Lahat ng Kabanata ng His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns: Kabanata 211 - Kabanata 220

[POV: Lewis] (Location: Edinburgh — Royal Infirmary)David Harper was sitting in a chair outside the maternity assessment unit with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped, looking at the floor.He looked up when Lewis walked in.Neither of them spoke for a moment."She called you," David said. Not an accusation. Just a statement."She called me because she needed someone here who isn't you." Lewis kept his voice even. "The staff told you to leave.""She's carrying my child.""She ended your relationship two days ago after finding out you submitted a sworn legal statement designed to remove custody rights from her son's father. She's also currently in a hospital bed with a monitoring strap on." Lewis stopped two feet in front of him. "This is not the moment."David stood up. He was roughly Lewis's height, broader through the shoulders, and he didn't step back. "I didn't know what that statement would be used for. Catherine's solicitor approached me eight months ago. I was told

[POV: Yessica] (Location: Edinburgh)"Sandra Keane," Yessica said.A beat of silence from Lewis on the phone."The administrative coordinator," she continued. "She's been there since before Ethan started. She sends the parent communications, manages the pickup lists, handles enrollment paperwork. She knows his schedule, his emergency contacts, every adult authorized to collect him." Yessica looked at the notification on her screen. "She signed this message twenty minutes ago.""Have you had any direct interaction with her that felt off?"She thought back. Pickup conversations that lingered a few seconds longer than necessary. The way Sandra had once asked whether Ethan's grandmother ever visited — a question Yessica had answered without thinking, assuming it was routine intake curiosity."She asked about his grandmother once," Yessica said. "Early on. I said Lewis's mother wasn't involved with the children.""What did she say?""Nothing. She wrote something on a form and moved on."

[POV: Lewis] (Location: Edinburgh)Lewis was out the front door before anyone could say anything.Yessica was two steps behind him. He heard Eleanor saying something sharp from the hallway but he was already across the front garden, through the gate, on the pavement.Victoria Brennan didn't run. She didn't move at all. She stood under the lamppost holding the photograph with both hands and watched him come toward her with an expression he couldn't immediately classify — not fear, not aggression. Something more unsettling than either.He stopped four feet away."That's my daughter," he said."I know." Her voice was calm. "I took it at her school three weeks ago. She was in the yard during afternoon break. She was teaching another girl how to do a cartwheel.""You took a photograph of my child at her school.""I take photographs of families." She said it simply, as though it required no further explanation. "Beautiful families. Intact ones that stay together despite everything." She l

[POV: Lewis] (Location: Edinburgh)The missing page meant someone with access to the evidence chain had protected Catherine's connection to Victoria Brennan.Lewis sat with that for the length of time it took Eleanor to finish explaining the implications. Not long. Eleanor was concise when things were serious."The chain of custody runs from Harrison, who provided the address book, to the prosecution solicitor who catalogued it, to the court archive." She was in her office; he could hear papers moving. "The discrepancy was discovered because Harrison's handwritten inventory — he listed the contents when he handed it over — references the Brennan entries. The copy submitted to court is missing that page. The gap occurs somewhere between Harrison's handoff and the archive submission.""Who had access in that window?""Two people. The prosecution solicitor and his junior associate." A pause. "I've already pulled the associate's background. Nothing flagged immediately. The solicitor him

[POV: Lewis] (Location: Edinburgh)Lewis was already moving."Stay here," he said to Yessica — not a request — and crossed the hallway in four steps, positioning himself between the staircase and the front door.McAllister was still on the line. He heard her issuing instructions before the door fully opened.The woman who stepped inside was not what he expected. Mid-forties, slight, wearing a rain jacket and carrying nothing in her hands. She stopped the moment she saw him.Her face did something complicated. Not aggression. Not the cool calculation of someone executing a plan. Something closer to a person who had driven to a destination and arrived only to understand, too late, that they'd made a terrible mistake."Mr. Sterling," she said."Put your hands where I can see them."She raised both hands immediately. "I'm not armed. I'm not here to do anything." Her voice shook slightly. "I just — I needed to see you in person. I needed you to know that I've been trying to get out of th