All Chapters of His Dead Wife: No Longer the Surrogate Bride: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The townhouse was quiet in the way only places fortified by money and intention could be.Althea walked towards the tall windows overlooking the river, city lights scattering across the glass like fractured stars. She stared out for a while in silence.Michael had insisted on closing the internal gates himself, checking the perimeter twice before retreating to the study. The echoes of the gala still rang faintly in her ears—music, murmurs, the sharp intake of breath when danger brushed too close.She lifted her phone and pressed a number.Helena answered on the first ring. She immediately took her leave using August’s helicopter, for the island when Michael had safely escorted her out of the venue.“You’re home,” Helena said, relief threading her voice. “Thank God.”“I am,” Althea replied quietly. “Michael insisted. He didn’t even ask.”“That’s good,” Helena said. “That means he understands the shift.”Althea closed her eyes, calming herself. “It wasn’t just a shift. It was, deliberat

Dominic did not wait for permission.He got out of his car and stormed towards the mansion, his striders angry and with purpose the following day. The staff barely had time to greet him or sent a notice towards the elders inside the chamber. Enzo and two of his men followed closely.The Valtieri council chamber had been built to intimidate. The stone walls were thick enough to swallow any sound coming from inside. A part of the ceiling was carved with ancestral crests meant to remind every man inside that blood outlived conscience.Morning light filtered in through narrow windows, cutting the long table into sharp bands of gold and shadow.The doors burst open, the hardwood panels slamming against the wall.Conversation died instantly.Dominic entered like a storm that had learned how to walk.Every chair was currently occupied. Luca sat at the head, hands folded, expression carved from patience that had long since curdled into cruelt

Dominic learned about Isabelle’s visit to Althea with her fiancé even before the clinic doors had fully closed its operation.The information reached him the way everything did now, filtered, precise, stripped of sentiment.Enzo didn’t ease into it.“She went inside the Devereaux’s complex. Security sought clearance first and was approved,” he said over the secure line. “Althea’s clinic. She’s still inside as of now.”Dominic stopped mid-step as he was walking back and forth.“Isabelle?” Dominic asked, though he already knew.“Yes.”Silence stretched.Dominic turned slowly, pressing his palm against the wall as if grounding himself. “Who authorized that?”“Security called Devereaux to seek clearance because they won’t let her in,” Enzo replied carefully. “She came as a patient. Her hospitalization at M

The knock came without warning. Three soft, deliberate taps against the solid wood Dominic had once insisted on importing from Italy because Althea liked how it muted sound.Dominic didn’t move at the sound and just stayed silent.The city hummed outside the luxury apartment, indifferent as ever, its lights bleeding through the floor-to-ceiling glass like a restless conscience. Dominic just stood in the living room, a glass of whiskey he just poured for himself and, his phone discarded on the couch beside him while an encrypted laptop lay open on the center table.He wasn’t expecting anyone and Enzo didn’t call on a warning.Jessica was asleep. Or pretending to be. She had told Dominic to call Althea since she feels some kind of sensation on her stomach and she looked pale when she told him a few hours ago.The knock came again.Something in his chest tightened, sharp and instinctive, the way it used to before arguments he could never win.Dominic finally crossed the space slowly, each

With the apartment lights dimmed earlier because no one bothered to open the curtains, in the steady hum of medical equipment inside the guest room, Dominic had memorized the sounds of the week passing by.It wasn’t pointed out by the calendar pages or meetings canceled at the last minute. Jessica’s pregnancy did not stabilize quickly as they hoped.Her doctors that Althea had spoken to, stopped using words like temporary and started saying monitor closely.Her pregnancy, already delicate, had tightened under the weight of fear and shock. Sleep came in fragments, while her appetite came and went. Stress lingered like a shadow that refused to leave the room.Althea remained by her side.Professional.Attentive.Not as Dominic once knew her.But as something colder. Sharper. Purpose-built for survival.She moved through the apartment like a trained presence with her efficiency, keen observation, and she’s emotionally unreachable. She checked Jessica’s vitals from time to time, coordin