circuit of the
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 6: Mr. Right This Way
Adler found him at ten-fifteen.Bastien was in a conversation with the gallery owner, a pleasant and entirely forgettable exchange about the Tripicity art market and the particular challenge of representing emerging work in a city that tended to value legacy over discovery. He was listening with th
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 5: The Signing
She found Sol near the drinks table at nine-fifteen. That was where Sol generally ended up at events once the initial circuit of the room had been completed, the strategic conversations had, and what remained was the comfortable work of maintaining presence without exhausting it."You disappeared,"
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