ห้องสมุด
ค้นหา
หน้าหลัก / Romance / The Wife He Forgot: Ashes to Empire / The Trial Begins

แชร์

The Trial Begins

ผู้เขียน: Amelia Hart
last update ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-03-07 16:03:30

POV: JAXON

The trial began on a Monday morning.

Federal courthouse. Downtown Manhattan.

Media circus outside. News vans. Reporters. Cameras everywhere.

"United States versus Romano et al."

Fifteen defendants. All remaining Romano associates. Distant family members. Business partners. People who'd built careers on my father's criminal empire.

All of them looking at me like I was the enemy.

Which I was.

I was the one who'd turned. Who'd exposed them. Who was about to testify against them all.

Tra
อ่านหนังสือเล่มนี้ต่อได้ฟรี
สแกนรหัสเพื่อดาวน์โหลดแอป
บทที่แล้ว บทต่อไป
บทที่ถูกล็อก
ความคิดเห็น (1)
goodnovel comment avatar
Kathryn
I hope this story continues soon. Great story author.
ดูความคิดเห็นทั้งหมด

บทล่าสุด

  • The Wife He Forgot: Ashes to Empire   Rowan's Question

    POV: ISLARowan came home from school upset.I could tell immediately. The way he dropped his backpack. The slump in his shoulders. The way he avoided eye contact."Hey, buddy. How was school?" I asked."Fine."The universal kid answer for "not fine at all.""Just fine?""Yeah."He headed for the stairs. I caught his arm gently."Rowan. Talk to me."He looked at me. Those eyes looked so troubled."We had to do a family tree project in social studies."Oh no."And?" I asked carefully."And everyone else had grandparents. And aunts and uncles. And cousins. But I don't. Not that I know about."My heart sank. We'd known this conversation was coming. Just not today. Not when I was already exhausted and barely holding it together."That must have been hard," I said."Why don't we have a family? Like, extended family?""We do have family. We have each other. And Aunt Mia""That's not what I mean." His voice rose, frustrated. "Tommy has like twenty cousins. Sarah's grandparents come to all he

  • The Wife He Forgot: Ashes to Empire   Jaxon's New Normal

    POV: JAXONI loved my life.I really did.Stay-at-home dad. Primary parent. The one who packed lunches and scheduled dentist appointments and knew which teacher taught which subject.It was my choice. And I was good at it.But some days were harder than others.Today was one of those days.Morning started well enough.Got the twins off to school. Dropped Asher at his half-day preschool program. Took Grace to the playground.She loved the swings. Squealed every time I pushed her higher."More, Dada! More!""Higher?""Yes! More!"I pushed. She laughed. Life was simple.Perfect.Then I heard a voice behind me."Jaxon Romano? Is that really you?"I turned.Sebastian Hartley. Old colleague from my Romano days. Investment banker. Shark in a suit."It's Winters now," I said. "And yes. Hi, Sebastian."He looked me up and down. Taking in my jeans, my t-shirt with spit-up stains, the diaper bag on my shoulder."Wow. The rumors are true. You really are... what do they call it? A stay-at-home dad

  • The Wife He Forgot: Ashes to Empire   Three Years Later

    POV: ISLAMorning in the Winters household was controlled chaos.And I mean that literally."ROWAN! NOVA! You're going to be late!" I called up the stairs while simultaneously trying to convince Grace to eat her oatmeal instead of wearing it."No eat!" Grace declared, smearing oatmeal in her hair.Perfect. Just perfect."Asher, shoes!" Jaxon said, chasing our almost-four-year-old around the living room. "We talked about this. Shoes go ON feet, not IN the toilet!""But they swim!" Asher giggled, clearly delighted with himself.This was our life now. Beautiful. Mundane. Chaotic.Three years after the trial. Three years of peace. Three years of building this ordinary, extraordinary life.The twins, nine years old now finally thundered down the stairs."I can't find my math homework!" Nova announced."Did you check your backpack?" Jaxon asked, still wrestling Asher into shoes."Yes!""Did you check INSIDE your backpack? Not just look at it?""Oh." Nova ran back upstairs.Rowan appeared in

  • The Wife He Forgot: Ashes to Empire   After the Verdict

    POV: JAXONOne year after the verdict.Life had become beautifully, wonderfully normal.The kind of normal I'd never thought I'd have. The kind I'd spent my whole life craving without knowing it.The twins were seven now. Thriving in school. Happy. Healthy. Mostly recovered from the trauma of the kidnapping.They still had nightmares sometimes. Still clung to us on bad days.But they were healing. Growing. Becoming the incredible kids they were always meant to be.Asher was walking. Running, actually. Talking in full sentences. "Dada!" "Mama!" "No!" (his favorite word).He had no memory of any of it. The safe houses. The danger. The kidnapping.To him, this was all there'd ever been. Safety. Love. Family.And we intended to keep it that way.Isla was pregnant again.Surprise baby number four.We found out two months ago. Hadn't planned it. Hadn't been trying.But there it was. A positive test. A tiny heartbeat on the ultrasound.Due in five months."Are we crazy?" she'd asked when we

  • The Wife He Forgot: Ashes to Empire   The Verdict

    POV: ISLAOne week later, we were back in court.The twins were in therapy. Processing what happened. Working through the trauma.They were resilient. Kids always are.But they had nightmares. Clung to us constantly. Didn't want to be alone.We didn't push. Just held them. Stayed close. Let them heal at their own pace.Asher was too young to remember. Thank God.He was his happy, babbling self. Oblivious to how close we'd come to losing everything.The trial had to continue.The judge gave us a week to recover. Then called us back.The kidnapping had changed everything.The defendants weren't just facing RICO charges anymore. They were facing kidnapping. Attempted murder. Witness intimidation on a massive scale.The jury had watched it all unfold. Seen the lengths the Romano family would go to.There was no question of guilt anymore.Only sentencing.Closing arguments were swift.The prosecution laid out the case methodically. The evidence. The testimony. The pattern of criminal behav

  • The Wife He Forgot: Ashes to Empire   The Rescue

    POV: JAXONThe drive to the compound took three hours.Three hours of hell.FBI tactical team in armored vehicles. Helicopters overhead. Full mobilization.Isla and I sat in the back of an SUV. Silent. Holding hands so tight our fingers went numb.Agent Drew briefed us on the plan."We've got thermal imaging from the helicopter. Six heat signatures in the main building. Three small ones, likely the children. Three adult-sized, the kidnappers.""Only three guards?" I asked."Looks like it. They weren't expecting us to find them this fast.""How are we approaching?""Two teams. One from the front, creating a distraction. One from the back, breaching the basement where the children appear to be held."The basement.Of course they'd put them in the basement.The same basement where my father had locked me.Dark. Cold. Terrifying.My children were down there right now.Scared. Crying. Wondering where we were."I'm going in with the breach team," I said."Mr. Romano!""I know that basement.

บทอื่นๆ

บางทีคุณอาจจะชอบ

สำรวจและอ่านนวนิยายดีๆ ได้ฟรี
เข้าถึงนวนิยายดีๆ จำนวนมากได้ฟรีบนแอป GoodNovel ดาวน์โหลดหนังสือที่คุณชอบและอ่านได้ทุกที่ทุกเวลา
อ่านหนังสือฟรีบนแอป
สแกนรหัสเพื่ออ่านบนแอป
DMCA.com Protection Status