Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Rise Of The Betrayed Wife: Kabanata 81 - Kabanata 90

Isla's POV:Callum's security team had been working through the night.Friday morning we sat in a conference room at Thorne Industries while they presented their findings. The surveillance photos had been traced back through multiple layers of shell companies and anonymous payments.Finally they'd found the source.It was a private investigation firm in New Jersey. That firm's recent client list included a shell corporation owned by Vincent Morrison, one of my father's oldest business partners."Morrison has his own reasons for targeting you," James, the head of security, explained. "Your press conference exposed financial irregularities that implicated several of Arthur's business associates. Morrison is facing potential fraud charges and considerable financial losses."He pulled up documents on the screen."He's lashing out by proxy," James continued. "Using the investigation firm to harass you while maintaining distance from direct involvement.""How did you connect him to it?" I

Isla's POV:I read the advance copy of Sienna's interview Saturday morning with growing disbelief.Callum's PR team had obtained it through their media contacts.The article was scheduled to run in a major tabloid in three days and the lies were extensive and carefully calculated.Sienna portrayed herself as a loving sister who'd tried desperately to help her troubled stepsister.She claimed the affair accusations were delusions from someone who was mentally unstable and always had been.She suggested I'd manipulated Callum with false abuse stories to gain sympathy and resources.The interview included manufactured evidence. Photos of Sienna and me together from years ago, carefully selected moments where we looked warm and sisterly.Character witnesses claiming Sienna was always kind to me, always patient with my difficulties.There was even a supposed psychiatrist discussing how childhood trauma could create false memories and persecution complexes. The expert never mentioned me b

Callum's POV:I'd reserved the entire private dining room at Marcello's, one of the most exclusive restaurants in the city.I wanted this evening to be perfect.I wanted to give Isla the courtship experience she deserved without cameras or media attention or performing for anyone's benefit except our own.She arrived looking stunning in a deep blue dress, her dark hair swept up to show her neck and shoulders. She seemed nervous in a way I'd never seen her at galas or investor dinners."You look beautiful," I said, kissing her cheek."You clean up pretty well yourself," she said with a shy smile.We sat at the candlelit table and suddenly it felt more intimidating than any public appearance we'd done together.This was just us, getting to know each other outside crisis management."So," I started awkwardly. "Tell me about your childhood. Before everything got difficult."Isla took a sip of water, thinking."My mother was wonderful," she said softly. "Warm and loving and patient. She u

Callum's POV:The one-year contract officially expired at midnight Friday.I sat in my home office that evening holding the document, struck by how irrelevant it had become months ago. The terms and conditions meant nothing to our actual relationship. The arrangement it outlined had been replaced by something real and organic long before the expiration date.Separate bedrooms we'd never used.I considered the symbolic gesture of burning it but that felt melodramatic and unnecessary.So, I simply filed it away in my personal documents as a historical artifact. It was evidence of how we started but not a definition of what we'd become."What are you doing?"I looked up to find Isla in the doorway, changed into comfortable clothes after work."The contract expired today," I said, holding up the document. "I was deciding what to do with it."She came into the office and sat in the chair across from my desk. "What happens now? Legally?""Technically, nothing changes," I explained. "We're

Chapter Ninety: Building FutureCallum's POV:I'd been planning the proposal for weeks.Not the fake engagement we'd announced months ago. A real proposal that showed what we actually meant to each other.What we'd become through everything we'd been through.I wanted it to be perfect and special, something she'd remember.The ring took the longest to pick. I looked at dozens with the jeweler. Nothing felt right until I found this one.It was an emerald with diamonds around it. The emerald was the same green as the dress Isla wore to our first gala together.I liked that it meant something and it connected to our story but finding the right place to ask her was harder than picking the ring.Isla needed something personal, not a big public thing where we'd be performing for other people. Somewhere that mattered to us.I thought about lots of places. The penthouse. The park where she first came to me with information. The restaurant from our first real date.Nothing felt right until I t