All Chapters of THE WIFE HE REPLACED: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

The room went silent. No one moved. No one breathed. Security stood frozen at the doorway. Elena's voice was the first to break through the shock. “What did you say?"The guard swallowed hard. “There's a man downstairs asking for Adrian Hayes Carter."Adrian remained perfectly still. The color had drained from his face."He says..." the guard hesitated, "...he's Adrian's father.""No." Adrian's voice barely emerged. “He can't be."James Anderson looked sick. Victoria closed her eyes and Marcus stared at the floor.The silence in the conference room became unbearable.Elena turned sharply toward James. “You said Alexander Vale wasn't dead."James nodded once. “I hoped I was wrong."Adrian's breathing quickened. “Who is Alexander Vale?"James looked toward him with genuine regret. “A man who built empires through influence.""What does that mean?""It means he understood people." James paused. “How to inspire them. Control them. Use them."Adrian's jaw tightened. “You're describing hal

The silence after the video ended felt suffocating. No one moved. No one dared. Elena stood motionless, her mother's final words echoing inside her mind.**The secret you should fear... is what Adrian agreed to six months ago.**Across the room, Adrian looked like someone had physically struck him. “What?" His voice cracked. “No." He looked toward James. Then Victoria. Then Alexander. “What is she talking about?"No one answered because no one knew or worse, someone did.Adrian's breathing became uneven. “I didn't agree to anything."Elena finally looked at him. “Are you sure?" The question wasn't accusatory. It was terrifying.Adrian met her gaze. “I would've remembered."Victoria closed her eyes. “No." Everyone turned toward her. “No, you wouldn't have."“What does that mean?" Elena demanded.Victoria looked exhausted. Older than she'd ever seemed before. “There were conditions attached to Phase Three."Alexander's expression darkened immediately. “No."Victoria nodded. “Yes."James

The conference room had never felt colder. No one spoke. No one dared. Elena stood motionless, staring at the blank security screen. Her breathing had become shallow. Controlled but only barely. Adrian moved toward her carefully. “What do you mean you know her?" Elena didn't answer immediately because the truth was worse than uncertainty.Finally, she said quietly, “I've seen her before."Vanessa frowned. “Where?"Elena pressed trembling fingers against her temple. “I don't know." The frustration in her voice startled everyone. “I know her face." A pause. “I know her voice." Another pause. “But I can't remember why."Alexander's expression darkened. “Then your memories were altered more extensively than we thought."Victoria closed her eyes. “No."James leaned closer to the camera. “What?"Victoria opened them again. “That woman wasn't part of Helios."The room went silent.Elena turned sharply toward her. “What?"Victoria's face had lost all color. “She wasn't supposed to exist."“

ELENAElena arrived alone. Adrian had argued. Vanessa had protested and Marcus had practically demanded security but Elena refused because some meetings couldn't survive witnesses. The address led to an old observatory on the outskirts of the city. Abandoned. Forgotten. The massive dome above reflected moonlight in fractured silver. Midnight. Exactly. Elena stepped through the rusted entrance. Her pulse remained steady. Controlled until she heard the voice."You still hate being early."Elena stopped breathing. The voice wasn't cold. It wasn't threatening. It was familiar. Painfully familiar. Slowly, Elena turned. The woman stepped from the shadows. Dark hair fell past her shoulders. Her posture was elegant. Unshakable. Older now. Harder. But her eyes, Elena knew those eyes.Evelyn Mercer smiled softly. “You remembered."Elena couldn't move. The world narrowed until only Evelyn existed. Twenty years. Twenty years of absence. Twenty years of forgetting. Twenty years of searching witho

The observatory fell silent. No one moved.No one spoke and no one even seemed to breathe because standing beneath the broken dome was a woman who should not exist. A woman whose face was identical to the one bleeding in Elena's arms. The same eyes. The same jawline. The same scar near her left eyebrow. The same calm, unsettling presence. The same Evelyn Mercer. Only this one wasn't dying and was in fact, smiling.Adrian was the first to speak. “What the hell is this?"The standing Evelyn looked at him briefly. Then dismissed him entirely. Her gaze returned to Elena. Only Elena. As if nobody else existed. As if they never had. As if twenty years had passed in a single afternoon.“Evelyn?" Elena whispered.The woman at the doorway tilted her head. The movement was painfully familiar. “Hello, Elena."The sound of her voice hit her like a physical force because it was identical. Not similar. Identical. The wounded Evelyn in her arms suddenly laughed. A weak, painful laugh. Blood touched h