Lahat ng Kabanata ng The CEO’s Substitute Bride: Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 50

The TrapMichael Blackwood stood at the top of the staircase.Alive.Lena stared at him.She had seen his face in photographs, heard his name spoken in whispers, and spent weeks believing he was one of the ghosts surrounding her marriage.Now he was standing in front of her.Holding a file.Adrian stepped forward.“Michael.”His uncle’s eyes remained on Lena.“You’ve grown.”Adrian’s expression hardened.“Don’t talk to her.”Michael looked at him.“You still think you can protect everyone.”“I can protect her from you.”Michael smiled faintly.“That’s what Richard used to say.”Adrian’s face tightened.“What happened to my father?”“That’s not the question you should be asking.”“Then answer mine.”Michael slowly descended the stairs.“The woman beside Lena isn’t Eleanor Vale.”Eleanor stepped backward.“Michael…”“Don’t use that name.”Her face changed.Lena looked between them.“Who are you?”The woman didn’t answer.Michael placed the file on the table.“Her name is Clara Reed.”Ad

Chapter 43 — Forty-Eight HoursFind the third room.Lena read the words again.Her breathing became slower.Victor had expected fear.He had expected her to panic.Instead, something inside her became strangely calm.Three rooms.Three families.One hidden truth.She looked around.The room was small, but not empty.A metal table stood against one wall. A chair lay overturned near the door. On the opposite wall was the same symbol she had seen at the abandoned hotel—the three connected circles.Lena walked toward it.Below the symbol was a narrow metal panel.She ran her fingers over it.Nothing.Then she remembered the key.Her hand went to her pocket.It was gone.Victor had taken it.“Of course.”She stepped back.There had to be another way.Her eyes moved around the room again.The table.The chair.The walls.The light.Then she noticed something beneath the table.A small piece of metal.She crouched and picked it up.It was part of a key.Not the whole thing.Just a broken sec

Chapter 45 — The Person Who Betrayed HerLena couldn’t move.She stood at the top of the staircase, staring into the darkness below while the voice echoed through the warehouse.“Adrian.”Richard Blackwood.Alive.For twelve years, Adrian had believed his father was gone. He had carried the unanswered questions, the anger, the grief. Now that same voice was calling his name from beneath an abandoned warehouse as if twelve years had been nothing.Adrian stepped forward.“Father?”A low laugh came from below.“You still sound like the little boy who refused to accept that I was gone.”Adrian’s hand tightened around Lena’s.“You’re alive.”“Yes.”“Why?”There was a pause.“That’s a question you should have asked twelve years ago.”Adrian started down the stairs.Michael caught his arm.“Don’t.”Adrian pulled free.“You knew.”“I suspected.”“You knew!”His voice shook through the warehouse.Lena touched his arm.“Adrian.”He looked at her, and for the first time since she had known him,

Chapter 47 — The Missing Twelve YearsVictor’s gun was pointed directly at Maria.For a second, Lena couldn’t understand what she was seeing.Her mother was crying.Victor was smiling.And Richard, Adrian, and Michael had all gone completely still.“Put the gun down,” Adrian said.Victor didn’t even look at him.“This isn’t your conversation.”Maria shook her head.“Lena, don’t listen to him.”Victor’s smile disappeared.“You’ve spent twelve years telling her what she needed to hear. Let her finally hear what actually happened.”Lena stepped forward.“What happened?”Maria looked at her.“Lena…”“Tell me.”Her voice cracked.“Tell me why everyone keeps using the same twelve years like they belong to somebody else.”Maria lowered her head.Victor moved closer to her.“She was there that night,” he said. “She saw Daniel. She saw the case. She saw me.”Lena stared at him.“You were at the hospital.”“Yes.”The memory returned.A hallway.Maria beside her.Daniel holding a silver case.Vi

Chapter 49 — A Father’s SinLena stared at the signature until the letters blurred.Maria Carter.Her mother’s name.The woman who had spent the last hour insisting she had only wanted to protect her.The woman who had cried when Victor pointed a gun at her.The woman who had disappeared from Lena’s life for twelve years.Now her signature was sitting at the bottom of the contract that had planned Lena’s marriage before Lena was old enough to understand what marriage meant.“No,” Lena whispered.Adrian reached for the document.“Let me see.”She handed it to him.His eyes moved across the page.Then he looked at Maria.“Why did you sign this?”Maria didn’t answer.“Mom.”Her voice broke.“Why?”Maria’s eyes filled with tears.“Because I believed it was the only way to keep you alive.”Lena shook her head.“You keep saying that.”“I know.”“But nobody tells me what you were protecting me from.”Maria looked toward Richard.“Because your father knew the truth.”Adrian turned to Richard.