Chapter 76
ALEXANDER
Ilied. I had to.
There was no way I was bringing Liam back to the house where he got hurt, I was stupid enough to do that, not when I still didn’t know exactly who was responsible and for how long. How could risk traumatizing hom further by making him wake up to the same room where he’d probably cried himself to sleep?
The guilt gnawed at me, making my chest ache. My son deserved better. I felt like a falbire, a deadbeat who didn’t deserve the title of “father.” He probably hated me, and honestly, I couldn’t blame him
But I was determined to make things right. Liam was in a safe place now, and until emild uncover who had wart him, I would keep him there. I just had to figure out how to reunite him with Raina–on my terms.
Yesterday, as I’d watched Raina walk away with Nathan, the man ghed to her side, I knew I couldn’t sit back anymore. I picked up my phone and called my private Investigator.
“Find everything you can on Nathan,” Frold him.
Now, sitting at my desk, I couldn’t get her words out of my head. She has a boyfriend.
The phrase echoed in my mind, each repetition sharper and more painful then the last. My fists clenched involuntarily, the anger simmering just beneath the surface.
How could she move on so easily? How could she let someone else into her life, her heart, when she was still my
Yes, I knew it was selfish, Hell, I’d spent years hiding the fact that we were still married. She had every right to move forward, to find happiness again.
But knowing it didn’t make it easier to accept
Just because she didn’t know we were still married didn’t mean she should be with another man.
I exhaled sharply, leaning back in my chair and running a band through my hair. The bimeness in my chest felt suffocating, but I could’t stop it. Nathan was everywhere now, always hovering, always close to her. The way he looked at her, the way she trusted him–it made my stomach churn.
The sound of a knock at the door pulled me out of my spiceling thoughts
“Come in,” I said, straightening slightly, though the frustration still lingered in my voice
The door creaked open, and my assistant peeked her head in
“Mr. Sullivan,” “she began hesitantly, sensing my mood “Someone’s here to see you.”
“Let them in.”
The door swung open, and Dominic strode inside, his movements deliberate, his expression hard and unreadable.
I stood, my guard already up. “If you’re here to threaten me again, don’t bother,” I said, my tone cold. “If anything, we should be working together on this.”
He didn’t respond, didn’t rise to my bait. Instead, he reached into his jacket and pulled out an envelope, placing it on my desk with a level of calm that set
me even more on edge
I frowned, taking the envelope. “What’s this?”
Dominic didn’t answer. He turned on his heel and walked out without another word, his silence uncharacteristic and, frankly, unsettling
Curiosity prickled at me, but annoyance bubbled just beneath the surface. Iture the envelope open and scanned the contents.
A court summons.
My jaw tightened as the realization hit. They were taking me to court.
My irritation sharpened as I noticed the jurisdiction–It wasn’t local. Of course, it wasn’t I’d mentioned once, in passing, that the state attorney was a Iriend of mine, and now Rains had deliberately chosen a different state.
The move was calculated, smart, and Infuriating
1 let the papers drop to my desk as I paced the room,
room, my thoughts racing
Before I could stew any longer, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I grabbed it, seeing my private investigator’s name on the screen.
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+25 Bonus
“Check your email,” he said without preamble.
The line went dead before I could respond
I sat back at my desk, opened my laptop, and clicked on the new message sitting in my inbox.
The subject line was simple but ominous: Nathan Carter – Background Check.
I clicked on it, and as I read through the details, my imitation transformed into something darker, more suspicious.
Nathan Graham had been an orphan, just like Dominic and Raina. He had grown up in the same orphanage as them
What were the odds?
I dialed the investigator’s number again, “Is this all you found about Nathan’s Childhood?
He hesitated before answering “No, there’s more. No one knows exactly where Nathan went after the orphanage. But what I did find was that he studied law at the same school as you and Reina”
My heart skipped a beat. The same law school? How was that even possible? Nathan had disappeared right after Rains was kidnapped, and now he suddenly shows up, right under my nose, and not only that he was in the same law school as us?
Coincidence? Not a chance.
Upon hearing this, I quickly scrolled further, my eyes narrowing when I came across a scanned yearbook photo There he was, Nathan Graham, sitting in the same group 1 had been part of, just a few faces any
I didn’t remember him, but there he was. A ghost hiding in plain sight.
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