All Chapters of Kisses, Lies and Blurred Alibis : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Jake’s POV“I just want to see my wife and my son.” I said as I left the Ethan’s room. I’ve heard so much bad news for the day, and this beautiful news of my child is all I needed to be calm. “Where are they ?” My voice came out rough, unsteady, and nothing like the CEO people fear. I barely recognized myself as I walked into the dim recovery ward. Machines hummed quietly. Chloe lay there… pale, still, too still. Tubes ran across her body like thin serpents. She looked fragile, like a strong wind could break her.The nurse beside me whispered gently, “She’s still unconscious, sir, but stable. Her vitals are improving rapidly.” Stable. That word didn’t feel real anymore. Nothing was stable. Not Tyler, not Ethan, God, Ethan, definitely not our lives.Then I saw him.My son.Reddish and tiny.Smaller than anything I’d ever held, wrapped in a soft blue blanket inside the crib beside Chloe. His chest rose and fell in tiny, fluttery breaths. I felt something tighten in me, something raw

JAKE’s POV “Ethan is dead.” The words left my mouth before I could soften them. Before I could breathe. Before I could think of a gentler way to rip their world apart. The room froze. There was silence. No one spoke. Chloe’s lips parted, no sound. Zoe’s fingers, gripping the blanket, went stiff. The beep of the monitors was the only thing that moved. Its noise was louder than anything in the room at the moment. I swallowed, but my throat felt like sandpaper, dry and hard. “Ethan is gone, he died almost same time you delivered the baby.” I said again, quieter this time, even though the silence was already suffocating us. Zoe shook her head. Violently. “No …. no, Jake no, don’t, don’t lie. Ethan can’t be …. he’s not … it was 3 months to live. He can’t … “ “He’s gone Chloe, I know it’s hard to believe” I tried going closer to her to comfort her but she wasn’t having it. I forced out, there was no need hiding the truth anymore, I had to say it all out. “Someone tampered with h

JAKE’S POV“ it’s fine” I said as I left Adrain boiling with anger in me. By the time I reached the hospital parking lot, my chest felt tight, as if Adrian’s words were still wrapped around my throat. Sixty percent for me. Forty for you… or I kill them all. I shook the memory off and headed inside. The hospital corridor smelled like antiseptic, steel lil E always, although this one was deeper, and fear. My fear. I checked on Chloe first. She was resting, my son asleep on her chest. Zoe was in the next room, calmer than before, though her eyes still held the kind of terror that sticks to a person’s bones. They were okay. For the moment. A nurse approached as I stepped out of Zoe’s ward. “Mr. Jake Williams… your brother Tyler is awake. He’s been transferred to private ward 3C.” I exhaled a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. Finally, something good. I walked down the hall, palms slightly sweating, mind racing through everything that had gone wrong. When I stepped into

Jake’s POVI smiled into my phone as Adrian talked.It was fake. Practiced. The kind of smile that lived only on the surface of my face while everything underneath sharpened into something dangerous.“I’ve thought about what you said,” I told him calmly. “The split. Sixty–forty.”A pause. I could almost hear him leaning back, satisfied.“And?” Adrian asked.“And I’m willing to talk,” I continued. “Not agree. Talk.”He laughed. A low, pleased sound. “That’s progress, brother.”Brother.The word still made my skin crawl. How dare him think I’m his brother after everything he had done.“Meet me in two days,” he added. “Same place.”“I’ll be there.”The call ended.I lowered the phone slowly, my reflection staring back at me from the dark screen, eyes colder than I remembered, jaw set in stone.The game has just began, and I’mPlaying my cards well this time around.Tyler was already waiting when I entered the private office we’d secured off the hospital grounds. He looked better than he

Jake’s POV Our Victory came quietly and too quietly.Chloe had really helped us in bringing Adrian down. It didn’t arrive with champagne or applause, but with a single message from Tyler at dawn. It’s done. I stared at the screen for a long moment, my chest tight, afraid to breathe in case the words dissolved. Then another message followed, longer this time, numbers, timestamps, confirmations and so much more. Adrian’s plan had collapsed in on itself. The shell companies Tyler uncovered was finally exposed. The forged mandates and documents invalidated. The backdoor he tried to use to siphon funds, now flagged and frozen. His darkest secret, the one Tyler had dragged into the light, detonated everything else. Investors pulled out. Partners panicked. The board that had leaned toward him turned sharply away. For the first time since this nightmare began, Adrian was bleeding. And I was finally satisfied and happy. I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the couch. C