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2| HIS LIES, THE TRUTH
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2026-03-25 15:46:59Valerie’s POV
The next morning, I was still in bed, wallowing in self-pity when my phone pinged with the long-awaited message. My eyes were still red from crying myself to sleep but none of it mattered anymore. I fumbled for the device and clicked on the message. It was a formal notification from the St. Claire estate legal team, declaring that the final probate was complete. The multi-billion dollar inheritance was finally mine. My heart hammered against my ribs as my heart soared with happiness. Finally, I had the one thing that Cassian had always wanted. I could finally see that charming smile he used to give me in the hospital. He had already left for the office but I did not wait for him to come home. I couldn’t. Cassian had spent five years telling me I looked disgusting and that the world would recoil at the sight of my broken body, which led to him being in control of everything I owned but the joy in my chest gave me a sudden, reckless courage to leave the house. The twins weren’t home so I called a private car before getting dressed hurriedly. I wanted to look good just this one time for Cassian but five years without any form of makeup made me realize I owned nothing of that nature. The only things I owned were ugly and overly big clothes that I wore to hide my skinny frame. After looking for something less disgusting to wear, my journey began. When I arrived at the Thorne Empire, the mere height of the massive building took my breath away. When I had met Cassian, it was nothing but a crumbling bungalow but after funding it with my father’s assets, I felt a swell of pride at the sight in front of me. When I wheeled myself into the entrance, I approached the receptionist. "I’m here to see Cassian Thorne," I said. "I’m his... I’m Valerie St. Claire." The woman behind the desk looked at me with a mix of confusion and pity, probably wondering what a crippled woman had to do with her boss. Yes, Cassian had kept our marriage private for reasons best known to him. "Mr. Thorne is in the middle of a press briefing in the main hall. You can't just go in." "Please, it’s a surprise," I insisted nervously. "He’ll want to see me, we are family.” With one last pitiful glance my way, she grudgingly pointed me towards the direction of a big hall. As I approached, I could hear his loud voice, booming with so much confidence. A smile crept up my face as I thought of his happy smile as he hugged me and announced to the world I was his beloved wife after giving him the big news. I pushed the door open and the room was filled with reporters, cameras, and some prestigious guests. Cassian stood on the podium, giving a speech with the lights on him. “Yes!” I thought. “The perfect opportunity to give him the news and finally announce my actual place as his wife to the world. Now, I wouldn’t be ashamed of me anymore.” "Cassian!" I called out with my voice shaking from so many thoughts filling my head. The room went deathly silent as hundreds of eyes turned toward me. I saw the flash of cameras and heard the confused whispers but my gaze remained on Cassian. Only his validation mattered. They wouldn’t look at me this way when he announced who I truly am. Or so I thought. Cassian’s gaze went cold instantly as he stared at me like I was contaminated. "Who are you?" he asked, his voice nothing like I remembered. It felt as though I was talking to a stranger. I blinked in shock, my smile faltering. "Cassian, it’s me, Valerie. Your wife." A mocking laugh filled the hall as Cassian walked down the podium. He didn’t come to hug me like I had thought; he stopped several feet away with his eyes filled with irritation. "I don't know who you are or what kind of sick game you are playing," he said clearly for everyone to hear. "This woman is a disturbed stalker who has been obsessed with me for years. Security, why is this person in my building?" "Cassian, what are you saying?" I gasped, my heart squeezing painfully. "We live together! I raised your children! The twins—" "My children have a mother," Cassian interrupted. At that moment, a woman I hadn’t noticed before came to stand beside Cassian. She was tall, strikingly thin, and wore a gown that screamed luxury. She was dressed the exact way Cassian told me he hated. I watched in horror as Cassian wrapped an arm around her lovingly. "This is Lydia Thorne," Cassian announced to the stunned crowd. "My wife and the mother of my children. We have been together since before I even started this company. I don’t know who this deranged crippled lady is." Lydia looked down at me, a sharp smirk playing on her lips. She looked exactly like the twins, which hit me even harder than Cassian’s betrayal. The "late ex’s" children Cassian made me raise were theirs all along. He assured me I was unfit to bear his children for years but I never fully understood his reason until now. I had been raising his family all along. "Please, leave," Lydia said, her voice dripping with fake sympathy. With her tone, I could tell she knew all about me. They all knew. "It’s embarrassing to see someone so... desperate. Cassian doesn't like broken things, dear. You should have stayed in whatever hole you crawled out of." A broken sigh escaped my lips as the crowd burst into another round of laughter. I refused to break down. Instead, I looked at Cassian, the very man I had given my all to. “Cassian—” "I don't know this woman," Cassian interrupted, kissing Lydia lovingly on her cheeks. He gave her the same look I had begged for for years. "Security! Get this disgusting opportunist out of my sight."
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Making My Ex-Husband Crawl 80| PROJECT WHEELCHAIR
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Making My Ex-Husband Crawl 79| SOMEONE BIGGER
Valerie's POVWe did not go inside immediately.We sat in the parked car outside the building, the city went on around us and neither of us reached for the door."He said someone pointed him at your father," Dante said. "Someone with an interest in the estate.""Yes," I said."Is he telling the truth?" he said. "Your honest read."I had been asking myself the same question since I walked out of the supervised room. "He has told me things that turned out to be true," I said. "The gate confession. The visitation room. The open court testimony about the tires. Every time he said something I could not verify immediately, the verification eventually came.""So his track record supports it," Dante said."His track record on the things he eventually confessed to supports it," I said. "But he also has a track record of saying things specifically designed to keep me coming back. The full truth, one more meeting. There is always one more thing.""Both can be true," Dante said."Both are probabl
Making My Ex-Husband Crawl 78| ON THE DRIVE BACK
Dante's POVShe was quiet for the first five minutes of the drive.Not the processing quiet. The sitting-with-it quiet. The kind that meant she had taken in more than she could immediately sort and was letting it settle before she touched it.I drove and let her have it."He was not the beginning," she said finally."No," I said."He was the instrument," she said. "Someone pointed him at my father and he went.""That is what he says," I said."Do you believe it?" she said.I thought about it honestly. "I believe it is possible," I said. "Cassian is capable of planning things himself. He proved that for years. But the specific targeting of your father. The timing. The knowledge of what your father was building legally. That level of information about a private individual's legal activities." I paused."That takes access Cassian may not have had on his own.""Someone with access to the estate management structure," she said."Or access to your father's legal communications," I said. "Hi
Making My Ex-Husband Crawl 77| THE LAST ROOM
Valerie's POVThe supervised visit room was smaller than the glass room.One table. Two chairs on opposite sides. A guard stationed at the door with the door open. A camera in the upper corner of the wall. Everything recorded, everything visible, nothing hidden.I sat down first.He was brought in two minutes later. He had lost more weight since the open court session. His clothes were the facility's.His hands were folded in front of him when he sat down and he did not immediately speak.I waited."Thank you for coming," he said."I am here because the court ordered the visit," I said. "Say what you have to say."He looked at his hands. "I know why you are here," he said. "I am still grateful.""Cassian," I said. "The note said the full truth. So say it."He looked up at me. "I need you to understand that I did not know the full extent of it until much later," he said. "What I arranged was the accident. The tires, the brake line. That was mine. I have told you that.""Yes," I said."
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Dante's Pov"The full truth will destroy everything you think you know," she said. "That is the line.""Yes," I said."What does that mean?" she said."It means one of two things," I said. "Either he has something real that genuinely changes the picture. Or he is using the language of something real to get you in a room one more time.""The second option is more likely," she said."Yes," I said. "Statistically. Given his history.""But the first option is possible," she said."Yes," I said. "It is possible."She put the note down on the table. The photograph Marcus had taken of it. The handwriting she had known for years still recognisable even in a photograph of a photograph."He said what I told you in the visitation room was not everything," she said. "He told me he changed the tires himself. He said he needed me to need him. He named Webb.""He named Webb as being present," I said. "But he also said someone helped him. The person who was present and the person who did the work mig
Making My Ex-Husband Crawl 75| WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS
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Making My Ex-Husband Crawl 73| THE VIDEO CALL
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Making My Ex-Husband Crawl 72| THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT TALK
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Making My Ex-Husband Crawl 71| THE NAME HE SAID
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Making My Ex-Husband Crawl 68| BEFORE THE HEARING
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