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Chapter 43: The Betrayal Within
Date de publication:
2026-05-16 17:09:03
Dernier chapitre
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The Billionaire’s Stolen Bride Chapter 46: Julian's Play
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POV: Lena Moretti The realization hit me on a Wednesday morning while I was throwing up crackers in the bathroom. Gianna's door was closed but I could hear her moving behind it. Awake earlier than usual. Listening, maybe. Cataloging the sound of my retching the way she cataloged everything else about my presence in this house. And suddenly, with absolute clarity, I understood that I couldn't stay here another day. Gianna was reporting to Julian. Julian was smart enough to figure out the pregnancy from behavioral observations alone. And Julian with knowledge of a Crane heir growing inside me was the most dangerous version of Julian I could imagine. He would move legally. Custody claims. Paternal rights filed on behalf of the Crane family. The blood debt clause about descendants weaponized in a family court. He'd build a case that I was living in an unstable environment with an alcoholic father and no income. He'd argue that the child deserved the resources and stability of the Crane
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The Billionaire’s Stolen Bride Chapter 43: The Betrayal Within
POV: Lena Moretti I didn't find out what Gianna had done until it was too late. By then the damage was already spreading through channels I couldn't see and reaching people I couldn't stop. But I should have known. I should have remembered that the house I'd retreated to wasn't a safe house. It was a sieve. And my stepsister had been straining information through it since the day I married the wrong brother. Gianna was subtle about it. I'll give her that. She'd learned from the first visit to The Obsidian, where I'd spotted her probing immediately and shut her down. This time she didn't probe. She just watched. Quietly. From the edges. The way a predator watches from tall grass, patient and still and waiting for the prey to reveal its weakness through routine rather than confrontation. She watched me come back to the house with a suitcase and no husband. She watched me spend hours in my room with my laptop, emerging only for food and bathroom trips. She watched me avoid coffee, whi
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