《Once my Wife》全部章節：第 61 章 - 第 70 章

What had once been Dean Carter’s peaceful, art-filled studio now felt like a trap. Bella could barely breathe. Her whole body trembled. Her mind kept flashing back at every warm smile, every reassuring word, every moment Dean had shown her kindness.Now they all felt fake.“You?” she whispered, her voice dry and cracking like old glass. “It was… you all along?”Dean didn’t flinch. His expression had changed completely. The gentle, soft-spoken man she thought she knew was gone. In his place stood someone cold, sharp, and frighteningly calm.“Not George?” she asked again, backing away. “Not even Thorne?”Dean’s lips curled, but there was no real smile. “George Reed? A smart man, I’ll give him that. But ultimately, he was just a hammer in a world that requires a scalpel. He had no vision, only ego. That made him easy to predict. Easy to replace.”He motioned toward the divorce papers still sitting on the table, the ones Bella hadn’t signed yet. Her name, Jason’s, the company transfer...

"You think it’s over, Jason? It’s never over."Dean Carter’s voice still echoed in Jason’s mind, even though the man was sitting behind steel bars miles away. It wasn’t just a threat, it was a promise.The world had learned the truth. The smiling pediatric surgeon who had saved hundreds of children was, in reality, "The Architect" a ruthless manipulator who had been pulling strings behind closed doors for years. The revelation hit New York like a bomb. News channels ran endless loops of his smiling face next to grainy security footage of his arrest. Social media exploded. Stock markets trembled before rallying hard behind Reed & Co., and for once, Jason’s name was linked to victory instead of scandal.But victories like this came with aftershocks and those could be deadlier than the quake itself.Jason leaned against the tinted glass of his office window, the city’s lights flickering far below. He didn’t feel victorious. Not yet. Not when the people who had tried to destroy him still

The bird was watching them.It sat there on Jason’s desk, small but heavy with meaning. The Architect’s Legacy, Dean Carter had called it. And even though Carter was locked away, the thing still managed to breathe unease into their home.Bella hated walking past it. Jason hated feeling it.And yet, every time either of them looked at it, they both knew exactly what it meant:Carter wasn’t gone. Not entirely. Not in his mind.“It’s just a piece of wood, Jason,” Bella said one morning, her voice light but her fingers tightening around her coffee mug. “It can’t hurt us.”Jason picked it up slowly, holding it in his palm like it might bite. The bird was smooth, but too cold for something that had sat in the warm penthouse air all night.“It’s not the wood that’s the problem,” he murmured. “It’s what it stands for. His way of saying, ‘I’m still here.’”“Then… throw it away.”He shook his head. “No. That’s letting him win. We’ll lock it up. We’ll decide when it’s out of sight, not him.”He

Bella’s hands shook so badly she almost dropped it.The journal.Martha’s journal.Its smooth leather felt icy against her skin, as if it carried the weight of every secret it held. She could still hear Seraphina Dubois’s voice in her head, sharp as broken glass, whispering threats that made her blood run cold. Seraphina hadn’t just shown up at the art center by chance. She had been waiting. And what she gave Bella was proof that Dean Carter, even locked away, was still moving the pieces on his twisted chessboard.Dean had planned for this. He had planned for everything.And now Seraphina Dubois; his so-called “successor,” his new Architect was dangling Martha’s secrets like a blade above Bella’s throat.She didn’t remember half the drive back to the penthouse. She only knew she was clutching the journal to her chest so tightly that her nails left little crescents in the leather.When she burst through the door, Jason was sitting at the dining table, phone pressed to his ear. He looke

The screen flickered to life, and for a moment, silence filled the room. Then the interview began.Jason’s hands clenched around the edge of the chair as Martha’s trembling voice poured through the speakers.“I was desperate,” she confessed, tears shining but her tone steady. “George Reed cornered me. He used my weaknesses, my mistakes, and turned them into weapons. I wasn’t his partner. I was his prisoner.”Bella leaned forward, holding her breath. Every word carried the weight of years of pain.“And Dean Carter?” the interviewer asked.Martha nodded slowly. “He was worse. He masked himself. He called himself The Architect. I only found out recently that he was the architect George proudly talked about. He found ways to take the pieces of my shame and build cages out of them. He blackmailed. He manipulated. He cut me down until I couldn’t recognize myself anymore.”Jason whispered under his breath. “God… Martha.”Bella’s hand slipped into his. “She’s doing this for us. For herself to