All Chapters of His Forbidden Mate: The Billionaire stepbrother’s claim : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

62 Chapters

CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Fake Indifference Begins

Brandon arrives twenty minutes later through a back entrance only he and Lucian know about."Your father's having your mother evaluated tonight," he says without preamble, his laptop already open. "Dr. Morrison is on his payroll. Has been for six months, since before the marriage."My stomach drops. "He planned this. All of it.""Yeah." Brandon's fingers fly across the keyboard. "The question is why. What does he gain from keeping you and Lucian apart?""Control," Lucian says darkly. "He gains control.""There's more to it." Brandon pulls up files, documents with Adrian's name stamped across them. "Your father has been researching mate bonds for years. Before your mother died. Before any of this.""Show me."Brandon turns the laptop. Medical journals. Research papers. All highlighted, annotated in Adrian's handwriting. One phrase appears repeatedly: genetic compatibility for enhanced offspring.I feel sick. "He wants to breed us. Like we're dogs.""Not us," Brandon says quietly. "You.

CHAPTER TWELVE: The Library Incident

Westbridge Academy is everything Adrian promised. Clean. Quiet. Completely devoid of scandal.It's also two hours and seventeen minutes away from Lucian, and every mile feels like glass in my chest.I've been here three days. Three days of new uniforms, new teachers, new students who don't know about the viral videos or the stepsister scandal. Three days of trying to pretend I'm fine.I'm not fine.The mate bond is screaming. Constant, relentless, like a phantom limb that won't stop aching. I can feel Lucian's absence like a missing piece of myself. When I sleep, I dream of him. When I'm awake, I sense him, distant but present, a pull that never stops.My roommate, a girl named Sophie with kind eyes and too many questions, keeps asking if I'm sick."You look pale," she says on Wednesday morning. "And you barely eat.""I'm fine. Just adjusting.""You sure? Because you talk in your sleep. Say someone's name. Luke? Lucas?"My blood runs cold. "I don't know what you're talking about."She

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Midnight Confrontation

Friday night. I'm home for the weekend, lying in my bed in the west wing, staring at the ceiling and trying not to think about the dinner tomorrow. Trying not to imagine Lucian and Tiffany sitting side by side while Adrian watches with satisfaction.The physical symptoms have gotten worse. My hands shake constantly. Food tastes like ash. The school nurse at Westbridge measured my weight yesterday and frowned. Eight pounds lost in less than a week."This isn't healthy," she'd said. "If it continues, we'll need to intervene."More threats. More control. More cages with invisible bars.I check the clock. 2:47 AM. Sleep is impossible. Every time I close my eyes, I feel the bond pulling, aching, begging me to go to him.A soft knock on my door freezes me mid-breath.It can't be. He wouldn't. Not here, not now, not with cameras everywhere.Another knock. Quieter this time.I slip out of bed, cross the room on silent feet. My hand hovers over the doorknob. This is a trap. Has to be. Adrian t

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Brandon's Revelation

The service entrance is dark, silent except for the hum of industrial refrigerators in the kitchen. I wait in the shadows, duffel bag clutched in my sweating palms, every nerve screaming that someone will catch us.Footsteps. Light, careful. Lucian appears from the east wing corridor, his own bag slung over his shoulder. Behind him, Brandon materializes like a ghost, laptop bag in hand."Car's two blocks north," Brandon whispers. "I disabled the gate sensors. You have a ten-minute window before the system runs its diagnostic cycle.""What about security?" I ask."Watching a loop I fed into their system. As far as they know, you're both asleep in your rooms." He hands Lucian a set of keys. "Black Honda Civic, license plate covered. It's registered to a shell company. Untraceable.""You're not coming?" Lucian asks."Someone needs to stay and manage the fallout. Feed false information. Make sure Adrian looks in the wrong places." Brandon's expression is grim. "Besides, I'm close to crack

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The First Public Claim

We don't make it back to the mansion.Three blocks from the gate, police lights flood the rearview mirror. Two cars, boxing us in."It's him," I breathe. "He called the cops."Lucian's knuckles are white on the wheel. "Probably reported the car stolen. Or us as runaways.""What do we do?""Nothing. We cooperate. Get you to your mother." His eyes meet mine. "This isn't over, Aria. This is just round one."The officers approach with flashlights. Young, professional, already looking at us like we're troubled rich kids who stole daddy's car. One taps on Lucian's window."Step out of the vehicle, please."We comply. They separate us immediately, one officer with me, one with Lucian. Questions come rapid-fire. Where were we going? Whose car is this? Are we aware that our parents reported us missing?Parents. Plural. Like Adrian has any right to that word."I want to see my mother," I say. "Evelyn Bennett. She's being held at a psychiatric facility against her will."The officer's expression

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: The Social Media Firestorm

The auditorium holds eight hundred students. Every single one of them has their phone out.We walk down the center aisle, and the silence is absolute. Broken only by the soft click of camera shutters, the whisper of fingers swiping to record.Tiffany stands on stage with the student council, her perfectly composed expression cracking as she sees our joined hands. The headmaster sits in the front row, looking like he wants to disappear."This is against protocol," Tiffany says into the microphone, but her voice wavers. "The accused wasn't supposed to be here.""The accused?" Lucian's voice carries without amplification. "Is that what we're calling this? A trial?"Murmurs ripple through the crowd. Phones angle to capture him better."Lucian, maybe you should sit…" the headmaster starts."No." Lucian pulls me onto the stage with him. The auditorium erupts in gasps, whispers, a few cheers. "If you're going to talk about us, we should get to tell our side."Tiffany's face flushes red. "Thi

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: The Forbidden Touch

The interview takes three hours.The lawyer, Patricia Chen, records everything with clinical precision. The reporter, Marcus Webb from the Times, asks questions that cut to the bone. The child welfare advocate, Dr. Sarah Kim, takes notes that will become evidence.We tell them everything. Adrian's contract. The arranged marriage. Mom's forced commitment. The mate bond that started this all. The abuse, the manipulation, the systematic destruction of anyone who defies him.By the time we're done, the sun is setting, and I'm wrung out. Empty."This is enough," Patricia says, closing her folder. "More than enough. I'm filing for emergency custody review of your mother tonight. With this media attention, the judge will have to move fast.""How fast?" I ask."Forty-eight hours. Maybe seventy-two." She looks at Lucian. "As for you, you're twenty. Legally an adult. But your father can still make your life very difficult. I recommend you distance yourself from Hayes Industries immediately.""A

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: The Mystery Teacher

Morning comes too soon.I wake wrapped in Lucian's arms, the mate bond humming contentedly between us. For one perfect moment, I forget about Adrian, about Mom, about the world burning down around us.Then my burner phone buzzes.Brandon: Professor Greene wants to meet. Says he has information about Adrian's past. Important.I show Lucian the text. He frowns. "Professor Greene? Your literature teacher?""Yeah. He's been weird since day one. Like he knows more than he should." I remember his cryptic comments about forbidden love, about families with secrets. "Should we trust him?""Do we have a choice?" Lucian sits up, already alert. "Anyone with information about my father is worth hearing out."We meet Professor Greene at a diner forty minutes outside the city. He's waiting in a back booth, looking nothing like the distinguished teacher from school. He's disheveled, nervous, constantly checking over his shoulder."Thank you for coming," he says as we slide into the booth across from

CHAPTER NINETEEN: The Breaking Point

The Plaza Hotel is crawling with security when we arrive.Brandon parks two blocks away, and we approach on foot. I'm wearing clothes he brought a simple black dress that looks professional, not rebellious. Lucian's in a suit. We look like we belong at a press conference, not like we're about to detonate a bomb."Adrian's inside," Brandon says, checking his phone. "Viktor too. Press corps is setting up. We have maybe twenty minutes before it starts."Professor Greene adjusts his tie nervously. "I have Diana's family meeting us at the service entrance. They'll come in as guests, not protesters. Less likely to be stopped.""What about security?" I ask."They're looking for angry college students, not middle-aged academics and grieving relatives." Professor Greene's smile is grim. "We'll blend in until it's too late for them to stop us."My hands shake. This is really happening. In twenty minutes, we're going to expose Adrian in front of every major news outlet. No going back. No second

CHAPTER TWENTY: The Sister's Return

The ballroom descends into chaos.Security doesn't know who to protect…Adrian, who's being swarmed by reporters with questions he can't answer, or us, the ones who just detonated his carefully constructed life. Cameras flash from every direction. Microphones thrust forward. Everyone wants a piece of the story."Mr. Hayes, did you arrange your stepdaughter's marriage without her consent?""Is it true you had a relationship with your wife's sister?""Can you comment on the allegations of murder?"Adrian's face is a mask of barely controlled fury. He tries to push through the crowd, but they won't let him pass. For the first time in his life, money and power aren't enough to silence the truth.Viktor stands apart, watching with cold calculation. He approaches me while Lucian is giving a statement to reporters, his expression unreadable."You have rare genetics," he says quietly. "My family's research confirmed it. That's why your stepfather approached us.""I'm not interested in your fam

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