All Chapters of Reborn as the Ruthless Heir’s Contract Wife: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

The call ended with Selene screaming.For one terrible second, the silence that followed was so complete that I could hear my own heartbeat.Then Caelan moved.“Ronan, lock down St. Aurelia Hospital. Mara, call the obstetrics director and tell her no one touches Selene until we arrive. If anyone tries to transfer her, stop the vehicle.”His voice was cold and controlled, but his hand crushed the phone hard enough for his knuckles to whiten.I followed him toward the mausoleum’s exit. “What did she mean by sending the child back?”Caelan did not answer.That frightened me more than if he had said he didn’t know.Octavian watched us leave with the faint smile of a man who had already seen this moment happen.“Run quickly,” he called after us. “Alaric has always preferred younger vessels.”Caelan stopped so abruptly that I nearly collided with him.He looked back at his grandfather. “If Selene or that child dies tonight, there will be no prison deep enough to keep me from you.”Octavian’

I remembered my father’s funeral more clearly than my wedding.Rain had struck the black umbrellas. Lucien had kept one hand against my back while Selene wept beside the sealed coffin. The doctors had said Gideon’s illness made viewing the body impossible.I had accepted that explanation because grief made obedience feel easier than doubt.Now Caelan stood in the hospital corridor and told me the coffin had been empty.“How long did you know?” I asked.“In the first life? I became suspicious two days after the funeral.”“And you didn’t tell me.”“I tried.”The answer should not have surprised me.It still did.We returned to Voss Tower after ensuring Selene remained stable. Neither of us slept. Caelan took me to his private archive, unlocked a cabinet I had never seen opened, and removed a thin gray file.My name was written across the cover.Not Elara Voss.Elara Mercer.“The file began with Marcus,” Caelan said. “My father had been investigating Crowne before he died.”Inside was a

We listened to the call six times.Each time, I heard something new.The click of the locks when my driver trapped me inside.The turn signal as the car left the northern road.My breathing when I looked through the rear window and saw three vehicles following us.And beneath it all, Caelan’s voice—controlled because panic would have made mine worse.The recording ended before he explained what he meant by saying the crash had already happened.I wanted that answer.But first, I opened every warning in Marcus’s archive.The earliest had been sent a month before my wedding.Lucien maintains a private suite at the Regent Hotel. Selene entered at 9:14 p.m. and left at 4:32 a.m.The accompanying photograph showed Selene’s face clearly.I had never seen that version.The envelope delivered to Mercer House contained only an image of Lucien entering alone. Someone had removed the rest before placing it on my desk.The second warning concerned Gideon’s medicine.Caelan had sent a laboratory a

Marcus had been dead for nine years.The body in the hidden mausoleum proved it.Yet the man beneath the bridge wore his face, his suit, and his medical identification.Crowne had not simply disguised someone as Caelan’s father on the morning of our wedding.They had been using Marcus’s identity for years.“Whoever stood in that chamber wanted you to believe your father was alive,” I said.Caelan stared at the photograph without blinking.“Or wanted Octavian and Alaric to believe it.”Ronan enlarged the medical band.A sequence of numbers ran beneath Marcus’s name.M-04-R.“Returned subject,” I said.Ronan nodded. “The same designation appears in one of Arden’s storage indexes. M is the family line. The number indicates the subject. R means the neurological pattern was restored after recorded death.”“So Crowne claimed Marcus returned.”“Claimed,” Caelan repeated.He did not allow hope to enter his voice.We had seen his father’s body. We had identified the blood and confirmed the age

Caelan returned at 5:08 a.m. with my death still beneath his fingernails.He woke in his bedroom at Voss House, sitting upright so violently that he fell from the bed.His left wrist felt broken.His chest burned where he had disconnected the support line.For several seconds, he could still hear the bridge machine counting down.Then he saw the date on his phone.My wedding day.“At first, I thought Crowne had revived me in a false room,” he said. “I broke the mirror to find the camera behind it.”There was no camera.Only blood across his knuckles and a younger face staring back at him.“What was the first thing you did?” I asked.“I called you.”The call did not connect.He tried Mercer House and was told no one could disturb the bride. Then he called Gideon’s private number.My father answered.Alive.Caelan could not speak for several seconds.“Gideon thought the line had failed,” he said. “He hung up.”“Why didn’t you warn him?”“I did when I called again. I told him not to take