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Chapter 117: The New Normal and the First Crack

作者: Frank J.P
last update 最終更新日: 2025-10-10 03:28:32

It started like any other evening — soft music, city lights glittering through the penthouse glass, and the smell of Bella’s rosemary chicken wafting through the air. But beneath that calm, something fragile was waiting to shatter.

A couple of months. That was how long it had been since Jason and Bella had stood in that private garden, promising each other forever. Since Julian Voss had been dragged away, smirking as he delivered that chilling warning — about a “true architect” still out there, someone worse, someone waiting.

The threat had faded from the headlines. The world had moved on. But Jason hadn’t.

He still checked the locks three times before bed. Still tracked unknown calls on his phone. Still treated every new person in their orbit like a possible enemy. It wasn’t madness — not yet. It was love, twisted by memory and fear.

And Bella... Bella had built a new life beside him — a life of warmth, laughter, family. But even love built on steel can crack if pressed too long.

Tha
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  • Once my Wife   Chapter 123: Elena’s Pragmatism

    They met Elena in a glass tower that pretended not to stare at the river. Her office smelled of polished wood and iced water. She never smiled unless a plan needed polishing.“Elena,” Bella said, sliding into the chair opposite the lawyer. “We have a problem that’s legal on the face of it, and lethal behind the curtains.”“Talk,” Elena said, putting down her glass. She didn’t have the theatricality of shock; she had the efficiency of judgment.“Cerberus,” Bella said. “And Bannon.”“Elena’s eyebrows didn’t move. She had read richer crime novels for relaxation. “Cerberus is a ghost, Bella. It’s a web of shell companies, trusts, and private foundations. It looks like a fortress because its couriers are invisible.”“How do you attack that?” Bella asked. “We can’t sue a phantom.”“You embarrass it.” Elena said the word like it was a surgical tool. “Every ghost has a face when it wants to show off. They throw parties. They like to vet people. They need theatre.”“You mean a black-tie event?

  • Once my Wife   Chapter 122: The Bannon Dossier

    The War Room smelled faintly of coffee and old paper. The lights were low. Maps and corporate charts lay like a city under glass. It was supposed to be where they planned a campaign — but tonight it was where they kept their marriage alive.“Listen to me,” Bella said, leaning over the table, her hand sliding up the back of Jason’s neck so she could feel him breathe. “Ethan is bait. Sixteen. Works in a bookstore. He doesn’t know anything he can’t forget.”“He’s not the player,” Jason replied, tracing a thin red line from a holding company to a trust account on the tablet. “His father is. Robert Bannon controls a third of the Cerberus Group. That’s not a hobby, Bella. That’s a pillar.”“You keep saying ‘Cerberus’ like it’s a monster you can name and kill.” Bella’s voice was quiet but sharp. “Is it a company, or is it a legal fiction stitched together by lawyers in Bermuda?”“It’s both.” Jason tapped a node until it blinked. “Cerberus, Hydra, Scylla — three holding networks feeding one a

  • Once my Wife   Chapter 121: A Partnership Forged in Fire

    The War Room, once Jason’s fortress of control, now felt like a graveyard of broken promises. The hum of the servers was the only sound left after hours of shouting, accusations, and silence heavy enough to crush a man’s chest.Jason stood in the middle of it all—his tie loosened, his eyes bloodshot, his expression stripped of command. He looked less like a CEO and more like a man who had lost everything except the guilt holding him upright.He spoke softly, the words trembling out of him like a confession.Jason: “You’re right, Bella. You’ve always been right. I’m sorry.”His voice cracked. “I let the fear consume me. I thought I was protecting you—protecting us—but all I did was destroy the trust holding this together.”He walked over to the central computer, the screen reflecting his worn face like a mirror he could no longer avoid. His fingers hovered over the keyboard, trembling. Then, with slow, deliberate motions, he began wiping the drives one by one. Files disappeared, years

  • Once my Wife   Chapter 120: The Secret War Room

    The warning light blinked red on the desk—silent but impossible to miss.Garage Access – Jason Reed.Bella froze. The Ethan Bannon file trembled in her hand. The words on the pages blurred as her pulse thundered in her ears.He was here.In seconds, Jason would walk into the penthouse. Into his own trap.There was no time to hide, no time to run. She dropped the file on the central desk and forced herself to breathe, to stand tall. Her heart pounded, but her eyes stayed cold.The hidden shelf slid back into place with a faint metallic whisper just as the private elevator chimed.Jason stepped out, still wearing the armor of a man who commanded worlds — blazer slung over one arm, jaw tense from another long night of strategy and control.He froze.There — a trace of dust disturbed on the bookshelf. A book slightly out of alignment. His gaze followed the invisible trail until it landed on Bella.She was standing at the center of the room like a verdict waiting to be delivered.Jason’s m

  • Once my Wife   Chapter 119: The Red Thread

    The moment Jason’s footsteps disappeared down the hallway, Bella’s composure cracked. The quiet of the penthouse felt wrong—too still, too heavy, as if the walls themselves were holding their breath.Her pulse pounded hard against her ribs, echoing the panic rising in her chest. Elena’s words from earlier still rang in her head like a bell she couldn’t silence: “The red thread, Bella. It’s not a design element—it’s a message. Someone’s hiding something in that book.”Someone, Bella now realized, meant Jason.She moved fast, her slippers silent against the marble floor. The library loomed before her, dark and regal—the heart of the Reed home. The smell of old paper and cedar oil filled the air, but tonight it didn’t comfort her. Tonight it felt like walking into a crypt.Her hands shook as she reached for the Roman architecture book Elena had mentioned. Normally, her fingers were steady—trained from years of sketching plans and tracing fine lines—but not tonight. Tonight they trembled

  • Once my Wife   Chapter 118: Elena’s Intervention

    The fight didn’t end when the shouting stopped.It stretched into the next morning—long, cold, and suffocating.Jason left before dawn, tie half-done, jaw tight, muttering something about “needing to check on a lead” at the office. But Bella knew that was a lie. There was no mole. There was just Jason—running again.The penthouse felt hollow without him, too clean, too silent. The fight’s echoes still clung to the air: broken glass swept into a corner, a coffee mug with a crack down its side, and Bella’s own reflection in the window—tired, brittle, lost.She couldn’t do this alone anymore.She grabbed her phone.Bella (murmuring): “Elena, it’s me… I need you.”Thirty minutes later, the door chime rang.Elena Davis, Bella’s bestfriend, strode in like a storm in heels—sharp suit, sharper eyes, the smell of roasted coffee following her like armor. She was everything Bella wasn’t right now: composed, focused, unbreakable.Elena (hugging her tight): “Don’t say a word until I’ve had caffein

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