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The Abandoned Groom Married his Ex's Enemy!

Chapter 72: You’re Getting Warm · Nov 01, 2026

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Chapter List (139)

Page number / 3

51 Chapter 51: Getting to Know You 2026-11-01
52 Chapter 52: Something of her own 2026-11-01
53 Chapter 53: Until the Work is Done 2026-11-01
54 Chapter 54: After the Bridge 2026-11-01
55 Chapter 55: No Business After Hours 2026-11-01
56 Chapter 56: The Man Behind the Wheel 2026-11-01
57 Chapter 57: The Man for the Job 2026-11-01
58 Chapter 58: One Seat Empty 2026-11-01
59 Chapter 59: The Connection 2026-11-01
60 Chapter 60: Someone Was Watching 2026-11-01
61 Chapter 61: The Last Ride 2026-11-01
62 Chapter 62: Watch Your Back 2026-11-01
63 Chapter 63: The One Left Out 2026-11-01
64 Chapter 64: The Name He Remembered 2026-11-01
65 Chapter 65: The Accident That Wasn’t 2026-11-01
66 Chapter 66: Keep Driving 2026-11-01
67 Chapter 67: The Dead Inspector 2026-11-01
68 Chapter 68: The Man With Two Names 2026-11-01
69 Chapter 69: The Third Name 2026-11-01
70 Chapter 70: The Recommendation 2026-11-01
71 Chapter 71: What Do You Know? 2026-11-01
72 Chapter 72: You’re Getting Warm 2026-11-01
73 Chapter 73: Before We Grew Up 2026-11-01
74 Chapter 74: Buried for Later 2026-11-01
75 Chapter 75: Familiar Faces 2026-11-01
76 Chapter 76: Something Worth Coming Back to 2026-11-01
77 Chapter 77: Like Old Times 2026-11-01
78 Chapter 78: One Last Dance 2026-11-01
79 Chapter 79: What He Forgot 2026-11-01
80 Chapter 80: The Boy Who Kept Winning 2026-11-01
81 Chapter 81: Something to Prove 2026-11-01
82 Chapter 82: The Other Name 2026-11-01
83 Chapter 83: The Price of Silence 2026-11-01
84 Chapter 84: What Matteo Knew 2026-11-01
85 Chapter 85: The Last Questions 2026-11-01
86 Chapter 86: Not Deliberately 2026-11-01
87 Chapter 87: Tying loose ends 2026-11-01
88 Chapter 88: Is this Business? 2026-11-01
89 Chapter 89: A Bad Hair Day 2026-11-01
90 Chapter 90: Out of Sight 2026-11-01
91 Chapter 91: A Place to Begin 2026-11-01
92 Chapter 92: Building it together 2026-11-01
93 Chapter 93: Back at the River 2026-11-01
94 Chapter 94: What Comes Next 2026-11-01
95 Chapter 95: Something Appropriate 2026-11-01
96 Chapter 96: Dress Accordingly 2026-11-01
97 Chapter 97: Beyond Business 2026-11-01
98 Chapter 98: No Particular Reason 2026-11-01
99 Chapter 99: Tickets for Two 2026-11-01
100 Chapter 100: Somewhere Nobody Knows Him 2026-11-01

Gerald stared at the photographs for so long that Giovanni eventually wondered whether he’d heard him.

Then he shook his head.

”No.”

”Yes.”

”No, Gio. I didn’t...”

His eyes returned to Martin’s photograph.

”I brought him into your company.”

”You recommended him.”

The correction came from the adjoining doorway.

Gerald spun around.

Alexander entered first.

The private investigator followed.

Then Elias.

Gerald looked at them.

Then toward the coffee cups.

”I knew it.”

Under different circumstances, Giovanni might have laughed.

Nobody did.

Alexander stopped beside the desk.

”Recommending someone isn’t the same as knowingly helping them conceal a crime.”

Gerald looked at him.

”Doesn’t feel much better from here.”

”It should if you genuinely didn’t know.”

”I didn’t.”

Elias stepped forward and looked at the photograph.

”That’s Ramon.”

Gerald turned.

”You knew him?”

”Years ago.”

Elias briefly explained Calderon.

The accident.

Ramon’s disappearance.

His supposed death.

Then the equipment depot where Elias had seen him alive under circumstances that couldn’t be reconciled with the official death record.

Manuel Vera followed.

Then Martin Valdez.

By the end, Gerald looked sick.

”Three names?”

”That we know of,” Alexander said.

Gerald rubbed his face.

”Jesus.”

Giovanni returned to the important part.

”Think. Did Martin ever mention where he came from?”

”No.”

”Family?”

”Never.”

”Friends?”

”Not really.”

”Places?”

Gerald shook his head.

”He didn’t talk much about himself.”

”Did he ask about me?”

Gerald started to say no.

Then stopped.

Giovanni saw it.

”What?”

”He did.”

The room quieted.

”What did he ask?”

”Nothing that seemed strange then.”

”What?”

”When you’d become the CEO?”

Giovanni’s expression changed.

”He knew I was Matteo’s son?”

”Everyone knew.”

”And?”

”I told him it was a matter of time.”

”Anything else?”

Gerald thought.

”I probably said you intended to work full-time after completing your master’s degree.”

”And later?”

”When you did become CEO, he asked whether you were staying.”

Alexander looked toward the investigator.

”And when Giovanni started asking about Matteo?”

Gerald frowned.

”I don’t know whether Martin knew. I didn’t know about it myself.”

”But he resigned shortly afterward.”

That clearly bothered Gerald.

”I swear I had no idea.”

Giovanni believed him more now than he had twenty minutes earlier.

Not completely.

But enough to keep listening.

”Anything unusual about Martin?”

”No.”

”Anything at all.”

Gerald thought for a long time.

Then slowly nodded.

”He used to take certain calls outside.”

”From whom?”

”I don’t know.”

”How often?”

”Not constantly. Enough that I noticed.”

”What made them unusual?”

”He’d leave the room.”

Gerald smiled faintly.

”I teased him once. Asked whether he had a secret girlfriend.”

”What did he say?”

”That it was an old friend.”

Alexander’s attention sharpened.

”Anything else?”

”He said the guy liked checking whether he was behaving.”

Silence.

Elias looked toward Alexander.

The anonymous messages he’d received suddenly felt considerably less isolated.

Tell Vance nothing.

Good.

Stay that way.

”What exactly did Martin say?” Alexander asked.

”Something like that.”

”Think.”

Gerald closed his eyes.

”It was years ago.”

”Anything helps.”

After several seconds, Gerald opened his eyes.

”I remember asking why some old friend cared what he was doing.”

”And?”

”He laughed.”

Gerald frowned as the memory returned.

”He said...”

A pause.

”Because he likes knowing when I’m getting warm.”

Nobody spoke.

Giovanni felt something cold settle in his stomach.

Not because the sentence proved who had killed Matteo.

It didn’t.

But it changed the way they had been looking at Ramon Villareal.

Until now, they’d assumed somebody had helped the inspector disappear.

Paid him.

Protected him.

Provided new identities in exchange for silence.

But perhaps protection had never been the point.

Alexander saw it too.

”Ramon may not have been hiding from the authorities.”

Giovanni looked at him.

”He was hiding from whoever helped him disappear.”

”And whoever that was kept finding him.”

Elias’s face changed.

”Like whoever’s watching me.”

Nobody needed to answer.

Gerald stayed for another hour. Giovanni offered him a cup of coffee.

”May I help myself to a glass of water instead?”

”Sure.”

Gerald promised to search retired cellphones, old emails, photographs, storage drives, and anything else he still had from the logistics project.

”Give me a week, and I’d give you an update.”

”For what it’s worth...”

Giovanni waited.

”I would’ve told you.”

”If you’d known?”

”Yes.”

Gerald swallowed.

”Especially if it involved your father.”

Giovanni studied him.

Then nodded. ”Gerald, keep digging discreetly. We don’t want to tip the hand of the maestro.”

The private investigator would work separately on identifying the original caller.

It wasn’t much, but at least one of the larger questions hanging over them had finally been answered.

But it was a direction.

And directions could be followed.

That was enough for now.

Alexander looked at the pictures once more.

Elias remained several steps behind.

”What happens now?”

”We find whoever called Gerald,” Giovanni said.

Alexander shook his head.

”Not today.”

Giovanni turned.

Alex immediately raised a hand.

”That isn’t me taking over.”

”Good start.”

”Gerald needs time to find his records. So does the investigator. Until one of them gives us something, we’re staring at the same wall.”

Giovanni couldn’t argue with that.

For once.

His phone vibrated.

He checked it.

Then frowned.

Alexander noticed.

”What?”

Giovanni turned the screen.

An invitation bearing their old high school crest filled the display.

ALUMNI HOMECOMING & CLASS REUNION

Alexander stared.

Then his own phone vibrated.

Same invitation.

Giovanni’s mouth slowly curved.

Alexander immediately distrusted it.

”No.”

”I haven’t said anything.”

”You smiled.”

”So?”

”I remember high school. Nothing good followed that expression.”

Another message arrived on Alexander’s phone.

This one came from an old classmate.

Please tell me you’re coming. Dominic already confirmed.

Alexander stopped.

Giovanni read over his shoulder.

His expression became suspiciously pleasant.

”Don’t.”

”I still haven’t said anything.”

”You don’t need to.”

For the first time in days, the problem waiting for them had nothing to do with false identities, dead inspectors, anonymous surveillance, or Matteo Mercer.

It was considerably less dangerous.

Probably.

Alexander looked at the reunion invitation once more.

Then at Giovanni.

”Don’t.”

Giovanni smiled.

And just like that, the dead inspector could wait until more concrete news arrived.

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