All Chapters of Did I Steal My Fiancé’s Ex Identity: Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

Riley's POV The room was very quiet.I looked at Lisa. Her face was pale. “Did you know about that?” I asked softly.She shook her head. Her mouth was open in shock. “No. Never. I… I never listened to this one. I was too upset after that session. I just forgot about it.”I placed the recorder on the bed between us. My mind was racing. “Riley, what does that mean?” Lisa whispered. Her voice was shaky. “She said ‘we’. ‘We can’t have her remembering.’ Who is ‘we’?” Lisa sat back, stunned. “What is that about?”I said, “I don’t know.” I said. “That is what I am asking too. She spoke like someone who has been keeping something for a long time. Someone telling her to keep you in the dark is calling her during your session.”She sat down on the bed and blinked at me. She rubbed her forehead and then reached for the device. I felt guilty then because I had not given it back right away. It was her thing, and I had no right to listen to things she kept private.She turned it on again. I watche

Lisa's POV She was still on her knees. She caught at the hem of my coat. Her voice became prayer.“Please,” she said. “I did not mean to. They have power. They said they would find my son. They said they would hurt him. They said I had to do what they asked. It's a mother’s fear. I could not risk losing him.”I looked down at her. She was real. Her fear was real. Her tears were real. I had heard the call. I had heard the words. She had not denied them.“Why not tell the police?” I asked. “Why not tell someone who can protect him?”She shook her head so hard it made her hair move. “Don’t you think I tried?” she whispered. “They will know. They will punish my son to hurt me. They will make an example of me.”“You’re using your son as an excuse,” I said before I could stop myself. The words were sharp, and they surprised me. I did not want to be cruel, but I was too angry. “You kept me in the dark. You did not try hard enough.”She looked at me like a child who had been scolded. “I trie

Lisa's POV I did not go back to my desk. I walked straight out of the building. My hands were shaking. I felt a hot, sharp anger in my chest. Diane had come to my work. My safe place. She had crossed a line.I stood on the sidewalk. I hated that Diane had come to the lobby. I hated that she expected me to be her messenger. I hit the wall with the heel of my hand once, not hard, just enough to make the sound I needed.I pulled out my phone.I dialed Riley. My thumb shook a little. I needed someone to say the words I could not say. The phone rang twice, and then she picked up. She answered on the second ring. “Hey, what’s up?” she said. Her voice was softer than I wanted, but it steadied me.“She came to the firm,” I said. My voice was tight.“Who? Who came?”“Diane.” I said, “Diane came to the firm,” I said. The words were flat and quick.There was a long breath on the other end. “What?” Riley sounded ready to break a plate.“She wanted me to tell Andre to take her calls,” I said. “

Lisa's PovThere had to be a reason. He was not doing it for me. He was doing it for himself. Maybe he did not like being told what to do by a client. Maybe he wanted to show who was in charge. Or maybe he had another plan I could not see yet.I did not trust his kindness. There was always a reason. I walked back to my desk. The encounter with David Ross was another piece of the puzzle. Someone did not want me looking at the Carter campaign. And that made me want to look even harder.I wanted to ask why he had that little protective look in his eyes. But the corridor had the sound of passing feet and phones. The man did not like big questions.I opened the Carter file and breathed in the paper. The numbers waited. The file did not shame me. It did not call me a story. It only asked that I find the lines that did not belong.Later that day, I sent a short text to Riley. Kenneth stood in the doorway watching me as I typed. I told her about the visit and the campaign man. She replied wit

Lisa's Pov"Love does not pay taxes," she said. "Money does." She took a breath and looked at me like she wanted me to feel the shame she had been carrying. "You think he cared about your heart? He cared about his line. He cared about the papers. He cared about his father's approval."I did not know what to say. The claim had the neat cruelty of someone who wanted to cut a life into pieces and name them. I felt anger and a numbness at once. If it were true, then everything I had felt had been a cover for a deal. If it were true, then he had not been honest with me in the core places."You do not know that," I said, the warning in my voice low. I wanted to say more. I wanted to fight. My throat tightened, and the words would not fully form. "You do not know how he felt."She laughed in a short, sharp way. "He did not hide it well. You were busy believing what you wanted." She stepped back, and her face went hard again. “So you see,” she said. “He did not care about you at all. Why do y