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Lahat ng Kabanata ng Hired My Ex's Sister as Wife: Kabanata 361 - Kabanata 370

414 Kabanata

Inner Conflicts

ColleenI’ve always believed that a person can feel two opposing truths at the same time. Standing inside the glass conference room today, pretending to take notes while my uncles spoke over each other, I realized I was living inside that contradiction. I looked composed on the outside, calm, agreeable, dutiful Colleen, but inside I felt like a stretched wire, humming with a tension no one else could hear.I shouldn’t have come back here. Not like this. But walking away immediately would have raised every alarm bell in this family, and I couldn’t afford that. Not when Savannah was counting on me. Not when I had finally started to understand the shape of the monster that raised me.So I stayed seated, nodding where I needed to, answering when called upon, and letting them believe I was slipping neatly back into the space they carved for me long ago.A puppet. A placeholder. A silent heir with a borrowed voice. But not this time.When the meeting ended, everyone filed out without sparin

The False Alibi

SavannahThough I kept telling myself I was fine, I couldn’t sleep much since Melordy’s call. She wanted to see me again, and my guess, it wasn’t for an apology. Somehow I felt she might have thought I knew something about Rafe’s murder. So even when I made my morning coffee and tried to read through my emails, my mind drifted back to Melordy’s face, the sharp scrutiny in her eyes, the way she never seemed to blink long enough for me to truly catch my breath. And Clint… God, if he knew I was being questioned again, he’d tell me to stay out of it entirely. But I couldn’t. Not when everything felt so close to unraveling.My phone buzzed just as I slipped my shoes on. I didn’t have to guess.The voice on the other end was clipped. “Savannah, this is Melordy. I need you to come in.”“I’m on my way,” I murmured, even though a part of me whispered that I should run the other direction.The drive to the warehouse felt longer than usual. When I pulled into the parking lot, my palms were damp

An Unexpected Alliance

MelordyI had interrogated enough liars and defended most of them in court in my career to recognize the little tells. The nervous tic under an eye. The swallow that takes half a second too long. The darting glance toward the door, calculating escape before words even leave their mouth. Savannah didn’t give me any of those. And that was precisely why I didn’t believe her.People who lie out of guilt always fumble. But people who lie out of loyalty? They become calm. Too calm. Steady enough to unsettle even a seasoned detective.When she left the warehouse yesterday, she walked with a controlled determination, her shoulders were squared, her breathing was m deep, and her footsteps firm. That wasn’t the stride of someone who didn’t know anything. It was the stride of someone carrying the weight of a secret she refused to loosen her grip on. And I couldn’t stop thinking about it.The soft confusion she’d tried to mimic when I mentioned blood on Clint’s property. The way she spoke with th

Clint’s Breakdown

ClintThe thing about panic is that it never hits all at once. It creeps in slowly, and quietly, like water slipping under a door. You don’t notice how deep you’re standing in it until your clothes are drenched and your lungs feel too tight. That’s what today felt like. A slow drowning.The moment I heard that Melordy pulled Savannah in for questioning again, I knew she suspected something. By the time afternoon rolled around, I was pacing my living room like a caged animal. Phone in hand and my mind racing in frantic circles.Melordy was too smart. Too intuitive. And Savannah… well, Savannah wasn’t built to lie, not like I needed her to. Not under this kind of pressure. After a while, I stopped pacing long enough to run both hands over my face, pressing hard as if I could squeeze the fear out of me. My breathing wouldn’t steady. My thoughts wouldn’t slow. The image of that damn blood on the floor, the mistake I made, the body I moved, it all kept looping.I was out of time. So I did

Back In The Fight

JulianI didn’t plan on walking back into the family business or the family that raised me, shaped me, and nearly ruined me. But there I was, standing in front of the tall glass doors before sunrise, watching my reflection stare back like it was waiting for me to flinch. I didn’t. Not this time. I’d spent long enough running from the wreckage of my family, hoping the distance alone would erase the stains. But it didn’t. And now Ethan was sinking badly. The gambling, the secrecy, the desperation… I recognized all of it too well.I couldn’t watch him drown in battles that I left behind. And I couldn’t pretend the company wasn’t falling apart at the seams. There were so many losses piling. Our reputation was slipping, and the rumors swirled in corners like smoke no one wanted to claim responsibility for. Someone needed to pick up the pieces before there were no pieces left.So I stepped inside the company that morning. The lobby felt colder than I remembered, too quiet for a place that u

The Surveillance Footage

MelordyThe coffee shop looked harmless enough from the outside, with all the warm lights and gentle piano music drifting through the windows, but I didn’t step inside for a cup of comfort. I came here because the alley behind the building held the truth I was looking for, and someone in that shop had access to the street-cam. The owner knew it the moment he saw me. His shoulders tightened as if he’d been waiting for this exact conversation.“As I told you earlier,” he said before I even reached the counter, “I don’t hand out footage without a warrant.”I gave him a patient nod and shot him a soft smile. “This isn’t about procedure,” I replied, lowering my voice just enough for only him to hear. “This is about a murder that took place ten feet behind your store.”His mouth pulled tight when I said that. He glanced at the hallway leading to the back room and then at me again, torn between fear and the need to protect himself. “I can’t afford trouble with the cartel,” he muttered.“Neit

Evan’s Secret Deal

JulianI must say, I didn’t expect Evan to show up at my apartment so early in the morning after our previous conversation. He wasn’t the type to knock softly or wait politely either, but when I opened the door, he stood there with both hands shoved deep into his pockets, like a kid caught doing something wrong. His eyes were rimmed red, and his shoulders slouched in a way I hadn’t seen since we were teenagers.“You said you wanted help,” I reminded him gently. “I’m here. That hasn’t changed.”He didn’t enter right away. He lingered at the doorway, glancing up and down the hallway as if someone had followed him. When he finally stepped inside, he did it fast, closing the door behind him with a shaky breath.“I can’t do this alone anymore,” he muttered.That was the closest thing to an admission I’d ever gotten from him, so I signaled toward the couch, and he dropped onto it with his elbows on his knees, looking like the world was pressing its entire weight onto his back.It took a whi

Colleen’s Discovery

ColleenThe house was unusually quiet that morning, but I’d gotten used to the silence ever since returning home. Still, this felt different. Today was another day to wear my pretend mask, and so after I’d finished my morning routine, I walked out of my room, straightened my tie in the hallway mirror, and re-examined the version of myself I was presenting to the world. The fake Colleen was calm, composed and cooperative. Everything they wanted me to be. At least for now.But beneath that controlled expression, my mind was already drifting toward what had been bothering me since last night: the odd remark my cousin had accidentally slipped during dinner, something about “balancing the offshore books.” He’d immediately changed the subject when I lifted my head, as if the words had escaped him too quickly. It wasn’t enough to accuse anyone of anything, but it was enough to make me wonder.Still, I was motivated to find the truth and so I headed into my father’s study. He rarely used the

Attacked

SavannahI always thought I had grown used to living with danger in the background, the kind that follows you like a shadow you didn’t ask for. But that evening, walking toward my apartment with a handful of groceries and my keys dangling from my fingers, I learned something important: you never quite get used to it. Not really.The street wasn’t even that dark, but I was terrified especially with everything that’s been going on lately. A few streetlamps flickered, some cars drove by, and I could overhear some neighbors arguing through their thin walls. For a moment, everything seemed normal, like nothing around me was falling apart. I had just stepped onto the walkway leading to my building when I heard the first footstep behind me. I quickly turned around, but the only thing I caught was a blur of black fabric before something slammed into my ribs. The air left my lungs so fast I didn’t even have time to scream. I stumbled backward, my groceries flying, and the bag tearing open li

The Hunt Begins

MelordyThe morning light felt too bright as I walked into the building. I had spent the entire night sorting through files, messages, and fragments of conversations that no longer felt like coincidences. Every piece pointed to the same man… Clint. I had suspected him before, but now the weight of proof sat heavy in my chest, a quiet confirmation I wished wasn’t real. As I stepped into the hallway, I could feel the shift in the air, as if everyone already knew something was coming.I kept walking, steady but tense, replaying Savannah’s expression from the night before. She tried to hide it, but guilt always had a way of leaking through the smallest cracks. I imagined she had told him about our conversation by now. Honestly with everything that went down, I don’t know why she was still trying to defend him. But anyways, Clint must have known I was closer than anyone had ever been to exposing him. And a man like him would never sit still while his world unraveled. As I approached the o

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