مكتبة
بحث
بيت / Romance / THE BILLIONAIRE'S REPLACEMENT BRIDE / Chapter 30: The First Memory

مشاركة

Chapter 30: The First Memory

مؤلف: Smart Imuere
last update تاريخ النشر: 2026-08-02 06:00:29

Tuesday night settled heavily over Kingsley Manor.

The library lights remained on long after the rest of the house had gone quiet. The photocopied page still lay between them, exactly where Nathan had set it down that afternoon.

Neither Ethan nor Emma had moved it. It somehow felt wrong to touch it again, as though handling it too much might wear away whatever was left of the memory it held.

Nathan broke the silence first. "The message wasn't a threat."

"No?"

"No."

"What was it?"

"A warning."

E
استمر في قراءة هذا الكتاب مجانا
امسح الكود لتنزيل التطبيق
الفصل السابق الفصل التالي
الفصل مغلق

أحدث فصل

  • THE BILLIONAIRE'S REPLACEMENT BRIDE   Chapter 30: The First Memory

    Tuesday night settled heavily over Kingsley Manor.The library lights remained on long after the rest of the house had gone quiet. The photocopied page still lay between them, exactly where Nathan had set it down that afternoon.Neither Ethan nor Emma had moved it. It somehow felt wrong to touch it again, as though handling it too much might wear away whatever was left of the memory it held.Nathan broke the silence first. "The message wasn't a threat.""No?""No.""What was it?""A warning."Ethan folded his arms. "There's a difference?"Nathan nodded. "A threat says, Stop." He looked at the photocopy. "A warning says, We know where you are."No one found that reassuring.Emma picked up the page once more....he looked so alone that I couldn't just walk away.She whispered the sentence to herself. Again. And again.Closing her eyes, she tried to force the memory back. Nothing. Only the steady ache behind her temples, and the faint, useless feeling that the memory was there somewhere,

  • THE BILLIONAIRE'S REPLACEMENT BRIDE   Chapter 29: The Page Someone Kept

    Tuesday arrived gray and cool, the kind of morning that turned the city into blurred reflections behind rain-speckled glass.Emma had slept badly. Not because of nightmares. Because of a missing page.Nathan found her in the library before breakfast. "The notebook again?""I keep thinking the page itself isn't the important part.""No?""I think whoever removed it wanted me to notice everything except what was written there."Nathan considered that. "People hiding information often leave distractions.""So you agree?""I've learned not to underestimate your instincts.""I'm beginning to notice that's becoming a habit.""It is."Kingsley Industries had barely settled into the morning when Ethan received a call from Internal Audit."The supplier review?""The first stage is complete." Nathan closed the office door behind him. "The companies Mrs. Kingsley identified." A pause. "They're real."Ethan frowned. "But?""They're owned by different people.""So the addresses?""All legitimate."

  • THE BILLIONAIRE'S REPLACEMENT BRIDE   Chapter 28: The Missing Page

    Monday mornings had a way of pretending yesterday hadn't happened.Kingsley Manor woke at precisely seven-thirty. Breakfast arrived on schedule. Nathan reviewed Ethan's calendar with his usual precision.Only Emma noticed the notebook still resting beside her plate. She had brought it downstairs without thinking.Nathan glanced at the faded blue cover. "The one from your father's house?"Emma nodded. "I meant to return it to my room.""You've been reading it.""I've been trying to."She turned another page. Most of it remained ordinary. Shopping lists. Telephone numbers. Recipes her mother had apparently intended to try and never did.Ordinary lives left ordinary traces.Ethan finished his coffee. "You think there's something in it.""I don't know.""You keep looking.""I suppose I do." She smiled at herself. "I've read the same ten pages three times."Nathan looked up. "Sometimes people don't reread because they're searching."Emma looked at him. "They reread because they think they'

  • THE BILLIONAIRE'S REPLACEMENT BRIDE   Chapter 27: A Different Kind of Marriage

    Sunday evenings usually belonged to people with nowhere urgent to be. For once, Ethan and Emma were two of them.The Kingsley Foundation's annual donor reception occupied only a small ballroom overlooking the river. No television cameras waited outside. No reporters crowded the entrance. Invitations had been limited to longtime supporters and scholarship recipients.It felt peaceful."This is different," Emma said as they stepped inside."It usually is.""No speeches?""Only one.""Long?"Ethan glanced toward Nathan, who answered without looking up from his tablet. "Seven minutes and forty-two seconds.""You timed it?""I've attended enough of these to prepare accordingly.""I worry about you.""So does Mr. Kingsley.""I've never said that.""You've implied it."The evening unfolded without urgency. An elderly couple stopped Ethan to thank him for funding a children's cardiac program. A former scholarship student proudly introduced them to his fiancée.Emma noticed something she hadn'

  • THE BILLIONAIRE'S REPLACEMENT BRIDE   Chapter 26: The Forgotten Notebook

    Saturday afternoon arrived with rain that never quite committed to falling.Emma hadn't planned to visit her father's house. She certainly hadn't planned to stay.Yet here she was, standing in the familiar hallway while Richard searched upstairs for a property deed he insisted still existed."I know I put it somewhere," he called."You've been saying that for twenty minutes.""I've had twenty years to misplace things."She smiled despite herself. Some habits survived even the worst years.The house felt quieter than she remembered. Not empty. Simply lived in by fewer people.Pictures had disappeared from the walls. Furniture had been moved. The piano her mother used to play was gone.Time hadn't stopped here after the funeral. It had simply become quieter.Richard came downstairs carrying three dusty folders. "Not this one." He opened another. "Definitely not this one."Emma laughed. "I'll help.""You'll regret volunteering.""I probably already do."They spread the folders across the

  • THE BILLIONAIRE'S REPLACEMENT BRIDE   Chapter 25: The Woman Behind the Headlines

    Thursday morning began with a headline.Rachel didn't show Emma immediately. She waited until the office had settled, until the volunteers had disappeared into their routines and the first deliveries had been checked.Only then did she place her phone on the desk. "I think you should see this before someone else shows you."Emma looked down. The headline stretched across the screen.DID EMMA BENNETT PLAN THE KINGSLEY MARRIAGE FROM THE BEGINNING?She read the first paragraph. Then the second. By the third, she stopped."They're saying I convinced my father to arrange the wedding.""They're calling it an anonymous source.""It isn't true.""I know."Emma kept reading anyway. The article mentioned private family conversations no stranger should have known. It hinted that Emma had spent years positioning herself to replace Olivia.Every accusation stopped just short of becoming something that could be challenged in court.Carefully written. Carefully cruel.By noon the story had spread. A

فصول أخرى

قد تعجبك أيضًا

استكشاف وقراءة روايات جيدة مجانية
الوصول المجاني إلى عدد كبير من الروايات الجيدة على تطبيق GoodNovel. تنزيل الكتب التي تحبها وقراءتها كلما وأينما أردت
اقرأ الكتب مجانا في التطبيق
امسح الكود للقراءة على التطبيق
DMCA.com Protection Status