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Chapter 57: Partnership
Data de publicação:
2026-05-16 14:14:49
Último capítulo
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 59: Smoke and Mirrors
Amelia's POV The false trail took two days to build.I started on Sunday morning in the east wing with a cup of coffee and a blank document and worked through it the way I worked through design problems. From the outside in. Starting with what Farr already had and working backward to what he would logically look for next, then building something in that space that would send him sideways without looking constructed.The principle was simple.A good investigator followed the thread that felt most real. So I needed to give him a thread that felt real but led nowhere useful.Jade helped.We spent Sunday afternoon on a call building the architecture of it. A designer named Clara Reid, loosely constructed, with a partial online presence, a few industry forum posts from two years back under that name, some technical commentary on fabric construction that was knowledgeable enough to be credible and specific enough to attract attention. We seeded her into three places Farr had already been,
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 58: The Investigator
Amelia's POVHis name was Colin Farr.Alexander had it by Friday morning. Victor's contact had pulled it from Vanessa's building security log, the name she had given at the front desk for her afternoon visitor, and from there Alexander's investigator had taken forty minutes to build a basic profile.Colin Farr. Fifty-three. Former police detective, twelve years on the force before he went private. Methodical rather than fast. The kind of investigator who didn't rush because he understood that patience was more reliable than urgency. His closure rate was high, according to three industry sources Victor's contact had reached overnight.Alexander put the profile on the kitchen table in front of me with my morning coffee.I read it without touching it."He's good," I said."Yes," Alexander said.He sat across from me."Not flashy. He won't make noise while he's working. He'll ask quiet questions in quiet places and build from the outside in." He paused. "Which means we won't necessarily s
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 57: Partnership
Amelia's POV I didn't ask him for the money.That was important to me and I told him so, the morning after Rodriguez's call, when we were back at the kitchen table with fresh coffee and the kind of tired that came from very little sleep and a great deal of thinking."I'm not taking Sterling money," I said. "The show has to be mine independently. The moment your name is attached to the funding it becomes a different story."He looked at me across the table. "I know.""Then why are you looking at me like that?""Because you anticipated an argument I wasn't going to make," he said. "I wasn't going to offer Sterling money."I looked at him."There's a private arts endowment," he said. "Independent of Sterling Corp, independent of my personal accounts. It was set up by my mother before she left. It funds emerging creative work anonymously. No names attached to the grants, no public record of the source." He paused. "Elena used it twice. For her design work in the early years."I was quiet
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 56: Confession, Halfway
Amelia's POV I hung up with Rodriguez and stood in the kitchen holding my phone and let the information settle.Ethan had a photograph.Taken from the street outside the preview exit, mask removed, my face clear and readable in whatever light had been available. Which meant he had known I was inside before I came out. Which meant the preview had been watched before I arrived, not after.Which meant the leak was not tonight.The leak was the calendar. The internal Fashion Week calendar that Alexander had found. Someone else had found it too, or found it first, or paid someone to find it, and had been waiting outside a gallery in the city for a woman in a dark jacket and a mask to walk out into the street.I put my phone in my pocket.Alexander was watching me."He has a photograph of me," I said. "Taken outside the preview. Mask off."Alexander's jaw tightened once. "From the street.""Yes. Which means the preview was already being watched." I looked at him. "Rodriguez said he had det
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 55: The Man in the Crowd
Amelia's POVI looked away first.That was the decision I made in the three seconds after I understood that he had found me. I turned my head back toward the twelfth piece on the wall and stood there looking at it with my hands loose at my sides and my face composed behind the mask and I breathed slowly and thought about what to do.The room was full of people. Forty, maybe fifty, the careful industry crowd that came to these things, editors and buyers and the particular species of person who attended previews to say they had been there first. The noise level was low and deliberate, the kind of murmuring that happened when people were genuinely engaged with something rather than performing engagement.I could feel Alexander's eyes on me from across the room.I did not look back.I waited three minutes. Long enough to not look like I was leaving because of him. Short enough that he couldn't work his way through the crowd to reach me before I was gone. Then I moved toward the side exit,
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 54: The Name He Finds
Amelia's POVI didn't tell him.I stood in his study with the sketchbook against my chest and Rodriguez's news about Ethan sitting in the air between us, and I made a decision in the space of about four seconds.Not yet.New York was five weeks away. Ethan being there changed the risk but not the plan. If anything, it confirmed that the plan was working, that Lia Hart's name on the Fashion Week lineup had moved him, that he was going where he needed to go to understand the threat before it became something he couldn't manage.Good.Let him go.Let him arrive in New York and ask his questions and pull his threads and find out, in five weeks, what he had been pulling toward."I'll call Rodriguez back this morning," Alexander said when he hung up. "She needs to coordinate with the New York field office."He looked at me."Are you alright?""Yes," I said. "I need to make some calls."I took the sketchbook and went back to the east wing.But I had seen his eyes drop to the cover before I p
The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 19: The FBI Meeting
Amelia's POVThe FBI field office was exactly like I'd imagined from movies. Sterile. Cold. Full of serious people in suits carrying files marked confidential.Alexander held my hand as we were led through security and down a long hallway."You okay?" he asked quietly."Ask me after."We were shown
Última atualização : 2026-03-17The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 10: Walls Coming Down
Amelia's POVThe applause was still ringing in my ears hours after the showcase ended.I sat in Alexander's office, still wearing my showcase outfit, trying to process everything that had happened.My phone wouldn't stop buzzing. Messages from fashion editors, interview requests, congratulations fr
Última atualização : 2026-03-17The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 16: Cracks in the Armor
Amelia's POVThe morning after the press conference, I woke to three hundred new messages.Some were supportive. Many were not.“You're still a fraud.”“Using your husband's power to silence the truth.”“Everyone knows you slept your way to the top.”I deleted the app and threw my phone across the
Última atualização : 2026-03-17The Billionaire's Substitute Bride Chapter 24: Breaking Point
Amelia's POVI woke up screaming. The nightmare had been so real. Ethan standing over me. Knife in hand. Smiling that smile I used to love.Alexander was already there, arms around me, whispering that it was okay."Just a dream," he kept saying. "Just a dream."But it didn't feel like just a dream.
Última atualização : 2026-03-17
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