All Chapters of Rebirth of the Billionaire’s Substitute Bride: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Kira’s POVThe hot water in the marble shower washed away the freezing rain, but it couldn't wash away the bone-deep chill of standing in the same room as Elon Peterson.I stood in the master bathroom, wrapped in a thick silk robe. The mansion was quiet. Aziel had escorted me back to the estate in total silence, the heavy tension between us still crackling in the air. He hadn't asked any more questions about Edward Myles’s supposed blackmail. He had simply walked me to my door, his eyes lingering on me for a stretched second before he turned away.But I didn't have time to dwell on my husband’s smoldering stares. I had work to do.I locked the bathroom door and opened the hidden compartment beneath the vanity sink. Inside was a secure, military-grade biochemistry testing kit I had ordered Theodore to procure three days ago.I pulled the stolen syringe from the pocket of my ruined medical scrubs.I squeezed three drops of the clear fluid from the hospital IV bag into a small glass test

Kira’s POVThe extraction of my grandfather had been flawless, but there was no time to celebrate.By 9:00 AM, the Lockwood mansion became eerily quiet. I sat cross-legged on the plush velvet sofa in the master suite, four separate monitors glowing in front of me. The digital world was waking up, and the global markets were opening.My encrypted terminal chimed. It was Theodore.Chip: Aurelia, are you seeing this? The Lockwood Conglomerate just initiated a dark-pool dump on Horizon Technologies. It’s a complete fire sale. The stock is plummeting.I pulled up the ticker. He was right. Horizon Tech was a highly lucrative aerospace subsidiary, but the Lockwood trading desks were aggressively flooding the market with shares, artificially driving the price into the dirt.It made absolutely no sense. Aziel did not lose money, and he certainly didn't panic-sell.Chip: If we buy the dip now through our shell companies, we can acquire a controlling stake for pennies. When the market corrects a

Kira’s POVI kicked Aziel’s warning to the back of my mind and plotted my next line of attack.While trying to log into the server I used to monitor the Lockwood Conglomerate’s internal communications, I ran into an error message. ERROR 403: ACCESS DENIED. BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED.I stared at the glaring red text on my laptop screen, my jaw clenching so tightly my teeth ached.It was seven in the morning. I was sitting at the marble kitchen island, a half-empty cup of black coffee cooling beside me. It was a backdoor I had built three weeks ago, completely undetectable.Or so I thought.I ran a quick diagnostic check. The results made my blood run cold. The entire Lockwood master network had been restructured overnight. Aziel had locked me out.I slammed the laptop shut in frustration."Looking for something, Mrs. Lockwood?"I spun around. Aziel was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, dressed in grey trousers and a crisp white shirt, the cuffs unbuttoned. He held a tab

The Myles family estate, once a symbol of high-society opulence, now felt like a shadow of itself.Zara paced the length of the grand upstairs hallway, the heels of her designer stilettos clicking sharply against the floor. For weeks, her perfect reality had been slowly fracturing. Raheem was bankrupt, publicly humiliated, and dodging calls from loan sharks. The charity gala had been a disaster. And her father had aged ten years in the span of a month.But Zara had clung to her delusions. She was the golden child. She was the beloved daughter. Kira was just the disposable trash they had sold off to the Lockwood monster to pay a few gambling debts. Victor would fix this. He always did."Where are the maids?" Zara muttered to herself, noticing the dust gathering on the hall tables. Most of the staff had quietly quit after their paychecks bounced last week.She turned toward the grand staircase, intending to march into her father’s private study and demand a cash infusion to salvage her

Kira’s POVThe victory over Athena cost the Shadow King billions, but it also painted a massive target squarely on my back.The morning after my market exploit, the atmosphere in the Lockwood mansion had fundamentally shifted. The quiet, simmering tension was gone, replaced by some sort of militaristic vigilance. The estate’s security detail had been tripled. Black SUVs idled at every perimeter gate.I was sitting in the dining room, reviewing the finalized transfer of the joint-venture funds, when Aziel walked in.He wasn't wearing a bespoke suit today. He was dressed in black sweatpants and a tight, dark grey athletic shirt that clung to the heavily muscled lines of his chest and shoulders. He tossed a pair of black hand wraps onto the table directly over my financial reports."Digital walls can be breached, Kira," Aziel said, his voice completely devoid of its usual mocking charm. It was flat, commanding, and deadly serious. "Elon Peterson knows he can't beat you in the dark pools