CHAPTER 4 — The Billion-Dollar Secret Jessica Was Never Meant to Hear
The wedding should have been six weeks away.
Instead...
Every television inside Manhattan's financial district carried the same headline.
WHO IS CHRISTIAN ASHFORD?
No photographs.
No interviews.
Only rumors.
"The invisible billionaire."
"The man who owns companies without appearing on their boards."
"The heir who disappeared for nearly a decade."
Jessica watched the news from the apartment she was about to lose.
Her endorsement contracts had vanished.
Luxury brands had cut ties.
Her social media followers were disappearing by the hour.
She blamed Chloe.
She blamed Christian.
She blamed everyone except herself.
Then her phone rang.
Private number.
"I know how you can get everything back."
The voice was disguised.
Jessica frowned.
"Who is this?"
"Someone Christian betrayed."
The call ended with a single address.
A private members' club overlooking Central Park.
That night...
Jessica arrived wearing the last designer dress she still owned.
Waiting for her was a silver-haired man with pale blue eyes.
"My name doesn't matter," he said.
"What matters is that Christian lied to your friend."
Jessica leaned forward.
"What do you mean?"
The man slid a folder across the table.
Inside were newspaper clippings nearly ten years old.
A yacht explosion.
Three deaths.
A missing heir.
One headline caught Jessica's eye.
ASHFORD FAMILY SUCCESSOR PRESUMED DEAD.
Jessica looked up.
"But Christian is alive."
"Exactly."
The old man smiled.
"And someone wanted him dead."
At the same time...
Chloe was finally meeting Christian's family.
Or at least...
The part of the family that had survived.
Ashford Manor stood outside London like something from another century.
Stone towers.
Iron gates.
Gardens stretching farther than Chloe could see.
She squeezed Christian's hand.
"You really grew up here?"
"For a little while."
"You never told me."
"I wanted you to know me first."
Inside the mansion...
Portraits lined the walls.
Generation after generation of Ashfords.
Industrialists.
Scientists.
Philanthropists.
Then Chloe stopped walking.
One portrait...
Looked exactly like Christian.
Except younger.
She read the plaque.
William Ashford
1979–2016
Her voice barely escaped.
"Why is there a painting of you with another name?"
Christian closed his eyes.
"Because..."
"My real name isn't Christian."
Silence.
"My name is William Christian Ashford."
"And officially..."
"I've been dead for ten years."
Across the Atlantic...
Someone watched security footage of Chloe entering Ashford Manor.
The man smiled.
"So..."
"The ghost finally came home."
He reached for his phone.
May you like
"Activate Phase Two."
"The nurse dies first."
