All Chapters of My Best Friend STOLE MY Husband -So I Married His Brother : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

ClaireThe photograph on my phone refused to leave my mind.Isabella was tied to a chair, her dark hair falling across one side of her face, a bruise visible near her temple. Whoever had taken the picture had made sure I could see enough of her surroundings to understand that she was alive.But the message underneath it was what kept twisting inside my chest.YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO US. BRING THE PENDANT. COME BEFORE MIDNIGHT, CLAIRE.I looked down at the silver pendant resting in my palm.It was small, almost delicate, with an old-fashioned design that made it look like something that belonged in a jewelry box rather than at the center of a war that had lasted nearly two decades.Yet Jonathan Reed had trusted my mother with it.And somehow, after all these years, it had ended up in my hands.Ethan stood beside me, his eyes fixed on the pendant.“You're not going.”I looked up at him. “I didn't say I was.”“You were thinking about it.”“I was thinking about Isabella.”“That

ClaireThe voice on the other side of the door was calm.Too calm.“Claire.”I couldn't move.Ethan had one arm around me, keeping me behind him as the footsteps outside grew louder. Elena stood beside the steel door, her eyes fixed on the small opening where the sound was coming from.“Victoria,” she whispered.The name seemed to settle over the room like a warning.Ethan's expression had changed completely. The warmth I had seen in his eyes only moments earlier was gone, replaced by something colder.“My grandmother has been dead for twenty years,” he said.The woman outside laughed softly.“No, Ethan. Your grandmother has been hiding.”His jaw tightened.“Open the door.”“I think you've forgotten who you're speaking to.”“I haven't forgotten anything.”There was a pause.Then the door unlocked.Ethan immediately pulled me closer.The steel door opened slowly.Two men stood outside.Both were dressed in black.Behind them stood a woman.She looked nothing like the terrifying figure

ClaireI couldn't breathe.The woman standing across from us looked exactly like the woman in Jonathan's photographs.Isabella Reed.Amelia's mother.But something wasn't right.She was supposed to be Richard's prisoner.She was supposed to be tied to a chair somewhere in Naples.She wasn't supposed to be standing in front of me with a group of armed men.Ethan moved slightly, placing himself between me and Isabella.“Stay behind me.”Isabella's eyes moved to him.“I didn't come here to hurt Claire.”“Then why did you come with armed men?”“They aren't here for her.”Ethan didn't lower his guard.“Who are they?”“People I trust.”A bitter laugh escaped Daniel.“You expect us to believe that?”Isabella looked at him.“I don't expect you to believe anything.”Her eyes returned to me.“I need to see Amelia.”My heart tightened.“You're Amelia's mother.”“Yes.”“You've been looking for her.”“For eighteen years.”I stared at her.“Then why did you disappear?”Something changed in Isabella

claireBlackwood Estate looked exactly as I remembered it, which somehow made returning there worse.The iron gates stood between two rows of towering trees, their branches stretching over the driveway like skeletal fingers. Beyond them, the mansion rose against the darkening sky, its windows reflecting the last traces of daylight. It was beautiful in the way expensive things often were, designed to impress anyone who approached and conceal everything that happened behind its walls.The first time I had come here, I had been Daniel's wife, still naive enough to believe that money and family reputation meant something. I had thought the worst thing that could happen to me was discovering my husband had betrayed me.Now I knew better.The Black family had buried secrets for generations, and somehow, I had become part of them.Ethan sat beside me in the back seat, his hand wrapped around mine. He hadn't said much during the drive. Every so often, I caught him looking at me, as if checkin

ClaireThe name on the note seemed to stare back at me.CLAIRE.I read it several times, hoping the letters might rearrange themselves into something that made sense. Jonathan Reed had been dead for years before I learned the truth about my family, yet somehow, he had left something specifically for me. He had anticipated that I would come searching, that I would find the pendant, the silver key and eventually the hospital room where Margaret had left her message.But why me?I wasn't a Reed. I wasn't part of Jonathan's immediate family, and as far as I knew, I had never met him when he was alive.Unless he had known something about me that nobody else had been willing to explain.Ethan stood beside me, reading the note over my shoulder.“We need to be careful,” he said. “This could be exactly what Celeste wants us to believe.”“Margaret's voice sounded real.”“I'm not questioning that. I'm questioning whether the recording is recent and whether she actually made it.”Adrian was still