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39. The Truth

last update publish date: 2026-07-20 18:11:01

Third POV

Damien stared at Olivia as though he'd forgotten how to breathe.

The hallway suddenly felt impossibly small.

Employees continued walking past in the distance, phones rang somewhere on another floor, and the elevators opened and closed with their usual quiet chime, but every sound seemed muffled beneath the pounding of his own heartbeat.

"What do you mean?" His voice was barely audible.

Olivia lowered her head for a moment, pressing trembling fingers against her forehead as if trying t
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  • The Wife He Chose Too Late   40. Broken

    Third POVDamien didn't remember leaving the office. One moment he was standing in the hallway, Olivia's words still echoing inside his head and the next, he was sitting behind the wheel of his car.The city moved around him in a blur of traffic lights, impatient horns and pedestrians crossing busy intersections, but he barely noticed any of it. His hands rested on the steering wheel while his mind replayed the same sentence over and over again until it became impossible to think about anything else.Claire was pregnant.His chest tightened so painfully he had to pull the car to the side of the road. For several moments, he simply sat there. His forehead rested against the steering wheel as he struggled to draw a full breath.He had spent the past week believing he'd lost his wife and now he knew he'd lost his child too. A child who had never taken a single breath. A child who had never even known its father.His fingers curled so tightly around the steering wheel that his knuckles tu

  • The Wife He Chose Too Late   39. The Truth

    Third POVDamien stared at Olivia as though he'd forgotten how to breathe.The hallway suddenly felt impossibly small.Employees continued walking past in the distance, phones rang somewhere on another floor, and the elevators opened and closed with their usual quiet chime, but every sound seemed muffled beneath the pounding of his own heartbeat."What do you mean?" His voice was barely audible.Olivia lowered her head for a moment, pressing trembling fingers against her forehead as if trying to steady herself before answering. She had spent an entire week holding this secret inside, waiting for the right moment, and now that it had finally arrived, the words refused to come.Behind them, the conference room door opened.Emma stepped into the hallway, intending to give them privacy, but the look on Olivia's face stopped her in her tracks.She knew something was terribly wrong and neither of them noticed she was there.Olivia slowly lifted her eyes to Damien and for several long moment

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    One week had passed.The headlines had changed, but the story hadn't.Every news station in New York carried the same update, though the urgency that had consumed the city during those first desperate days had long since faded. The live broadcasts from the Hudson River had disappeared, the helicopters no longer circled overhead, and the rescue boats that had spent days combing the water had finally returned to their docks.The search was over.Authorities had searched every section of the collapsed Ferris wheel. Divers had descended beneath twisted steel until it became too dangerous to continue. The Coast Guard had expanded the search through the Hudson River, into New York Harbor, and along miles of surrounding shoreline. Every possible lead had been followed. Every recovered victim had been identified.Every family had been given answers except one. Claire Laurent remained the only passenger who had never been found.Officially, her status now read:Missing. Presumed dead.No body

  • The Wife He Chose Too Late   37. Missing

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  • The Wife He Chose Too Late   36. The Long Night

    Damien's POVThe first rescue boat reached the wreckage within minutes.Its powerful spotlight swept across the collapsed Ferris wheel, illuminating twisted steel jutting from the Hudson like the broken bones of some enormous beast. Firefighters climbed carefully over the mangled framework while rescue divers stood at the edge of the boat, fastening oxygen tanks onto their backs before disappearing beneath the black water one after another.The moment the first diver surfaced, every person waiting behind the police barricades held their breath. He shook his head and nobody spoke as he disappeared beneath the water again.The waterfront no longer resembled the place where hundreds of people had laughed and celebrated only an hour earlier. Music had been replaced by sirens. Champagne glasses had been replaced by shattered concrete covered in broken steel and glass. The warm lights from the gala had given way to floodlights so bright they turned the night into an eerie imitation of dayl

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    Damien's POV"No!"The word ripped itself from my throat just as another deafening crack split the night.Time seemed to slow.One of the Ferris wheel's massive support columns folded inward with a scream of twisting steel, and for one impossible heartbeat the entire structure hung suspended, balanced between standing and falling. Every person on the waterfront stopped moving. Hundreds of eyes lifted toward the towering wheel as though willing it to remain upright.Then gravity won the Ferris wheel lurched forward and people screamed.The enormous structure groaned under its own weight as gondolas swung wildly through the air, smashing into one another with explosions of shattered glass. Steel twisted like paper, bolts fired from the framework and ricocheted across the pier, and the sound of tearing metal swallowed every other noise around us."Claire!"I tore free from the operator and ran. Someone shouted behind me and another person grabbed for my arm but I threw them off without e

  • The Wife He Chose Too Late   10. The First Attack

    Claire's POVThe problem with Tiffany Morgan was that she never did anything obvious because if she had openly flirted with Damien, I could have been angry if she had insulted me in front of other people, I could have defended myself and if she had behaved like the villain I wanted her to be, at le

  • The Wife He Chose Too Late   9. The First Encounter

    Claire's POVBy noon, I had accomplished almost nothing. On paper, my morning had been productive. I had answered emails, approved schedules, finalized travel arrangements for three executives, and reorganized next week's board meeting agenda.In reality, I couldn't have told anyone what half of th

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    Claire's POVI barely slept again but the difference was that this time I wasn't staring at an empty side of the bed. Damien had eventually come upstairs sometime after midnight. I knew because I heard him moving quietly through the bedroom while he assumed I was asleep.Neither of us had spoken an

  • The Wife He Chose Too Late   7. The Explanation

    Claire's POVDamien stood in the foyer for a moment as though he wasn't entirely certain he wanted to be there and the sight alone told me more than I wanted to know.His suit jacket was gone. His white shirt was creased in places that suggested he had been wearing it far longer than intended. Dark

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