Semua Bab The Substitute Bride : Bab 71 - Bab 80

The city shimmered beneath a blanket of stars. From the top floor of Twilight Restaurant, the lights of the city stretched endlessly into the horizon like a sea of diamonds. Normally, Chloe would have admired the view. Tonight, she barely noticed it. Her attention was fixed on the man standing across the room. Liam Reigns. Three years. Three years without seeing him. Three years of convincing herself she no longer cared. Three years of rebuilding a heart he had once shattered. And now he stood there looking infuriatingly handsome. As if time had favored him. As if life had rewarded him. As if he hadn't been the reason for countless sleepless nights. "You look beautiful." His voice broke the silence. Chloe almost rolled her eyes. Almost. Instead, she smiled politely. "Thank you." The response was perfect. Polite. Distant. Professional. Exactly the way she intended it to be. Yet Liam's gaze narrowed slightly. He noticed. Of course he noticed. He always noticed

The morning after her dinner with Liam arrived far too quickly for Chloe's liking. For someone who had spent the previous night insisting that Liam Reigns meant nothing to her anymore, she found herself lying awake long after midnight, replaying every word he had said. "The contract is annulled. That doesn't mean the wedding is. We are still lawfully wedded." The words echoed endlessly inside her head. They irritated her. Infuriated her. And yet, somehow, they also unsettled her. What exactly was Liam trying to do? Three years ago, he had treated their marriage like a business arrangement. Now suddenly he wanted to acknowledge it? What had changed? Chloe groaned and buried her face into the pillow. "Stop thinking about him," she muttered to herself. Unfortunately, her brain seemed determined to do the exact opposite. Just as she was beginning to drift back to sleep, her phone rang. She ignored it. A second later, it rang again. And again. And again. By the fifth call,

The moment Chloe ended the call with Daisy, sleep completely abandoned her. She stood by the floor-to-ceiling window of her apartment, staring at the faint orange glow beginning to paint the horizon. The city was waking up, but her mind remained trapped in a memory she had not known existed until now. For years, there had been gaps. Missing fragments. Moments she could never explain. Ever since she regained consciousness after being rescued from Theodore's trafficking ring, her memories had been like a shattered mirror. Some pieces remained intact while others had disappeared completely. Rivero had always told her not to force it. The doctors had warned her against it. But now... Now one of those missing pieces had surfaced. A little girl. A birthday party. Gunshots. A dead bodyguard. And a boy. A boy with a birthmark on his arm. Chloe closed her eyes. She could still feel his hand holding hers. Still hear his voice. "I will protect you." Her chest tightened unexpec

The morning after her dinner with Liam Reigns began far earlier than Chloe would have liked. Thanks to Daisy's relentless phone call at five in the morning, any hope of returning to sleep had vanished the moment she hung up. She had tossed and turned beneath the covers for another hour, but her mind refused to cooperate. Every time she closed her eyes, she found herself back at the restaurant, seated across from Liam. She could still hear his voice. Still see the look in his eyes. Still remember the way he had calmly informed her that the contract marriage no longer existed because he had burned it himself. The contract was gone. Yet the marriage remained. That was the part she couldn't stop thinking about. For three years Liam had treated her existence like an inconvenient obligation. Three years of silence. Three years of distance. Three years of allowing the world to believe she was nothing more than a substitute bride who had stepped into another woman's place. Then sudden

Far away from the investigations quietly unfolding around Chloe and Liam, another storm was gathering in the shadows. The city slept beneath a blanket of darkness, unaware that one of its most respected heirs was slowly unraveling behind closed doors. Marcello Jones had spent years perfecting the image he showed the world. To the public, he was sophisticated, intelligent, charming, and dependable. He carried the reputation of a gentleman and conducted himself with the elegance expected from the heir of the powerful Jones family. Very few people knew what lurked beneath that carefully crafted exterior. Fewer still survived long enough to speak about it. And Bianca had just caught a glimpse of it. The moment Marcello left the room, the silence that followed felt suffocating. Bianca remained where she was, staring at the closed door while her heartbeat gradually returned to normal. Her neck still burned from the pressure of his hand. Yet the physical pain barely registered. Wha