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Todos los capítulos de Divorced After One Night: The Plus-Size Ex-Wife’s Revenge: Capítulo 141 - Capítulo 150

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Chapter 141: Cordelia's Next Move

Aldric called on a Tuesday evening, his voice carrying none of its usual careful patience.“The lab,” he said. “The one that handled a private paternity test a few weeks ago. Someone I know works there and alerted me when they recognized the name on the test.”Cordelia set down her tea. “Whose name?”“Jason’s. He used a private account he’d set up himself, separate from the company, he thought he’d covered his tracks, but he wasn’t as careful as he believed.”“And the result?”"Confirmed," Aldric said. "Ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent. He's known for several days now."Cordelia sat with that a long moment, the lamp on her desk casting its usual warm light over a room that suddenly felt smaller than it had an hour ago."He told no one," she said. It wasn't a question.“From what I’ve gathered, he told the mother privately. There’s no official report, and he hasn’t hired a lawyer to handle it, at least not one I could find."“He’s keeping the result to himself,” Cordelia murmured.

Chapter 142: Sloane Considers Warning Her

Sloane found the papers by accident, the way most of the worst things in her marriage seemed to find her lately.She'd gone into Jason's study looking for a charger, nothing more sinister than that, and the folder was sitting open on his desk, left out in a way that told her he hadn't expected anyone to come looking. *Acknowledgment of Paternity* across the top, his name typed neatly into a field that hadn't been signed yet.She stood there a long moment just looking at it.She knew, in the abstract, that something like this was coming. Cordelia had told her the test results were confirmed days ago, relayed flatly, almost as an afterthought, the same way she relayed most things she'd already decided Sloane needed to know. Jason himself had said nothing to her about it at all, not one word, and that silence had its own particular weight, telling her exactly how little he still trusted her with the truth, however much he seemed to be working his way toward forgiving her for everything

Chapter 143: Not Enough

The email was still open on Daxton's laptop when I woke up, the room gray with early light, Rowan still asleep in the next bed."You didn't sleep," I said."Couldn't." He turned the screen toward me. "Read it again. Tell me I'm not imagining how bad this actually is."I read it standing over his shoulder, Sloane's message sitting there in plain, careful words. *Jason's family is preparing paperwork that would formally secure Rowan's legal status with the Cranes.*"It's as bad as you think," I said.We called Marcus before breakfast, before Rowan was even dressed, the two of us hunched over the phone at the small table like it might run away from us if we looked away."I need you to understand what this document actually does," Marcus said, once I'd read him the message. "An acknowledgment of paternity doesn't take Rowan from you. It doesn't change custody but it puts Jason's name on the record, permanently, tied to Rowan in a way that will matter every single time something legal come

Chapter 144: How Fast

Marcus called back within the hour, and this time his voice had a different kind of urgency in it, the kind that meant he'd already started moving before we'd even finished explaining ourselves."A courthouse marriage can happen in a few days in this state," he said. "Faster if you know who to ask. I know who to ask.""How fast is faster," Daxton said."Tomorrow," Marcus said. "If you want it tomorrow."I looked at Daxton across the small table, Rowan now awake and eating cereal in the next room, completely unaware that his whole world was about to shift shape before lunchtime."Tomorrow," I said.We spent the rest of that day moving faster than I'd moved in years. Marcus handled the license, pulling strings I didn't ask too many questions about. I called Dana the second I hung up with him, and she started crying before I'd even finished the sentence."Tomorrow," she said. "You're really doing it tomorrow.""If you can come," I said. "I know it's short notice.""I don't care if it's a

Chapter145: Too Late

Cordelia found out from her lawyer, not from Jason, which told her immediately how far behind she'd already fallen.Theodore Marsh called her study phone a little after nine, his voice carrying none of its usual unhurried calm."There's something you need to know before the acknowledgment paperwork goes any further," he said."Go on.""Serenity Grayson married Daxton Smith yesterday afternoon. Courthouse ceremony, fully legal. The boy's name has already been changed. Rowan Smith, as of this morning, with Daxton listed as his legal father on a completed adoption filing."Cordelia set down the pen she'd been holding, very slowly, the way she set down anything that required her to think before she moved again."How is that possible," she said. "That quickly.""People move quickly when they know they're being chased," Theodore said. "I'd guess someone warned them the acknowledgment was coming."Cordelia's mind went immediately to Sloane, the sharp, unanswered edge of their last phone call

Chapter 146: She Stops Waiting

I woke up married, and the strangest part wasn't how different it felt. It was how much the same everything else still was. Rowan's cartoons still played too loud in the next room, the coffee still took the hotel pot four minutes to finish. The city outside still held every single person I needed to settle a score with.I sat at the small table with my coffee and thought about Cordelia for the first time since the wedding, really thought about her, not as a fear sitting in my chest but as a problem with an actual shape I could finally see clearly.Daxton came out of the shower, toweling his hair, and found me staring at the wall."You've got that look," he said. "The one you had right before you went after that landlord.""I'm done waiting on Marcus to slowly build a case," I said. "I'm done waiting on Jason's conscience to decide whether he wants to be honest. I built this whole life with my own hands, Daxton. I think it's time I built the end of this one too."He sat down across fro

Chapter 147: What Marcus Found

Marcus showed up at the hotel two days later with the overnight package Dana had sent, plus a second folder of his own, thicker than I expected, his expression carrying the particular, focused energy I recognized from the night he'd once handed me a highlighted statute across a diner table years ago.“I spent yesterday checking everything again,” he said, spreading both folders across our small table. “Dana’s original report is still solid. The lighting doesn’t match, the window reflection is different, and there are signs the images were edited.....her work was convincing five years ago, and it still holds up today.”"But," Daxton said, catching something in Marcus's tone."But I found something new," Marcus said. "Or rather, old, that nobody ever connected properly before now."He pulled a single page from his own folder and slid it across the table.“The hotel room that never existed,” he said. “Five years ago, you proved it was fake by calling the hotel’s front desk but nobody inv

Chapter 148: Her Mother Tries Again

The call came while Daxton was in the shower and Rowan was busy building a tower out of hotel pillows. I almost ignored it until I saw who was calling.My mother.I stepped out into the hallway to answer it, some old habit of keeping these conversations separate from the rest of my life still intact even now."Hello.""I heard," she said, no greeting at all. "About the wedding. I heard about the wedding, Serenity, from someone at your father's club, before you ever thought to tell me yourself."I closed my eyes, feeling the old, tired shape of this exact disappointment settle back into my chest."I wasn't trying to hide it from you," I said. "I just didn't think you needed to be told by me specifically. We've talked once in five years. I didn't think a wedding invitation was something either of us had earned yet.""I understand," she said, and something in her voice sounded different than it had on that first call, less careful, more raw. "I do understand that, actually. I just keep h

Chapter 149: Her Father Appears

He called two days later, which surprised me more than it should have, given how little he'd ever called me first in twenty-seven years of being his daughter."Your mother told me you met," he said, no greeting, the same blunt efficiency I remembered from every conversation we'd ever had."She did.""She told me what you're planning. At the gala."I sat down slowly on the edge of the hotel bed, Rowan at the little desk across the room working on a puzzle, half-listening to cartoons."And," I said."I need you to reconsider," my father said. "Not for Cordelia's sake, and certainly not for Sloane's. For the business relationships I've spent years rebuilding since the first scandal nearly destroyed everything I built."I almost laughed, the sound coming out sharp and humorless."You're calling me," I said, "two days after Mom finally apologized to my face for the first time in five years, to ask me to protect your business relationships again.""I'm calling because this family has alread

Chapter 150: Getting Ready

The gala was eleven days away when Vanessa showed up at the hotel without warning. She carried a garment bag and had a look on her face that said she wasn't leaving until I let her in."Daxton told me what you're planning," she said as soon as I opened the door. "I came to help.""You didn't have to fly out for this.""I didn't fly," she said. "I drove. Six hours. Don't make it weirder than it already is."I let her in. She dropped the garment bag over a chair and looked around the room as if she were already figuring out what needed to be done."First thing," she said. "What are you wearing?""I haven't thought about it.""Then we're starting there," she said. "Whatever you wear into that room will be the first thing three hundred people judge you by before you've even said a word."I sat on the edge of the bed, surprised by how quickly she'd taken charge. For the first time in days, I found myself laughing."You've really changed," I said. "I remember when you wanted me out of Daxto

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