Chapter14
Out of nowhere, a hazy, broken image flashed through Alexander Stone’s mind-
Blinding headlights. Splintering pain. A frantic, tear–choked voice calling his name. And a pair of trembling hands pressing firmly against his wound, warm yet desperate.
That voice… that touch… it didn’t sound like Bella Hart’s usual syrupy tone, did it?‘ ‘
The thought struck him so abruptly he froze, stunned by his own doubt. Why would such a notion even surface now?
Bella, sharp as ever to catch the flicker of hesitation in his eyes, seized on it like a weapon. Her wails rose, shrill and pitiful.
“What? What are you trying to say?! That saving you was a mistake? That you’ve been looking for an excuse to throw me away all this time? Alexander Stone, you heartless bastard!”
Her shrieks drilled into his head, pounding until that small seed of doubt was buried.
With a curt gesture, he signaled the bodyguards to remove her before she wrecked the place.
But once planted, suspicion never dies; it digs deep, spreading roots out of sight.
From that night forward, Alexander found himself circling back–again and again–to the crash that had changed everything. The more he tried to recall, the less sense Bella’s version of events
made.
She always insisted she had “given everything” to save him, that she had “stayed by his side until the ambulance arrived.” Yet whenever he asked for details, her answers dissolved into sobs and vague excuses. “I was too terrified to remember clearly,” she’d say, or, “Why can’t you just trust me?” Her evasions only sharpened the sense of something off.
The dissonance gnawed at him until denial was no longer possible.
Late one night, he summoned his most loyal man, Ethan Cole, and gave the order in a voice as cold
as steel.
“Reinvestigate the West Ridge Parkway accident from seven years ago. Quietly. I want the raw incident reports, ambulance dispatch records, the hospital‘ s intake notes–and find witnesses, anyone. Pay whatever it takes. And not a word to Bella.”
Ethan obeyed without question.
Chapter14
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The days that followed stretched unbearably long. Alexander began prodding Bella with casual questions.
“Bella, do you remember what color coat I was wearing that night?”
“What did you use to stop the bleeding? I don‘ t recall it being a handkerchief…”
Every time, her answers faltered. Details blurred, contradicted one another. And when pressed, she broke into tears, screaming accusations. You don‘ t believe me anymore! You don’t love me! Have you forgotten who saved your life?‘‘‘
Her defensiveness, her hysterical attempts to guilt him into silence, only made the storm of doubt inside him grow darker.
Then came the call.
“Mr. Stone,” Ethan’s voice carried through the encrypted line, edged with caution. “We tracked down a sanitation worker assigned to that stretch of road that night. He was frightened and hid at a distance, but he saw some of what happened. According to him… the first person to reach you, the one who gave emergency aid, wasn’t Miss Hart.”
Alexander’s grip on the phone tightened. His voice dropped, harsh and urgent.
“Say it. Tell me everything.”
“The worker described a young woman. Gentle–looking, pale with fear but steady. She was the one pressing down on your wound, stopping the bleeding, doing everything she could to keep you alive. Professional, almost. Miss Hart…” Ethan hesitated. “…Miss Hart only arrived later. Much later than
she’s ever claimed.”
A deafening roar filled Alexander’s skull.
The buried memory burst free, vivid now–those trembling hands, that voice fighting through
tears yet forced calm.
Not Bella.
It hadn’t been Bella at all.
Chapter14
