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Illusion of Choice
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-03-22 22:23:59
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The Billionaire's Insignificant Wife 295
"Who is standing beside him?" Alina asked.The line crackled. Helen's breathing came fast and shallow, and somewhere behind it Junior sighed in his sleep."I couldn't see the face," Helen whispered. "Only a shadow against the study window, and a cane. A man's cane, with a silver handle."Adrian went very still. "A cane.""You know who that is?" Renee asked."Not yet." He looked at Alina. "But I know who carried one in Daniel's father's old photographs."Nobody answered. Foster, held between two of Salvatore's men near the door, had gone pale for the first time that night."Stay hidden, Helen," Alina said. "Keep Junior warm. We are coming for you both.""Hurry, Nyonya. The greenhouse glass is thin. If anyone walks the east path, they will see the lantern.""Put it out.""Yes. Yes, I will."The call ended. Alina stood very still, one hand on her stomach, feeling the baby shift as if in answer to her pulse."We split," Renee said. "Two men take Foster and Harris to the car. The rest of u
The Billionaire's Insignificant Wife 294
Alina looked at the screen, at the pinned hair and the narrow back, and made herself breathe slowly. Twenty minutes. Foster had said it twice, and people who say a number twice are usually counting. "You're lying about the time," Alina said. "If you needed me here for twenty minutes, you wouldn't have wasted five of them talking." Foster's smile flickered. "I'm fond of conversation." "No. You're waiting for something." Alina kept her hands where they were, one resting on the curve of her stomach, which felt like the only honest gesture she had left. "A call. A confirmation. Someone has to tell you it's finished." For the first time, Foster did not answer at once. Behind her, Harris had slid down the stall wall until he sat in the straw, his knees drawn up. He was staring at the phone in Foster's hand with an expression Alina could not read. It looked less like fear than like arithmetic. "Mrs. Blackwood," he said hoarsely. "Be quiet, Harris," Foster said. "The woman on
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Dr. Amelia Foster wore the same gray coat she had worn the night Junior's fever refused to break. Her hands hung loose at her sides, and her face showed nothing but patient concern.*Do not move,* Renee said in Alina's ear. *Team two has her. Wait for the signal.*"Dr. Foster," Alina said. "You treated my son.""I did." Foster tilted her head, as if the remark were a pleasant memory. "You've gained weight. Good. Pregnancy suits you better than the hospital did."Mr. Harris had retreated against the wall of the stall, his shoulders shaking. He did not look at either woman."You're the one who sent the letter," Alina said."Harris sent the letter. I told him what to write." Foster smiled thinly. "It was printed in Daniel's study because Daniel's study is the one room in that house nobody questions. A little cruel, I admit. I wanted you to wonder about him."*Alina,* Adrian said, his voice tight. *Keep her talking. The longer she talks, the more we have on the wire.*"The video," Alina s
The Billionaire's Insignificant Wife 292
Alina read the two messages three times before she lowered the phone."What is it?" Adrian asked. He was already half out of his chair.She could have told him. The instruction sat in her chest like a stone, *tell no one, not even Adrian*, and she understood exactly why it had been written that way. Whoever sent it knew who she trusted, and wanted that trust broken before the night began.She slid the phone across the table instead.Adrian read it. Ms. Fontaine read it over his shoulder. Renee read it last, and she did not bother hiding her reaction."No," Renee said."I haven't said anything.""You were about to." Renee set the phone down very carefully. "It's a lure. Someone cut Daniel's video off mid-sentence and sent you here within the hour. The stables behind the estate, alone, at night. It reads like a script.""Then why send the video at all?" Alina asked. "If they wanted me at the stables, a threat would have been enough. Instead someone sent proof that Daniel was afraid."Ad
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The courtroom doors stood open, and the bailiff was watching them."Two minutes," Adrian said, low. "Ms. Fontaine, tell the judge we need ten more. A medical reason, if she asks. Alina's seven months along. Nobody will argue."Ms. Fontaine nodded and slipped inside. Adrian turned to Renee."Printed in Daniel's study. Three days ago. How sure are they?""The printer has a registered serial number, and the paper carries a watermark from a stationer that supplies only the mansion's offices." Renee kept her voice flat. "Salvatore's analyst says ninety percent. The rest is just caution.""Then Daniel wrote it," Alina said."Or someone sat in his chair while he was out," Adrian said. "Or someone wants us to believe he did."Alina looked down at the folder. A confession, a trap, or a trap dressed as a confession. She had lived inside Daniel's house long enough to know he rarely did anything for only one reason."If he wanted to hurt me," she said slowly, "he would not warn me not to trust hi
The Billionaire's Insignificant Wife 290
Nobody spoke for a moment.The corridor was quiet except for the muffled tick of the clock through the courtroom doors. Alina stared at the phone Renee held out, at the grainy photo of a man in a gray coat leaning against a pillar across the street. The folder under his arm was thin and cream-colored. The name on the tab was just legible.*Alina Blackwood.*"I haven't used that name in months," she said."Legally, you still have it," Adrian said. He had taken the phone and enlarged the image with two fingers. "Until the divorce is finalized, you're Mrs. Blackwood on every document in this country.""What's in the folder?""I don't know." He handed the phone back. "But a man doesn't wait outside a courthouse for hours with something harmless."Ms. Fontaine stepped closer, lowering her voice. "Process server, most likely. Someone serving papers in a marital case would label the folder exactly that way.""Papers for what?" Alina asked.No one had an answer. The silence stretched until Re
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