All Chapters of Dumped By The Alpha, I Married His Stepbrother: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

"Three territories."I read the message a second time, certain I'd misunderstood it the first time."Who sent this," I asked, handing the phone back to Marcus."No name," Marcus said. "Routed through an anonymous relay, the same kind Chloe used when she first came to us at the hospital.""That doesn't mean it's credible," Lucien said, though the tightness in his voice suggested he already suspected otherwise."It includes a location," Marcus said, scrolling further down the message. "An archive, apparently maintained privately for decades, containing records of every arrangement Bartholomew orchestrated outside this territory's borders.""Bartholomew operated in other territories," Isolde said slowly. "I never knew that. He rarely traveled beyond our own borders, at least not that I ever witnessed.""Which means whoever sent this either has access to information even you never had," I said, "or they're fabricating something to draw us somewhere dangerous.""We've walked into enough tr

"Located its exact position."The nurse's words hung heavy in the quiet room, and every exhausted face turned toward me at once."Put the call through," I said, my voice steadier than I felt.The nurse disappeared, and moments later a phone was brought to me, the line already connected."Who is this," I said."Someone who wants the same thing you do," a voice answered, calm and unfamiliar, neither male nor female enough to place easily. "Answers, before someone else buries them permanently.""That doesn't tell me who you are.""It doesn't need to, not yet," the voice said. "What matters is that the estate you visited tonight isn't the only location under threat. The second archive, the one in the territory Damien fled twenty years ago, has already been located by people with far less patience than you've shown so far.""Who," I demanded."Remaining loyalists," the voice said. "Men who served Bartholomew's father before Bartholomew ever inherited the arrangement. They've spent decades

"Changes everything."I stared at Marcus's phone, dread coiling tight in my chest as we scrambled back into the vehicles."What does the message actually say," Lucien demanded, already pulling onto the road back toward the hospital."Damien says Evelyn's holding a photograph," Marcus said, scrolling further. "One she claims proves the archive we just secured isn't the original. That it's a copy, deliberately planted for us to find, while the real records sit somewhere else entirely.""That's not possible," Isolde said. "Tobias confirmed everything in that compound himself.""Tobias confirmed what he believed to be true," Marcus said. "If Evelyn's right, he might have been protecting a decoy his entire life without ever realizing it.""Why would Evelyn know something like that," I asked. "She wasn't even part of this until Bartholomew's original arrangement collapsed.""According to Damien, she says her own mother worked as archivist for the family generations ago," Marcus said. "Befor

The name on the certificate wasn't a stranger's.I read it twice, certain my exhausted mind had simply misread the ink after hours without sleep, but the letters stayed exactly the same each time.Lucien De Villiers.My hands started shaking so hard the paper rattled."Lucien," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "This certificate lists you. Born the same night as me and Isolde. Not raised as Alaric's son through your mother at all. Born to my mother, in this arrangement, alongside the rest of us."The chamber went utterly silent.Lucien took the paper from my trembling hands, his eyes scanning it rapidly, his composure cracking visibly for the first time since I'd known him."That's not possible," he said. "I remember my mother. I remember her voice, her face, moments from my childhood that couldn't have been fabricated this thoroughly.""Edric remembered his childhood too," Isolde said quietly. "Before tonight, he would have sworn every memory was real.""This is different," Lu

"That's not Marcus's car."Chloe's whisper cut through the quiet murmur of the teahouse like a blade.I turned slightly, careful not to draw attention, and caught sight of two men stepping out of a black sedan parked directly across the street, their movements unhurried but deliberate, scanning the storefront with the particular focus of men who already knew exactly what they were looking for."Do you recognize them," I asked quietly."No," Chloe said, her voice shaking. "But I recognize the car. It belongs to a man Bartholomew used occasionally, before everything collapsed. Someone he called when he needed a problem removed quietly.""Vale worked alone," I said. "This isn't him.""Vale isn't the only one who ever did this kind of work for that family," Chloe said. "If someone else knew I was meeting you here, if someone intercepted the message before it ever reached you.""Stay calm," I said, though my own pulse was hammering hard enough that the words felt like a lie even as I spoke