Alle Kapitel von Fake Death of the Stand-In Ex-Wife : Kapitel 31 – Kapitel 40

ValeriaA woman unstable enough to walk away from her marriage.Eleanor’s poisoned words clung to the back of my mind like frost on winter glass. It was so obvious now. The refusal of Tobias’s twelve-million-dollar settlement, my sudden departure from the estate, my moving onto a friend’s couch instead of securing luxury housing—in the eyes of a conservative family court judge influenced by Hayes money, it wouldn't look like a woman reclaiming her dignity.It would look like erratic, irrational behavior. It would look like a mother unfit to provide stability for two innocent lives."She’s laying the groundwork to have you declared legally incompetent or emotionally unfit, Val," Maya said, pacing the small living room with two mugs of herbal tea. "She’s building a narrative. If she files for sole custody the second those babies arrive, she’ll paint you as a broke, vindictive runaway who endangered the pregnancy out of spite."Maya set the tea down on the coffee table, her eyes ablaze w

TobiasI took the stairs of the brick walk-up two at a time, each heavy step echoing in the narrow, peeling stairwell.She had told me to stay away. She had screamed that she would leave the city if I sent men to guard her door. But sitting in my penthouse office fifty floors above the skyline while an unauthorized intruder slipped past her locks was an impossibility my mind refused to entertain.I reached the second floor and stopped outside apartment 2B.The lock looked untouched—clean, flush against the painted jamb. That made the knot in my stomach tighten until it burned. A kicked-in frame was the work of desperate junkies looking for pawnable electronics; an invisible bypass was the signature of paid professionals. The kind of operators who worked off private retainers and carried digital signal jammers in their overcoat pockets.I raised my fist and knocked firmly against the wood.A moment of dead silence followed. Then, the sound of a latch sliding back, and the door cracked

ValeriaThe question hung in the narrow living room like a blade poised to drop.Is the baby mine?Maya stood frozen near the kitchen threshold, her hands clutched against her mouth. The hum of the refrigerator seemed to die down, leaving only the sound of rain lashing against the thin windowpanes and the rough, ragged cadence of Tobias’s breathing.His dark eyes were fixed on me with an intensity that burned through every defense I had left. He looked raw, stripped of every ounce of corporate armor—a man standing on the edge of a cliff, waiting for a single word to push him over or pull him back.My lips parted. My throat felt as though it were lined with sand."Yes, Tobias," I whispered.The syllable was small, barely louder than a breath, but in the silence of the room, it carried the weight of an earthquake."Yes," I repeated, my voice finding a fragile, defiant strength as I met his gaze. "I am pregnant. And it is yours."I kept my chin lifted, keeping the rest locked away behind

TobiasThe wrought-iron gates of Hayes Estate parted slowly in the headlights of my sedan, grinding against wet gravel like teeth.I didn't hand my keys to the valet. I slammed the driver’s side door shut and took the front steps of the west wing three at a time. The heavy double doors gave way beneath my palms, rattling against the brass stops as I crossed the black-and-white marble foyer."Mr. Tobias?" Mrs. Gable gasped from the corridor, clutching a silver tray to her chest. "Mrs. Hayes has already retired to the—""Get out of the way," I growled, not breaking stride.I marched down the gallery, threw open the high walnut doors of Eleanor’s private sitting room, and let them crash against the wainscoting.The room was warm, smelling of dried lavender, wax, and expensive bergamot tea. Eleanor was sitting by the hearth in a charcoal robe, a leather-bound ledger resting in her lap. Her reading glasses hung from a silver chain around her neck, and her silver-topped cane leaned against

ValeriaThe property was a secluded, gated limestone villa situated on five heavily wooded acres along the bluffs of the Hudson. It wasn't Hayes Estate; it was Tobias’s personal acquisition, completely detached from the family trust.After seeing the sliced brake line resting inside Detective Harris’s evidence bag, the raw terror in my chest had silenced my objections. I had agreed to go with him. The thought of another sabotaged vehicle, another sudden failure of steel and asphalt, made my hands shake so violently I couldn't hold a glass of water without spilling it.Here, the perimeter was sealed like a military installation. Iron security gates flanked by private guards in dark tactical suits, motion sensors lining the stone walls, and security cameras tracking every foot of the gravel driveway.Tobias had established an impenetrable perimeter to keep his grandmother out.Yet, within forty-eight hours, the fortress began to reveal its true shape.On Tuesday morning, I sat by the fl