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The Divided House

Author: G.C Patterson
last update Last Updated: 2025-12-06 04:12:29

Jeffery’s POV

The boardroom had never felt this claustrophobic before.

Not during my father’s worst scandal, not even during the Celine fallout. And absolutely not even when I was ousted and dragged through the press. But this... this was different.

This was betrayal blooming in real time, right through my nose.

Twelve people sat around the table, but only six looked me in the eye. The others… were already hers.

Elise.

She sat directly across from me, poised like she belonged here, as if she had always belonged here. Her black suit was sharp and deliberate; it was expensive in a quiet but terrifying way. She hadn’t said much, but the silence around her was louder than a war drum.

She didn’t need to fight. She let the board do it for her.

“We can’t ignore the DNA test,” Graham, one of the senior members, said, tapping the polished oak table. “If Edward fathered a child outside the marriage, and she has legal documentation, she’s entitled to a claim.”

“To a seat on the board?” Cassie’s
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  • Fool Me Once   The Matchstick Doctrine

    Cassie’s POVI didn’t sleep.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the swing.The creak of metal chains. The way Edward’s hands rested too easily on the back of the seat, as if he’d always belonged there. As if I had.Morning came without relief. The bunker’s lights hummed softly, artificial dawn seeping into a space built for secrets, not comfort. Geneva glittered beyond reinforced glass, unaware that ghosts were waking beneath it.I sat at the narrow table, my phone face down, afraid it might breathe again.Jeffery watched me from across the room, silent, pale, and still healing. The bandage beneath his shirt peeked out every time he moved. He hadn’t slept either, and I could see it in the tightness around his eyes, the way his jaw stayed clenched even when nothing was being said.Anton broke the silence.“The video doesn’t prove paternity,” he said carefully. “And it doesn’t need to. That’s the point.”I looked up. “Then what does it prove?”“That someone wants the world to believe yo

  • Fool Me Once   Dead Men Don’t Stay Buried

    Cassie’s POVThe hospital hallway reeked of antiseptic, desperation, and secrets I wasn’t ready to face.I stood outside Jeffery’s recovery room, clutching the phone like it might catch fire. The message still glared back at me.YOU BURNED ONE EMPIRE. TRY SURVIVING THE NEXT.My pulse thundered, and my stomach turned. I had no idea who sent it, but the threat wasn’t subtle.“Cassie?”I turned to see Anton rounding the corner, his coat flapping open like a war general arriving with a new set of orders. He took one look at my face and stopped.“What is it?” he asked.I handed him the phone.His brows knit together, mouth flattening into a grim line. “They’re not done.”“I figured,” I said, numb. “But who’s they now? Elise is behind bars.”He nodded slowly. “Exactly. Which means she wasn’t acting alone. And whoever sent this isn’t just continuing her playbook, they’re escalating it.”I swallowed hard and looked at the closed hospital door. Jeffery had just made it out of surgery, and here

  • Fool Me Once   The Girl Who Burned Empires

    Jeffery’s POVThey always say the truth sets you free.No one ever tells you how violent the process is.The tapes went live at exactly 6:00 a.m. Geneva time. Anton had timed it perfectly - released through five mirrored servers, seeded into international media outlets, whistleblower platforms, and financial watchdog forums before Elise’s people could even wake up and scramble.Edward Richards’ voice flooded the world.Cold, calculated, and unmistakably him.There were threats to Eleanor Jones, recorded coercion, offshore kill lists, bribes, and the Zurich protocol. Everything he’d buried in silence for decades crawled into the light all at once.And right at the center of it all was Cassie.Not as his heir nor his daughter.But as the woman he’d tried to erase and failed.I stood beside her in the private media holding room, watching the screens as the headlines detonated one after another.RICHARDS EMPIRE BUILT ON BLACKMAIL AND BLOODDNA SCANDAL CONFIRMED FORGED — CASSIE JONES CLEAR

  • Fool Me Once   Fractured Signals

    Cassie’s POVThe door slammed shut with a mechanical hiss that echoed in my chest like a death knell.I pounded on the steel until my palms burned. “Jeffery!” I screamed, my voice hoarse and thick with panic.Muffled on the other side, I could hear him shouting, fists slamming against the reinforced vault, but it was no use. Edward had built this place to keep secrets in and people out.Now I was both.The red emergency lights pulsed like a heartbeat as smoke began curling from one of the back vents. I coughed, dropping to my knees.“Think, Cassie,” I muttered, dragging myself behind a metal cabinet. I’d seen maps when Anton had pulled up the layout earlier - there had to be a secondary exit or override. Edward was paranoid, but never suicidal. He always had a back door.I fumbled through my coat and pulled out the pin I’d used to record Elise’s confession days ago. It was still intact and still recording.Good.If I went down, at least someone would know the truth.I scanned the room

  • Fool Me Once   The Black Archive

    Jeffery’s POVThe first time I heard of the Black Archive, I thought it was a myth - one of those whispered legends executives used to scare each other into silence.Turns out, it was real.Anton met me in a dimly lit, private garage under Geneva’s old financial district. He handed me a black-gloved keycard. No markings, no words - just a chipped corner and the weight of history.“This is it,” he said, his voice gruff. “Edward’s last vault. The one he didn’t trust even his own lawyers to know existed.”Beside me, Cassie shivered under her trench coat, not from cold, but from the pressure. She hadn’t slept in 48 hours. I could see it in the slight twitch at the corner of her left eye - the one she thought she could hide behind a smoky stare.“We need to be fast,” she murmured. “If Elise finds out…”“She already knows,” I said bitterly. “That’s why we move now.”The building above was a derelict publishing house, long abandoned and dusted with the rot of forgotten paper, but beneath it,

  • Fool Me Once   Powerless

    Cassie’s POVThey came for my company at dawn. This was when Elise immediately released me from the estate when I barely had time to settle in.A knock - no, it was more of a pounding shook the reinforced glass door of my office before the sun even dared show its face. I stood in my silk robe, barefoot, staring at the half-lit skyline of the city I once helped shape. I had just made tea, and the warmth of the cup in my hand was the only thing grounding me in that moment.Then the glass cracked.I moved like a ghost, unlocking the door just as the second blow landed.“Cassie Jones?” a man in a dark blue suit asked. His badge flashed: SEC.“You’ve been served.”The folder was thick. The headlines in bold are an emergency seizure. A federal inquiry - asset freeze.Behind him, two more agents slipped inside like shadows, already scanning files and drawers.“This is a violation,” I snapped. “I haven’t been convicted of anything!”The lead agent didn’t blink. “You’re not being arrested, Ms.

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