The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 29

<Chapter 29-eties That Destroyed Everything

Chapter 29: The Lies That Destroyed Everything

Caleb POV

+25 Points

I watched Bella walk away from me on that dance floor, her spine straight and her head high, and felt like I was drowning, years of searching, years of guilt and regret, and when I finally found her, she looked at me like I was poison.

I deserved that look, infact i deserved worse. But God, seeing her again, touching her, feeling her body stiffen under my hands like I was something dangerous, it was agony.

I left the reception early, couldn’t stand watching Ethan Pierce hover around her like a concerned puppy, couldn’t bear the sight of her smiling at other men while treating me like a stranger. I went back to my penthouse suite and poured myself a scotch I didn’t want, then stood at the window looking out at the city.

Somewhere in this city Bella was probably sleeping. Hating me with every breath.

My phone buzzed with a call from James.”Sir, the quarterly reports need your approval before Monday’s board meeting.”

“sss them to me. I’ll review them tonight.” I took a long drink of scotch, welcoming the burn. “James, get me everything you can find on Bella Hart’s life after she left. Employment records, property purchases, travel history. Everything.”

There was a pause. “Sir, are you sure that’s wise? Ms. Hart seems to value her privacy.”

“I need to know if there’s a child.” The words came out harsh, desperate. “I need to know if my son or daughter exists somewhere and I’ve missed years of their life because I was too stupid to listen to my

wife.”

Another pause, longer this time. “I’ll see what I can find.”

After he hung up, I sank into my chair and pulled up the file I’d been avoiding for years. The evidence Richard and Jade had shown me, the lies that had poisoned everything.

It had started small. A few weeks after she moved in to my house, Richard had pulled me aside at a business dinner and expressed concern about Bella. “She’s been acting strangely,” he’d said, his face grave with false concern. “Margaret and I are worried she might have ulterior motives for agreeing to this marriage.”

I’d dismissed it at first. Bella seemed harmless, quiet, easy to ignore. But Richard kept dropping hints, kept planting seeds of doubt in every conversation.

“She was seen having coffee with an ex-boyfriend last week. Said she was catching up with an old friend, but Margaret thinks it seemed more intimate than that.”

“She asked about your net worth the other day. Very specific questions about your assets and how they’re divided.”

“Jade mentioned that Bella used to talk about landing a rich husband back in college. We didn’t think much of it then, but now…”

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<Chapter 29 The ties That Destroyed Everything

+25 Points)

Each comment was small, reasonable, just concerned enough to seem genuine. And I’d been raised by a Tather who saw manipulation in everything, who’d taught me to trust no one and expect the worst from

everyone.

So I’d started watching Bella more carefully. Noticing things that seemed suspicious now that Richard had planted the doubt. The way she’d light up when I came home, then dim when I didn’t acknowledge her. The way she’d try to make conversation about my day, asking about deals and clients. The way she’d dressed up for dinners I never attended, wearing the few nice dresses she owned like she was trying to impress

someone.

Looking back now, I could see her for what she really was, a lonely girl trying desperately to connect with her cold fiancée, trying to make something real out of an arranged marriage.

But then, poisoned by the harts insinuations, I’d seen a gold-digger. A manipulator, a woman playing a long game for my money. And then came the video. I pulled it up on my laptop now, forcing myself to watch it again, to see what I’d been too blind to see the first time.

Bella, standing outside a café, kissing a man. The timestamp read weeks before our wedding, when she was supposed to be at home. The angle was perfect, the lighting clear, the kiss undeniable.

I’d watched this video fifty times in the days after she’d left, looking for any sign it was fake. But the investigators I’d hired initially had analyzed it and found nothing wrong. No signs of digital manipulation, no evidence of Al generation, just what appeared to be my wife kissing another man.

That was because I’d used the wrong investigators. The forensic specialists I’d hired months after Bella disappeared were better, more thorough, and they’d found what the first team had missed.

The video was Al-generated. Sophisticated, nearly perfect, but completely fake. Bella’s face had been mapped onto another woman’s body using photos from her social media, the entire scene created digitally with terrifying accuracy.

And it had come from an anonymous source, an sss sent from a burner account that the investigators eventually traced back to Jade’s laptop.

Jade. My sister-in-law. The woman I’d kissed that night because I was drunk and angry and wanted to hurt Bella the way I thought she’d hurt me. The woman who’d orchestrated the entire thing.

I closed the laptop and pressed my hands against my eyes, trying to block out the memories. But they came anyway, sharp and merciless.

The day after I’d received the video, I’d been cold to Bella, even after taking her virginity because to me I believed she must have faked everything, nothing was impossible with women of this generation. I had dismissed her attempts at conversation, ignored her completely during dinner. She’d looked confused, hurt, like she didn’t understand what she’d done wrong.

Because she hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d been faithful, and I’d condemned her without even asking.

Then came the second wave of evidence, before our wedding, I’d received an image on my phone from the same anonymous source. Bella and the man from the video, kissing again, but this time the photo was dated few days ago.

The message attached was even worse, a screenshot of what appeared to be a text conversation between Bella and this mystery man. I’m only with Caleb for business purposes. One year of marriage, then

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