All Chapters of RECKLESS DESIRES: THE ODEN LEGACY : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

It started with a flicker of doubt. Not boisterous. Not explosive. Just an itchy nag that couldn't be silenced.Luke Oden stood outside, watching a gardener trim the rose bushes his mother used to adore. The morning sun broke through the clouds, but warmth evaded him. Inside, the house buzzed with grumblings and media questions—Stacy's fabrications had led the storm to their door.His fingers turned into fists.Stacy's face splattered across headlines. She shone with the woman "wronged by wealth," milking every last minute to play victim and harvest public sympathy. But her calmness, the timing of the announcement, the conveniently "lost" paternity document—it all ticked at something deep in Luke's head.Something was not adding up.He turned when Richard appeared, two mugs of coffee in hand."You've been quiet," Richard said, holding one out to him.Luke took the cup. "Been thinking.""Oden-hazardous," Richard quipped.Luke didn't smile. "There is something wrong with Stacy. Somethin

The storm had just blown by, but within the walls of the Oden estate, the atmosphere was nipper—crisp, as though a buried secret was inching its way toward the surface.Luke paced the floor of his office, phone held tight to his ear, his tone terse and low. "I want everything you can get. Names. Locations. I want verification."He hung up and gazed at the file Victor had dropped off early that morning. The surveillance photos, telephone records, and one red-marked name: Ethan Scott kocha.Stacy's ex.The guy she'd told him was "just a phase."But the phone records told a different story—midnight calls, deleted messages retrieved from her cloud, and wire transfers to a Lagos private account. Luke's jaw clenched.For weeks, he'd questioned Stacy's effortless claim that he was the father of her unborn child. Now, the puzzle pieces were fitting into place he couldn't ignore.Luke didn't leave until nightfall, telling no one but Zack, who wished to accompany him.They sped to a residential

Late afternoon sun sifted through the tall windows of the Oden estate, sending shafts of gold across the great hall. Tension that had strained the air in the past weeks had not eased, merely settled in the corners like dust—quiet, but present.Luke stood in the small library, his fingers grazing the spines of ancient books. The silence in the room was a stark contrast to the storm inside him. Stacy was gone—physically, at least—but the mess she left behind remained, thick like humidity before a downpour. And Amiriam… she had withdrawn completely.He hadn’t seen her since that morning when James had asked why she hadn't joined them for breakfast. The boy was only six, but far more perceptive than he let on. Luke had looked into his younger brother’s curious eyes and seen a truth he hadn’t wanted to admit: things were broken. Between him and Amiriam. Between trust and love.He could no longer afford silence.Luke stepped out of the library and moved toward the west garden, where Christi

The climate in the Oden home appeared to be different again—thick, heavy. But this time, it wasn't tension created on lies or the agony of betrayal that filled the air. It was colder. It was finished.Jackson Oden had not come out of his bedrooms for three days.At first, everyone blamed it on fatigue. The family had endured too many emotional storm fronts—Stacy's deception, the paternity problem, the trust eroding like sand in the ocean. But on the fourth day, when the family doctor was summoned twice to the house, gossip began circulating among the staff like a rising wind.Luke stood at his father's bedside, arms crossed, face stoic. The self-satisfied patriarch now lay sunk in the bed, his face clammy white, struggling to breathe. Tubes were planted in his arms, and a gentle beeping monitor ticked uniformly along with the bed."You should have told me," Luke breathed.Jackson groaned and slowly turned his head, heavy eyes unfocused. "Informing you would not have changed what is to

Stacy sat alone in the small apartment she had found after she escaped the Oden mansion. The faraway hum of the city beyond was muffled, hidden by the heavy drapes she'd pulled against the world. The room was dark, shadows creeping into every corner, much the same as the bleakness in her heart.Her phone sat on the table, unmoving and unforgiving. No call. No message. The ebullient woman who once walked the halls of the Oden mansion with confidence now walked the ruins of her own destruction like a specter drifting through the rubble.The weight of the previous few days rested on her chest. The release of the true paternity test had shattered the fragile life she had built. The videos exposing her deceptions had gone viral. The family that she had thought of as hers had disowned her, their trust turned to poisonous contempt.She clenched her fists, jamming her nails into her palms. How had things gone this far? Ambition? Fear? Love distorted beyond all recognition? It made no differen