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Illusion of Control
publish date:
2026-04-04 22:59:05
Latest chapter
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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The petition reached Judge Simmons's desk on a Monday morning, three pages of clinical language wrapped around a single purpose.Adrian read his copy standing up, in the hallway outside the courtroom, and by the second page his jaw had set."He wants the visits moved to the mansion," he told Ms. Fontaine, who had arrived with her coffee still steaming. "Citing Junior's recovery. Stability of environment.""It's well argued." She took the pages from him and skimmed. "Hastings wrote this. It's the kind of argument a judge can't dismiss without a reason.""Then we give her a reason."They had four days before the hearing. Adrian spent them the way he spent most of his days now, with very little sleep and a legal pad that filled faster than he could organize it. Dr. Sarah Chen, the court-appointed child psychologist, agreed to testify. Her report from the first visit was clear: Junior had been calm, open, and responsive in a neutral setting. The mansion, she wrote, was the place where his
The Billionaire's Insignificant Wife 288
Junior came home to the mansion that afternoon with flushed cheeks and shining eyes.Daniel heard the small laugh from his study on the second floor. The house had been silent for weeks, and the sound made his hand stop above the documents. He stepped out into the hallway and found his son running toward the stairs, a sketchbook clamped under one arm."Papa, look!" Junior held the book high. "Mama said my drawing is good!"The word dropped into the hallway lightly, weightless. Mama.Daniel knelt down. Junior's fever had broken three days ago, in the morning, but he had not seen a smile this wide since Alina left. He studied his son's face for a long moment, searching for something to blame, and found nothing."You met Alina?" he asked quietly."In the playroom with lots of toys. Mama hugged me for a really long time." Junior hesitated, then lowered his voice. "Mama said we'll see each other again. Every two weeks."Every two weeks. Daniel nodded, ruffled his son's hair, and kept his f
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The mansion was quiet when Daniel's car pulled through the gates, though not the peaceful kind of quiet. It was the kind that settled over a house where someone small was sick and everyone else was afraid to make noise.Daniel climbed the stairs without bothering to change out of his suit. Outside Junior's room, a maid stood up quickly from her chair, lowering her voice."His fever came down a little this afternoon, sir. But he barely ate. He keeps asking for..." She hesitated."For whom?""For Madam Alina."Daniel said nothing. He pushed the door open.The room was dim, lit only by a small lamp beside the bed. Junior lay curled under his blanket, his cheeks flushed, his dark hair damp against his forehead. A cold compress had slipped halfway down his face. Clarissa sat in the armchair in the corner, scrolling through her phone, and she straightened the moment she saw Daniel."He's finally asleep," she whispered, standing. "The doctor said it's just stress. Nothing serious.""Stress,"
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Word of Salvatore's visit spread through the household with the kind of excitement usually reserved for holidays.Junior could barely contain himself for the weeks leading up to it, asking daily whether it was "ship day" yet, drawing pictures of enormous vessels with sails that bore little resemblance to the sleek modern ship he'd actually sailed on years before, too young at the time to remember the details clearly."Will Renee come too?" he asked one morning, perched on a kitchen stool while Alina packed Hope's lunch for the day's outing to the coast."I believe so," Alina said. "She mentioned she wanted to see how big you've gotten.""I'm this big now," Junior announced, standing as tall as his small frame allowed, which prompted Hope to giggle from her high chair, banging her spoon against the tray in apparent agreement.Adrian entered from his morning run, still catching his breath, pausing to kiss the top of Alina's head before scooping Hope up for her morning cuddle. "Everyone
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Sunlight spilled across the kitchen counter the next morning, catching on the screen of Alina's forgotten phone.She finally picked it up while brewing coffee, Adrian still asleep upstairs after a late night of wedding cleanup and quiet celebration. Junior's small snores drifted faintly from his room, and Hope had just started babbling in her crib, the kind of soft morning sounds that had become the soundtrack of their new life.The notification was from an unfamiliar number, though something about the area code made Alina pause before opening it.This is Detective Reyes. I know we haven't spoken since everything was resolved, but there's something I think you should know. I'm not calling to reopen old wounds—I'm calling because justice sometimes takes strange, quiet turns, and I thought you deserved to hear this from me directly rather than through the news.Alina's stomach tightened slightly, old instincts flaring even after months of peace. She set down the coffee pot and read furt
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