All Chapters of .THE SUBSTITUE WIFE RETURNS: Chapter 41 - Chapter 48

Ariana’s POV Welcome home, Ariana.The words echoed through the tunnel long after the woman stopped speaking.Nobody moved.Nobody breathed.The collapsing facility seemed to disappear around us.Even the explosions sounded distant.Muted.Unimportant.Because standing before us was something impossible.Dozens of people.All with silver light beneath their skin.All staring at me.Like they knew me.Like they had been waiting for me.For years.For decades.Maybe longer.My heart pounded violently.I tightened my grip on Damien’s hand without realizing it.Immediately, his fingers closed around mine.Steady.Protective.Grounding.The simple gesture stopped me from falling apart.The elderly woman stepped forward slowly.She didn’t look dangerous.She didn’t carry weapons.She didn’t move like a soldier.Yet somehow—She frightened me more than the scientist ever had.Because she looked at me with recognition.The kind of recognition that came from knowing a secret.And I was beginn

Ariana’s POVNoah’s scream ripped through the underground complex with such force that the tunnel walls split apart.The sound wasn’t merely pain.It was grief.Decades of grief.The silver device in the scientist’s hand pulsed rhythmically, each flash sending violent tremors through Noah’s enormous body. His hands clutched his head as he staggered backward, crashing through thick concrete pillars as though they were made of paper.The entire facility groaned.Steel beams bent.Pipes burst overhead, releasing clouds of steam that hissed through the tunnels.Christopher ducked behind a collapsed support column.“I officially hate silver lights.”No one answered him.Every eye remained fixed on Noah.His glowing silver veins flickered wildly beneath his skin, brightening and dimming like stars on the verge of burning out.The scientist smiled.“There it is.”His voice carried an unsettling satisfaction.“The obedience protocol still exists.”“No!” Ethan roared.He lunged toward the scie

Ariana’s POVNobody moved.The little girl couldn’t have been more than eight years old.She stood in the center of the tunnel as though she’d been waiting for us all along.Her white hospital gown was spotless despite the dust and destruction surrounding her.Her bare feet rested on the cold concrete.Most unsettling of all were her eyes.They glowed silver.Brighter than mine.Brighter than Noah’s.Brighter than Ethan’s.The light within them didn’t flicker.It burned with quiet certainty.Christopher leaned toward Alina and whispered, “Please tell me someone recognizes the creepy glowing child.”Alina never took her eyes off the girl.“No.”Christopher sighed.“I was afraid you’d say that.”The girl’s smile widened slightly.“You’ve gotten taller, Ariana.”A shiver ran down my spine.“I don’t know you.”“No.”Her voice was gentle.“You don’t remember me.”Those words again.Don’t remember.Everyone seemed to know pieces of my past except me.I was growing tired of it.Evelyn sudden

Ariana’s POVThe photograph trembled in Gabriel’s hand.No.It wasn’t the photograph.It was me.Every muscle in my body locked as I stared at the woman smiling back at me. Her eyes were unmistakable. The same almond shape. The same stubborn warmth. The same tiny mole beneath her left eye that I’d seen every morning in my own reflection.My mother.Alive.Or at least…Alive when that picture had been taken.“No…” My voice barely escaped my lips. “You’re lying.”Gabriel didn’t argue.He simply held the picture a little higher.“You’ve spent your life believing she died beneath this facility.”He paused.“She didn’t.”My heartbeat hammered in my ears.Seventeen years.Seventeen years of grief…For someone who might never have been dead.“Ariana.”Damien’s voice broke through the storm in my head.“Don’t let him pull you in.”I looked at him.His face was streaked with soot. Blood ran from the cut above his eyebrow, disappearing beneath the collar of his shirt. Even injured, even exhaust