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Chapter 25
Date de publication:
2026-06-24 05:28:38
Dernier chapitre
FORGOTTEN IDENTITY Chapter 25
He chose the bowling alley.I almost laughed when I saw the address, the absurdity of it landing somewhere between sweet and devastating, given everything that had happened since the last time we'd stood under those buzzing fluorescent lights together.The lanes were empty when I arrived, the place closed to the public for the evening, which meant Killian had bought out an entire bowling alley just to have a private conversation with me, an act so quietly extravagant it almost made me forget, for a single charitable second, that the man doing it had spent the last several days disappearing without a word to anyone who loved him.He was sitting on the same bench from before, his rental shoes already on, a single bowling ball resting untouched beside him."You actually came," he said, standing as I approached, his voice rougher than usual, like he hadn't used it much over the last three days."You asked.""I half expected you to send Kade instead. Or my mother. Everyone else in this fam
FORGOTTEN IDENTITY Chapter 24
Three days passed before I saw either of them again.The silence wasn't dramatic, no slammed doors, no ambushes in lobbies, no formal requests through the internal system. It was just absence, a quiet, careful distance that felt somehow more unsettling than every chaotic confrontation that had come before it.Madeline mentioned, with careful neutrality, that Killian hadn't come into the office at all. Kade had, but only briefly, locked away in calls that ran late into the evening, his usual measured calm replaced by something tighter, more brittle, according to the handful of staff brave enough to gossip about it within my earshot.I threw myself into work instead, the one thing in my life that had never once required me to manage two billionaires' fractured relationship with their own father. The Henderson merger needed finalizing. A new associate needed mentoring. Ordinary tasks, blessedly ordinary, and I clung to them the way I'd once clung to spreadsheets and case files in the day
FORGOTTEN IDENTITY Chapter 23
"A man called me," I said carefully, watching Kade's face for any flicker of the answer he hadn't given yet. "Said he used to work for your family. Said he had information about the attack five years ago that your mother left out when she told me her version."Kade set his coffee down with deliberate, controlled precision, the kind of movement that told me far more than his expression did. "What exactly did he tell you?""That your father authorized the attack. Not Vivienne's family. Not rivals settling some old corporate score. Your own father, targeting Killian, to clear a path for you in the company's succession."The silence that followed stretched long enough that I started to wonder if I'd finally said something that could break whatever fragile thing had been building between us over the last several weeks."It's true," Kade said finally, his voice flat, stripped of all its usual warmth. "Most of it, anyway."My stomach dropped even though I'd half expected the confirmation. "M
FORGOTTEN IDENTITY Chapter 22
I didn't sleep.I sat up most of the night with the email open on my laptop, the cursor blinking beside that unfamiliar phone number, my mind cycling through every possible scenario until exhaustion and adrenaline blurred together into something close to delirium.By the time the sun came up, weak and gray through my blinds, I had made a decision I knew, even as I made it, neither twin would approve of.I called the number myself, alone, sitting cross-legged on my kitchen floor like that somehow gave me an advantage.It rang twice before a voice answered, male, unfamiliar, carefully neutral in a way that immediately set my teeth on edge."Ms. Perez. I wasn't certain you'd call.""Who is this?""A name won't mean anything to you yet," he said. "But I worked for the Carter family for over a decade, in a position that required me to know things the Carters themselves preferred to keep buried. I left that position eighteen months ago, under circumstances I'd rather not discuss over the ph
FORGOTTEN IDENTITY Chapter 21
Killian's idea of a date, it turned out, was significantly less predictable than his brother's.He picked me up himself, no driver, no security trailing two cars back, just him behind the wheel of a car that looked far too unassuming to belong to a man who owned half the skyline."This isn't your usual style," I said, eyeing the modest sedan with open suspicion as I climbed in."My usual style got you ambushed in a lobby and photographed for a gossip blog," he said, pulling away from the curb with an ease that suggested he drove far more often than his reputation implied. "I'm trying something new. Humility, allegedly.""Allegedly being the operative word."He didn't tell me where we were going, which would have annoyed me from anyone else, but from Killian it felt almost like an apology for every other time he'd tried to control the terms of my own life without asking. We ended up at a small, unglamorous bowling alley on the edge of the city, fluorescent lights buzzing over scuffed l
FORGOTTEN IDENTITY Chapter 21
Kade picked the restaurant the way he picked everything, with a quiet, unshowy precision that somehow felt more thoughtful than Killian's grand gestures ever had. Small, tucked into a side street I'd never noticed despite walking past it a hundred times, the kind of place that didn't advertise and didn't need to.He was already seated when I arrived, no entourage, no security hovering at the door, just a man in a simple navy sweater who stood the moment he saw me, like some old-fashioned instinct he'd never quite shaken."You came," he said, echoing his mother's words from the pier without realizing it, and the small, involuntary flinch I gave at the phrase made his brow furrow slightly. "Did I say something wrong?""No. Just a strange echo." I sat, smoothing my dress, suddenly aware of how badly I wanted this dinner to be simple, uncomplicated, the way he'd promised. "Sorry. Long few weeks.""The longest," he agreed, and for a moment we just sat there, two people who had been through
FORGOTTEN IDENTITY Chapter 7
The question hung in the air like a guillotine blade. I didn’t answer Clover. I couldn’t.“I told you. None. I’m very single and you know it Clover.” I stepped around her, my heels clicking a frantic, uneven rhythm against the floor until I reached the safety of my office and slammed the door.But
FORGOTTEN IDENTITY Chapter 6
The walk to my office felt like a funeral procession with an open casket, like everyone could see me dead and at my worst.The glass walls of the hallway were the windows of an aquarium. I and the Carter twins were on display for the people to watch.The moment the door to my office clicked shut, I
FORGOTTEN IDENTITY Chapter 5
My coffee burned hot as I sat in my seat. The Carter twins had bought my company off the previous day and I had immediately clocked out of work early.Pretending to be sick was easier than staying.I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t have screamed if I had stayed.My desk was full of the unfinished documents
FORGOTTEN IDENTITY Chapter 4
I woke up the next morning to my head splitting in two from a migraine. I groaned and pushed myself off the bed, dreading the work day ahead of me already. After that dinner with Killian and Kade, well, the train wreck I barely survived, I had headed home and forced myself to go to bed. Unfortunate
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