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Chapter 129: Charm and Grace
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The Wife Swap Chapter 130: Cat out of the bag
Ashley’s POVLiv, bless her, had stayed with me the whole afternoon. She knew I was a wreck after Alfred’s call—who wouldn’t be? He had that way of making every word feel like a trap, every silence like a loaded gun. So, to keep my mind off things, Liv had taken me to her office, dug up a pile of old notebooks, dust settling on their covers, each filled with story ideas I had long abandoned with her and promised to look through before since everything got flipped upside down.“Look at these!” she said, flipping open one with a faded cover. “These used to be your world, Ash. Let’s dive in. It’ll be good for you.”I wanted to tell her it was pointless. Those stories had been abandoned for a reason—how could I care about characters and plot twists when my own life felt like one big lie? But she insisted, and I didn’t have the heart to refuse. So, we sat there, flipping through pages and laughing over half-baked ideas. Liv’s presence was calming, and for a few hours, I almost forgot about
The Wife Swap Chapter 131: More shock
Ashley’s POVAlfred’s smile widened, a flash of teeth that made my stomach twist. “Oh, I’ve had my suspicions for a while,” he said smoothly, as if this was all some kind of game. “Little things—mannerisms, the way you speak. Your sister has certain habits that you...lack.”I wanted to argue, to tell him he was wrong, but I knew it was pointless. Instead, I swallowed hard, trying to keep my voice steady. “Andreas didn’t tell you?”He chuckled, shaking his head. “He did. A few hours ago and if he hadn’t, I might have never figured out what I thought was so different about my daughter in law that I couldn’t seem to place.”I sat there, stunned, my mind racing. I’d been so careful—or at least, I’d thought I had been. All those little details, the things I’d tried so hard to get right, and he’d still suspected, which meant that it was only a matter of time before he figured it out with or without Andreas’ confession. I wondered what exactly Andreas had told him. Did he tell him all of it?
The Wife Swap Chapter 132: Some kind of business deal
Ashley’s POVBefore I could even fully process what Alfred had just implied—that he wouldn’t have objected if I’d been the one Andreas brought home instead of Ashton—Andreas’s hand found mine. His touch was warm and grounding, but there was a tense urgency to it. He pulled me up from the chair, positioning himself subtly between me and Alfred, like he was forming a shield. “Father, we’ve already discussed this. I told you I’ll handle things. I have it under control,” Andreas said, his tone calm yet edged with an unspoken warning.But Alfred merely raised an eyebrow, a faint smile tugging at his lips. He looked more amused than anything, as though toying with us both. “Really, Andreas? From where I stand, it appears you’re barely holding on by a thread.”He let the words hang in the air before continuing. “I’ve had enough time to consider everything you told me this morning, and I’ve come to a decision,” he said, his gaze flicking to me, evaluating as though I were a part of his own ma
The Wife Swap Chapter 133: A shocking discovery
Ashley’s POVI felt my legs begin to tremble, and I forced myself to stand tall, even as my heart pounded wildly in my chest. I wanted to lash out, to tell him he was a heartless monster, but there was no point. He wouldn’t hear it. All he saw was the bottom line—the damage control, the facade that needed to be maintained.“And what about me?” I asked, my voice raw with emotion. “What about what this is doing to me? To Andreas? To all of us?”Alfred’s gaze shifted, almost as if he were considering my words. But then he shrugged, a gesture so dismissive it made my blood boil. “You’ve handled it so far,” he said simply. “And if it means protecting what we’ve built, then yes, I expect you to continue. If you walk away now, everything crumbles—don’t you see that?”“No,” Andreas said, his voice shaking with fury, “what I see is a man so obsessed with control that he’s willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of a lie.”The room went deathly quiet, and I felt Andreas’s hand go rigid in mi
The Wife Swap Chapter 134: The weight of secrets
Ashley’s POVI felt the floor drop out from under me. My vision blurred as I tried to comprehend what Andreas had just said—Ashton might still be alive. The world had turned upside down, leaving me dangling and unable to find my footing. My chest tightened, and I fought to keep my breathing steady, but the walls felt like they were closing in. Everything was suddenly too loud and too quiet, all at once.I stared at Andreas, struggling to piece together how the man I had trusted—who’d become my only stability in the chaos since I first got news of that plane crash—could have hidden something so monumental from me. “How long?” I managed to choke out, my voice barely above a whisper. “How long have you known, Andreas?”He hesitated, and the flicker of guilt that crossed his face twisted the knife deeper. “Not long,” he said, but his voice cracked, betraying him. His eyes darted away from mine for a fraction of a second, a moment that told me everything. “A few days, maybe a week—”“A wee
The Wife Swap Chapter 135: New Terms
Ashley’s POV"Don’t you see?" Alfred pressed, leaning forward with a gleam in his eyes. His tone was almost triumphant, like he’d won some invisible battle. "If you leave now, if you let this unravel, it won’t just be you who suffers. It will be Andreas, the family, the company. Everything we’ve worked so hard to maintain will fall apart if the truth gets out now, especially without knowing if Ashton is dead or alive. Your role, Ashley, is crucial. You've done a remarkable job keeping things together, and to walk away now would be irresponsible. Reckless, even."I clenched my jaw, every muscle in my body tense as I glared at him. "So, what you’re saying," I said slowly, my voice low and controlled, "is that you want me to keep lying. Keep pretending to be my sister even though she might still be out there somewhere.""Yes," Alfred said bluntly, not even bothering to soften the blow. His eyes met mine without flinching, as if daring me to defy him. "For the sake of the family. For the
The Wife Swap Chapter 136: The confrontation
Ashley’s POVThe car ride had been silent, the kind of silence that felt too thick to break. I stared out the window, watching the blur of city lights, my mind racing through everything that had happened in the last hour. I could feel Andreas’s eyes on me occasionally, like he was waiting for me to say something, to shout, to accuse, to do anything—but I didn’t. I was too angry, too hurt, and too tired to unravel the mess we were in.By the time we pulled up to the house, I felt like a tight coil ready to snap. I got out of the car without a word, but just before I reached the front door, I stopped. I couldn’t go inside, couldn’t pretend everything was fine until I had more answers. My hand was on the doorknob when I turned back to face him, my voice flat and cold.“What exactly did the private investigator tell you, Andreas? What made you think Ashton might still be alive?”He looked startled by my directness, as if he had expected me to wait until tomorrow, or the day after that, or
The Wife Swap Chapter 137: A twisted game
Ashley’s POVHe nodded and pulled out his phone, scrolling through it with shaking fingers. A moment later, he held it out to me, the screen showing a grainy black-and-white image of a woman standing in the shadows outside a run-down hotel. It was hard to make out her features, but there was something unmistakably familiar about her—something that made my breath hitch in my throat. I couldn’t tell if it was really Ashton, or if it was just my mind playing tricks on me because I wanted it to be her.“That’s the only image we have,” Andreas said quietly. “The investigator’s still looking for more leads, but it’s like she vanished after this. No records, no sightings, nothing.”I stared at the screen, my emotions a tangled, aching mess. I didn’t know what to think, what to feel. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted it to be Ashton, because if it was… if it was, then everything I thought I knew was a lie, and I didn’t know if I was strong enough to handle that.I could feel the room tilting, th
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