บททั้งหมดของ The Billionaire’s Abandoned Wife : บทที่ 51 - บทที่ 60

“Who is it.” Ethan asked it gently, still half-asleep beside her, the morning after the engagement, sunlight cutting soft lines across the bedroom floor. Bianca sat up slowly, phone still in hand, the message from the night before glowing accusingly on the screen. Congratulations are in order, I hear. I always did say you’d land on your feet eventually. Enjoy it while it lasts. “I don’t know,” Bianca admitted, showing him the screen. “Unknown number. Sent last night, right around when you proposed.” Ethan sat up fully now, reading it twice, something careful settling over his features. “That’s not a stranger’s message. Whoever sent this knows exactly what happened last night, and when.” “Which means someone at that dinner told them. Or someone was watching.” Bianca’s stomach tightened, old instincts sharpening fast despite how peaceful the morning had started. “Ethan, we haven’t heard anything like this in months. Not since Ingrid.” “Ingrid’s still in prison,” Ethan said slowly.

“Say that again. Slower this time.” Bianca sat across from Daniel at his own kitchen table that evening, Ethan beside her, both of them watching Daniel pace instead of sit, restless in a way that told her whatever he’d overheard had rattled him badly. “I was at my mother’s house yesterday, fixing the shelf in her hallway,” Daniel said, hands moving as he spoke, agitated. “Her home health aide, Grace, was on the phone in the next room. I wasn’t trying to listen. I just heard my mother’s name, then yours, Bianca, and I stopped what I was doing.” “What did you hear,” Ethan asked, voice level despite the tension visibly building in the room. “Grace was talking to someone about payment. About confirming details before she, quote, sent the rest of the information.” Daniel stopped pacing, running a hand roughly through his hair. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Grace handles a lot of my mother’s finances now, appointments, insurance. I assumed it was something ordinary.” “But

“Absolutely not.” Ethan said it the moment Bianca showed him the notification, his voice sharper than she’d heard it in months. “She’s manipulated her way into every crisis this family has faced for the better part of a year. I’m not letting her manufacture one more, especially not from behind bars where she can’t be stopped mid-sentence the way we’ve stopped her before.” “I haven’t decided anything yet,” Bianca said carefully, though her own stomach was tight with the same instinct. “I’m just telling you what the request said.” “There’s nothing to decide. You don’t owe her a visit. You don’t owe her anything at all.” Ethan’s jaw was tight, something protective and furious moving beneath his usual composure. “Whatever she claims she needs to say, she can say it through her lawyer, on record, where it actually means something instead of being some private manipulation only you hear.” Bianca sat with that, turning the notification over in her mind the same way she’d once turned over

“Whose account is it.” Ethan asked it the moment they sat down across from Priya, her laptop already turned toward them, screen filled with transaction logs and account trails Bianca still didn’t fully understand but had learned to trust. “That’s the strange part,” Priya said. “It’s registered under a media holdings company. Legitimate on paper. But the payments into it don’t come from Ingrid’s lawyer’s firm at all. They come from a personal account belonging to someone named Victor Ansah.” Bianca’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know that name.” “I do,” Ethan said slowly, something shifting in his expression. “He was the board member Marcus exposed months ago. The one trying to force a merger with a rival charity by destabilizing my directorship.” Priya nodded. “He resigned from the board after the vote, officially citing personal reasons. Unofficially, it looks like he’s been quietly funding a media campaign against this family ever since, using Ingrid’s ongoing legal drama as cover so

“I already have three venues narrowed down. You’re welcome.” Adaeze said it the second Bianca walked through the door, laptop already open on the kitchen table, Kemi beside her looking equal parts amused and resigned. Ethan trailed in behind Bianca, exchanging a glance with her that made it clear he understood exactly what kind of afternoon this was going to be. “Mum, we haven’t even talked about a date yet.” “Which is exactly why I’m getting ahead of things,” Adaeze said, turning the laptop screen toward them. “Venues book out a year in advance for good ones. If you want an actual wedding instead of whatever’s left over after everyone else has already chosen, we start now.” Bianca sat down slowly, glancing at Ethan, who took the seat beside her with the particular calm of a man who’d learned, over the past year, that some battles weren’t worth fighting and this was clearly one of them. “Show us what you found,” Ethan said, surprising Bianca with how easily he leaned into it. Ada