All Chapters of MARRIED TO THE MAN MY EX CALLS UNCLE : Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

The charity luncheon was exactly the kind of event Maya had learned to navigate on autopilot by now — polite conversation, careful smiles, the constant low hum of being watched and assessed by people who'd never once bothered to learn her actual name before the wedding made her impossible to ignore. She was refilling her water at a side table when Damien appeared beside her, close enough that she couldn't step away without making a scene. "You look tired," he said, no preamble, his voice low and urgent in a way that told her this wasn't a social visit. "I am tired." She kept her own voice pleasant, mindful of the crowd. "It's been a long few weeks." "I've been digging." He glanced past her shoulder, checking the distance to the nearest cluster of guests before continuing, quieter now. "I found more on Elias. On what really happened to Victoria. I think he's more dangerous than either of us gave him credit for, Maya, and I think you're not seeing it because you're too close." Ma

The box had sat untouched in the attic for years, according to Wallace's replacement, a stack of leather-bound albums and loose photographs going back further than either of them had access to trace through official records. Elias had asked Maya to go through it with him, hoping something in the family's own history might reveal the depth of Margaret's reach into the household staff — a pattern, a name, anything that might connect the dots faster than the investigator's slow, careful work. They sat together on the library floor, sorting decades of Carter history into careful piles, the late afternoon light slanting long and gold through the tall windows. Maya found it near the bottom of the third album. A photograph, faded but still clear enough — a much younger Elias, maybe thirteen or fourteen, standing beside a girl who could only be Elena, both of them barely teenagers, caught mid-laugh at something outside the frame. Ordinary enough, on its own. Except for the third figure s

The staff never stood a chance at stopping him. Damien pushed past the front doors before anyone could announce his arrival, and by the time Maya heard the commotion from the sitting room, he was already halfway across the foyer, Elias descending the stairs to meet him with a coldness that promised this wouldn't end quietly."You've been lying to her from the beginning, Elias," Damien said, his voice carrying easily through the vast entryway, staff frozen at the edges of the room like they'd learned, by now, to recognize the shape of a scene they shouldn't interrupt. "You've been lying to everyone. But the truth always comes out — and when it does, I'll be there to watch you fall.""You have no idea what you're accusing me of," Elias said, his own voice dropping into the low, controlled register Maya had learned meant real danger, "or what it would cost to say more right now.""Then say it. Prove me wrong."Maya moved between them before she'd fully decided to, one hand pressed flat a

The parking garage Damien had chosen was the kind of place that felt abandoned even during business hours — half the fluorescent lights burned out, concrete pillars casting long shadows across rows of mostly empty spaces. Maya climbed out of the car first, Elias close behind despite Damien's insistence over the phone that she come alone."He specifically said alone," Maya reminded him, scanning the dim garage for any sign of Damien."I heard him." Elias's tone left no room for argument. "I'm not letting you walk into an unknown situation by yourself after everything that's happened in the last month. He'll understand, or he won't. Either way, I'm here."They found Damien pacing near a support pillar on the second level, phone still clutched in one hand, papers spilling from a folder tucked under his other arm. He looked up as they approached, some flicker of frustration crossing his face at the sight of Elias — but it faded quickly, overtaken by the visible rattle still working throug

The woman stared at the ringing phone like it might reach out and grab her, her hands trembling worse now, panic overtaking whatever composure she'd managed to hold together moments before. Elias moved fast, crossing to the car and reaching for the phone."Don't answer it," he said, his hand hovering over the device without touching it, deferring to her at the last second."She has tracking on my phone." The woman's voice had climbed into something close to hysteria, her eyes darting toward the garage exit like she expected shadows to materialize out of the concrete. "She has to. There's no other way she could know I'm here, right now, at this exact moment. I've been careless. I've been so careless, and now we're all exposed.""We don't know that for certain," Maya said, trying to steady her own voice enough to offer some calm, though the fear pooling in her chest made it difficult."I know Margaret Carter," the woman snapped, some of the fear finally breaking into something sharper,