All Chapters of The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

75 Chapters

CHAPTER 31: Blackwater House

The words settled into the room like smoke.The same night Isabella disappeared.Aria stared at Ethan, trying to process the timeline twisting together around her.The fire.The disappearance.The hidden document.None of it felt accidental anymore.“What exactly was Blackwater House?” she asked quietly.Ethan’s expression remained tense. “Victor’s private estate outside the city. Very isolated. He used it for family retreats years ago.”Celeste gave a faint, humorless smile.“Retreat is one word for it.”Ethan ignored her.Aria noticed that.Not because he disagreed.Because he didn’t want her continuing.A knot tightened in Aria’s chest.“What happened there?”Nobody answered immediately.Rain continued striking the windows in relentless waves while distant thunder rolled across the skyline.Finally Daniel spoke.“People around Victor called it the glass house.”Aria frowned slightly. “Why?”“Because Victor could see everything happening inside it.”The answer made her uneasy instan

CHAPTER 32: The Girl In The Rain

Nobody moved.The garage seemed to empty of sound all at once, the chaos of reporters fading beneath the shock that slammed through Aria’s chest.The woman standing beneath the rain looked almost exactly like the photographs.Like Isabella.Not identical.But close enough to make reality tilt sideways.Dark hair clung to her face in wet strands. Her posture was calm despite the cameras flashing around her. And around her neck, the silver crescent moon necklace rested against pale skin like a warning.Aria felt suddenly unsteady.Beside her, Ethan went completely rigid.Daniel muttered a curse under his breath.Celeste looked horrified.Not surprised.Horrified.The woman’s gaze locked directly onto Aria.Not Ethan.Not the reporters.Aria.Then softly, almost gently, she said:“You shouldn’t go back there.”The reporters exploded instantly.“Who are you?”“Are you Isabella Hale?”“Did you survive the fire?”Security surged forward again, trying to force the crowd backward, but the dam

CHAPTER 33: The Night Of The Fire

The SUV cut violently through rain-slick streets while thunder shook the city overhead.Nobody spoke for several seconds after Ethan’s confession.The fire wasn’t an accident.The sentence sat heavily inside the vehicle, darker than the storm surrounding them.Aria stared at him from the backseat.“What do you mean it wasn’t an accident?”Ethan’s hands remained steady on the steering wheel despite the speed they were moving at. Headlights streaked across his face in sharp flashes of white and gold.Daniel checked the vehicles behind them again.“They’re still following.”“Lose them first,” Ethan said coldly.Aria’s pulse hammered harder.“No.” Her voice sharpened. “No more waiting. Tell me now.”Ethan exhaled slowly through his nose.“The night Blackwater House burned, Isabella contacted me.”Aria froze.“She asked you to meet her there.”“Yes.”The rain intensified, blurring the city beyond the windows into rivers of light.“She sounded terrified,” Ethan continued quietly. “Not emoti

CHAPTER 34: The Woman Who Never Died

Rain crashed against the docks in violent sheets.Aria stood frozen beside the SUV, water soaking through her clothes while Victor Hale’s words echoed through her mind like a fracture splitting open.Your mother didn’t die in that accident.“No.”The denial left her instantly.Automatic.Desperate.Victor watched her carefully through the storm.“I understand why that’s difficult to hear.”Ethan stepped forward sharply. “Don’t do this.”Victor ignored him completely.Aria’s pulse thundered painfully in her chest.“You’re lying.”But even as she said it, something deep inside her twisted with terrible recognition.Because there had always been gaps.No funeral she remembered.No grave visits.No photographs from after the accident.Only stories.Carefully controlled stories.Victor took another slow step closer.“Your mother survived the crash long enough to disappear with you.”Lightning flashed violently across the docks.Daniel looked tense enough to snap.Ethan’s voice dropped dang

CHAPTER 35: Ashes That Remember

For one suspended second, nobody moved.Rain hammered the docks. Thunder rolled low across the water. Somewhere behind them, engines idled beneath the storm while armed men waited for orders that hadn’t come yet.But all Aria heard was Daniel’s voice repeating inside her head.Blackwater House is burning again.Ethan reacted first.“What do you mean again?”Daniel looked pale beneath the dock lights. “Emergency scanners picked up a fire ten minutes ago.” He checked the screen again. “The entire estate’s already going up.”Victor’s expression darkened immediately.Not fear.Recognition.Like he understood something before anyone else did.Ethan noticed too.“You knew this would happen.”Victor’s gaze shifted toward the rain-soaked horizon. “No.”It was the first uncertain answer Aria had heard from him all night.And that frightened her more than his confidence ever had.“Someone beat us there,” Daniel muttered.“No,” Victor said quietly.Everyone looked at him.Then he delivered the s

CHAPTER 36: Smoke Signals

Chapter 36: Smoke SignalsThe drive to Blackwater House felt unreal.Rain battered the windshield in relentless waves while the city slowly disappeared behind them, replaced by long stretches of dark coastal road swallowed by storm and forest.Nobody spoke much.The tension inside the SUV had shifted into something sharper now.Hope.Fear.Urgency.All tangled together.Aria sat in the backseat staring at the blurred world outside while fragments of memory flickered at the edges of her mind like sparks refusing to die.Rory.The nickname still echoed strangely inside her chest.A name wrapped in warmth.In safety.In someone else’s voice.Beside her, Daniel remained focused on updates coming through his phone while Ethan drove with dangerous precision through the storm.Victor followed behind them in another vehicle.That unsettled her more than she wanted to admit.Not because he was chasing her now.Because he was coming willingly.Toward Isabella.Toward the fire.Toward whatever w

CHAPTER 37: Into The Fire

“Victor, wait!”But he was already moving.Straight through the smoke.Straight toward the burning east wing while rain poured across the cliffs in violent silver sheets.“Damn it,” Ethan muttered.Then he ran after him.Aria stared for half a second before instinct dragged her forward too.Daniel caught her arm immediately.“Absolutely not.”“There’s someone inside!”“There’s a collapsing mansion inside.”Another scream echoed faintly through the storm.Closer this time.Female.Pain-filled.Aria felt her pulse spike violently.“That’s her.”Daniel swore under his breath.The firefighters were shouting now, trying to force everyone back from the unstable section of the estate, but Victor had already disappeared through the smoke-covered entrance.Ethan followed seconds behind him.And somehow that frightened Aria even more.Because Ethan never moved recklessly unless something truly mattered.She pulled free from Daniel’s grip.“I’m going.”“No.”“Yes.”Before he could stop her again

CHAPTER 38: The Woman In The Shadows

Nobody moved.The underground chamber fell into absolute silence except for the distant roar of fire trembling through the structure above them.Ethan raised the gun slightly.Daniel shifted beside him, flashlight cutting sharply through the darkness between the shelves.Victor stood unnaturally still.And Aria…Aria already knew the voice.Not fully.Not consciously.But something deep inside her recognized it before the woman stepped into the light.She emerged slowly from behind the towering shelves lined with old boxes and faded files.Tall.Thin.Dark hair streaked faintly with silver.Her clothes smelled faintly of smoke.But it was her eyes that made Aria’s breath catch painfully in her throat.The same eyes staring back at her from the photograph Victor had shown her at the docks.The woman stopped several feet away.Shock moved visibly across her face as she looked directly at Aria.Not fear.Not confusion.Recognition.Then heartbreak.“Oh God,” she whispered.The flashlight

CHAPTER 39: The Man Behind The Curtain

The words hollowed the room.Victor wasn’t the one who killed him.For a moment, even the fire above them seemed distant.Ethan stared at Eva without moving.Aria felt the shift beside her immediately.Not shock.Something worse.Old suspicion becoming possible truth.Daniel frowned sharply. “What are you talking about?”Eva looked toward Ethan carefully.“Your father knew someone else was involved after the accident.”Smoke drifted thicker through the underground chamber now, curling along the ceiling while distant cracks thundered overhead.Still nobody moved.Because suddenly the story had changed again.Victor slowly straightened.“What someone?”Eva’s eyes darkened faintly.“The person who orchestrated everything.”Silence.Aria’s pulse quickened painfully.“What does that mean?”Eva looked at her for a long moment before answering.“The accident wasn’t random.”The chamber froze.Even Victor looked unsettled by that sentence.Ethan’s jaw tightened visibly.“You’re saying someone

CHAPTER 40: Richard Thorne

The applause continued.Slow.Deliberate.Mocking.Smoke drifted thickly through the underground chamber while pieces of burning debris crashed somewhere above them. The hidden room trembled beneath the weight of the dying estate.Yet somehow the man’s voice cut through all of it with terrifying calm.“It took all of you remarkably long to figure it out.”Aria’s pulse slammed against her ribs.Ethan stepped in front of her instinctively while Daniel swung the flashlight toward the darkness beyond the shelves.A figure slowly emerged through the smoke.Tall.Gray-haired.Elegant despite the chaos surrounding him.The same man from the old photograph.Only older now.Alive.Richard Thorne smiled faintly as he stepped into the flashlight beam.“Well,” he said smoothly, “this is emotional.”Victor’s face went completely cold.“You should be dead.”Richard chuckled softly.“A popular opinion lately.”Daniel raised his weapon immediately.Richard barely looked at it.“That would be unwise i

1 2 3 4 5 6 8

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP