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CHAPTER NINETY EIGHT
publish date:
2026-07-29 21:34:11
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Dumped by the Heir, Claimed by his Brother CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVEThe boutique smelled like lavender as Cassie stood on the small raised platform in front of the three-way mirror feeling, for one full hour, like she had no other care in this world."Turn," Margaret said, waving a small circle with her hand, and Cassie obliged, the finished skirt of the dress swishing softly around her ankles, every alteration now perfectly in place, the fabric falling exactly the way she'd pictured it in her head the very first time she'd tried it on."Oh," Eleanor said quietly, pressing a hand to her chest, tears already gathering in the corners of her eyes despite her obvious effort to hold them back. "Oh, Cassie, look at you. Just look at you standing there.""It's finished," Cassie said, running her palm slowly over the fitted bodice, feeling the weight of the beading beneath her fingers, real now instead of just pinned and imagined. "And it's so gorgeous.”"Dom is going to fall in love all over the second he sees you in this,
Dumped by the Heir, Claimed by his Brother CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FOUR
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FOURDom didn't say anything the remaining ride home. He just kept one hand wrapped around hers, thumb moving in slow, steady circles against her knuckles the way it always did when words weren't going to be enough for whatever she was carrying and the only thing left to offer was presence instead of an answer.The house was quiet when they got in. It was always this way when something enormous had just happened and neither of them had the energy left to fill the silence with anything but breathing, the two of them moving through the front hall like people carrying something heavy and fragile between them, careful not to jostle it.Cassie sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at her own hands, turning them over slowly like she might find some answer written there that the wire transfer record hadn't already given her."But really, what if he was in on the accident too," she said finally, needing to say them again now that they were somewhere quiet e
Dumped by the Heir, Claimed by his Brother CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FOUR
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FOUR"I need to be clear about the limits of what we actually have," Whitfield said carefully, watching her face. "This is one wire transfer. It's not proof of everything Locke's intermediary has been doing recently or confirmation that your father is the actual voice on that burner phone. But it is solid proof that he had both clear motive and clear means to help bury evidence of the original conspiracy and that raises serious, unavoidable questions about what he might still be actively protecting even now."Dom's hand found Cassie's, gripping tight enough that she could feel his pulse through his palm. "Cassie.""I'm fine," she said automatically, though her voice betrayed her completely, thin and unsteady in a way she couldn't quite mask."You don't have to be fine right now," Dom said gently, his thumb moving slowly against her knuckles.She sat still for a while, feeling the old, practiced instinct to push through it silently and hold herself togeth
Dumped by the Heir, Claimed by his Brother CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THREE
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THREEHe wrapped the meeting shortly after, promising Locke's lawyer a formal offer within forty-eight hours, professional and measured right up until the elevator doors closed behind the three of them, sealing them into a private, quiet box heading down."What was that," Dom said immediately, the second the doors shut. "You went somewhere else entirely the moment he said that phrase. I saw it.”Whitfield exhaled slowly, watching the floor numbers tick downward. "There's a term that surfaces occasionally in older financial fraud cases, particularly ones involving cover-ups that stretch back years rather than months. People who've quietly funded or protected something illegal for a long time sometimes refer to it that way, almost fondly, the way you'd talk about a stock you've held onto far too long to abandon now without taking a real loss. An old investment.""You think this connects to something older than Marcus," Dom said slowly, working through the
Dumped by the Heir, Claimed by his Brother CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWOPreston Locke looked smaller in person than the grainy stairwell photo had suggested, a young man in a slightly too-large suit sitting beside a lawyer who kept one hand flat on the table, like he was physically prepared to stop his client from saying more than they'd negotiated the night before."My client is prepared to cooperate fully," the lawyer said, opening the meeting with the careful, rehearsed cadence of someone who'd spent hours the previous evening drilling exactly these words into his client's head. "In exchange for reduced charges and a recommendation of no jail time, given his age, his lack of any prior record, and his willingness to provide substantive information beyond what he's already offered."Whitfield sat across the conference table with Dom and Cassie flanking him on either side, his expression giving away nothing, the same careful neutrality he wore into every negotiation Cassie had watched him conduct over these past months.
Dumped by the Heir, Claimed by his Brother CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTYWhitfield's office looked more cluttered than usual when Dom and Cassie arrived that evening, files stacked in uneven towers across every flat surface, the particular disarray of a man who'd stopped organizing in favor of moving fast."I have a name," Whitfield said, without preamble, gesturing to the two chairs across from his desk. "Preston Locke. Junior associate at Hale Industries, he had low-level access to several departments.""How did you find him," Dom asked."The monitoring firm's witness reports from yesterday's incident included security footage timestamps," Whitfield said. "One shows an employee leaving the building through a side stairwell almost immediately after Marcus was escorted out, moving fast, clearly agitated. I had someone cross-reference building access logs. Locke's badge clocked that exit within ninety seconds of Marcus's.""That's circumstantial," Cassie said."It was," Whitfield agreed. "Until we pulled his financial records
Dumped by the Heir, Claimed by his Brother CHAPTER TWO
Her dress was pooling around her like a deflated parachute. As she cried so hard her entire body shook terribly. She wiped away the tears that had completely blocked her vision.Three years.Three years of dinner parties with the Hales where Eleanor critiqued everything from Cassie's posture to her
Dumped by the Heir, Claimed by his Brother CHAPTER ONE
"To Marcus and Cassie," someone called out, and the sea of champagne flutes lifted in unison like a choreographed wave. The sound of glass clinking filled the air in celebration, each clink another nail in the coffin of Cassie's composure.The crystal chandeliers of the Grand Rosewood Ballroom cast
Dumped by the Heir, Claimed by his Brother CHAPTER FOUR
The coat room suddenly felt smaller with both of them standing, Cassie still in her rumpled engagement dress and Dom in his perfectly tailored tux. She was still holding his hand, she realized. His grip was warm and firm and nothing like Marcus's carefully measured touches.She dropped it."So," Ca
Dumped by the Heir, Claimed by his Brother CHAPTER THREE
Cassie blinked and suddenly burst into a sharp and disbelieving laugh. "What?""You heard me.""This is insane, you're insane.""Probably." Dom shifted, still crouched at her level, his expression serious despite the absurdity of what he was proposing. "But think about it. Marcus wanted you for the
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