All Chapters of CLAIMED BY MY EX'S ALPHA UNCLE : Chapter 21 - Chapter 25

CHAPTER 21: The headline hit before breakfast.Arthur stood in the dining hall doorway holding a tablet out in both hands. "Sir, you need to see this. Both of you."James took it first. I watched his jaw tighten as he read.MERCER HEIR'S CONTRACT MARRIAGE EXPOSED. WAS THE VANCE HEIR A BUSINESS DEAL?Below it was a scan of our contract with my signature at the bottom, small and neat."Where did they get this?" James asked quietly."The tabloid says an anonymous source," Arthur said. "It came in at five this morning. By six it was everywhere."Everyone in the room looked unsteady. Arthur's hands were perfectly still."Matthew," I said. "It has to be Matthew.""His lawyers have had him since yesterday," James said. "But he could have passed it along before that. Or Tyla could have.""Either of them would have wanted this," Arthur agreed. He took the tablet back gently.I read the article over James's shoulder anyway. It spoke of a cash-strapped Mercer and a billionaire uncle and a marri

CHAPTER 23: THE PLAN After the lawyers I sat in the BMW with the folder on my lap and did not start the engine for a long time. When I finally drove I took the long way round, and by the time I reached Charles's street it was four hours since I had left the office tower. I should have known from the corner. Reporters had worked out that I came to the bakery every day, and now a crowd waited outside the shop with cameras and microphones. A man stood on the pavement describing the building to a lens as if it were a crime scene. I parked a block away and went in through the back lane. Charles had the door open before I knocked. The shop was dark except for the kitchen. Chairs sat upside down on the tables. The display cases were still full of croissants and bread and snacks that should have sold out by now. Not one tray was empty. "Is it always like this now?" I asked. "Since the leak." Charles shrugged but his shoulders were stiff. "Half my regulars stopped coming. The other half

CHAPTER 25: GONEJames cleared his entire schedule. He told me at breakfast, setting his phone face down on the table as if it were something dangerous."No meetings and no calls. Arthur will handle anything urgent." He reached for his tea. "Today we do whatever you want.""Whatever I want?""Within reason. You're supposed to be resting."I tried to remember the last time anyone had asked me what I wanted. I picked the market on the east side because Charles used to take me there when we were students. James had never been. He walked through the stalls in jeans and an old grey sweater with his sleeves pushed up and his hands stuffed in his pockets, a Prime Alpha surrounded by crates of oranges, and a woman selling dumplings called him sir three times before she asked if he was lost.I laughed until I had to hold the edge of her stall.We ate dumplings from paper boxes standing in the cold. We ate sugared nuts and a pastry that fell apart in James's hands. In the afternoon we found a s