Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Wife They Tried To Replace: Kabanata 101 - Kabanata 110

Valentina’s POVThe door slammed shut between us and Helena.For one second, nobody moved.Then the baby cried again.The sound came through the wall beside us, thin and desperate.My whole body went cold.“Dante.”“I heard it.”He was already moving.He ran his hand over the stone wall, searching for a handle, a switch, anything. Adrian stepped forward and pushed against the wall with both hands.“It’s sealed,” he said.“Then break it.”Dante didn’t hesitate.He stepped back.“Move.”Eva pulled Lily against her chest and backed away. I grabbed Adrian’s arm and dragged him with me.Dante drove his shoulder into the wall.Nothing.He tried again.The old stone cracked.A third time.A section of the wall finally gave way, dropping inward with a heavy crash.Dust filled the narrow passage.I covered my mouth as I coughed.Dante disappeared through the opening.I followed.“Valentina, wait.”I ignored Adrian.There was a baby behind that wall.Nothing else mattered.The passage was colde

Valentina’s POVHelena stood in the doorway.She wasn’t smiling anymore.That frightened me more than anything.For the first time since we’d found her, she looked tired.Older.But her eyes were exactly the same.Cold.Calculating.Watching all of us as if she had already decided what would happen next.Dante stepped in front of me.“Don’t come any closer.”Helena’s gaze moved past him.Straight to the two babies.“You shouldn’t have opened that room.”“You shouldn’t have hidden it,” I said.She looked at me.“You still don’t understand.”“I understand enough.”“No.”She shook her head.“You understand what I wanted you to see.”My hands tightened around the baby.Dante glanced at the screens.“Explain the names.”Helena looked at the monitors.Then she smiled.“That part was always going to hurt.”“Who is the real Valentina?”She looked at me.Then at Eva.Neither of us spoke.The room felt impossibly small.Helena finally said, “You both are.”Eva’s eyes widened.“What?”Helena wal

Dante’s POV“Daddy?”The little voice came through the speaker again.My blood ran cold.Valentina looked at me.I looked at Helena.Nobody moved.Then the voice came again.“Daddy, are you there?”It wasn’t my voice she was waiting for.I knew that immediately.There was something in the way she said it. The familiarity. The expectation.She wasn’t asking whether I was there.She was asking whether her daddy was there.Valentina stepped toward the speaker.“Who are you?”Silence.Then a small laugh.“I know you.”Valentina’s eyes filled with tears.“How?”“You came to see me before.”“When?”“Before Mommy told me not to remember.”My stomach tightened.I looked at Helena.“What did you do to her?”Helena shook her head.“Nothing.”“You expect me to believe that?”“I expect you to listen.”The speakers crackled.Then the little girl spoke again.“Mommy said I have to stay quiet when the bad man comes.”Valentina looked at me.“Who is the bad man?”The child didn’t answer.Instead, ano

Valentina’s POV“Please don’t let them take my daughter again.”The words seemed to hang in the air.Dante didn’t move.Neither did I.His face had gone completely blank.Then he whispered the only word that mattered.“Mom?”No answer.He stepped toward the ventilation shaft.“Mom!”This time, a woman’s voice came through.“Dante.”He closed his eyes.I had never heard anyone say his name that way.Not like a business partner.Not like a husband.Not like a son.It was the voice of someone who had spent years missing him.Dante looked at his father.“You said she was alive.”His father nodded.“I told you.”“Where is she?”“Above us.”Dante looked at the ceiling.“Then get her.”His father moved toward the stairs.I followed.So did Adrian, Eva, Alessandro, and Clara.The babies remained in the nursery with two members of the security team who had finally made their way down the corridor.I didn’t want to leave them.But something told me we had reached the center of everything.We cl

Dante’s POVFor several seconds, nobody moved.Seven children stood behind the glass chambers, each wearing the same silver bracelet. Some looked frightened. Others stared at us with the strange stillness of children who had been taught not to ask questions.Then the little girl who looked like Valentina pressed both palms against the glass.“Mommy?”Valentina made a sound beside me.I caught her arm before she could rush forward.“Wait.”She turned on me, tears filling her eyes. “Dante, look at her.”“I see her.”“No, you don’t understand. She has my face.”I understood more than I wanted to.The girl’s dark hair fell across her forehead exactly as Valentina’s did when she woke up. Even the small birthmark beneath her left ear matched the one my wife had carried since childhood.But there was something else.The boy standing two chambers away had my eyes.Not similar eyes. Mine.He studied me without blinking, his little fingers curled around the edge of his blanket.I had spent year