The Ex-Wife’s Billion Dollar Comeback Novel

---- Chapter 144: Custody ~ Calum ~ "Do you know this person?" an investigator asked. Calum watched from behind a one-way mirror as Roger was being interrogated. His cousin was handed a picture of a man called Carlos Delgado. "No, | don't know who that is," Roger said outright. "What about this one?" the police pressed, showing Roger a photo of Macy Clarke, the sex worker. Calum's jaw tightened as he paid more attention. He had already been acquainted with the names and faces. Now, Calum only needed to confirm whether his own family had lied to him.

Next to him, his father's nostrils flared, anticipating. "| don't know them! Why in the world are you asking me this?" Roger snapped. But panic flickered in his eyes, something Calum had never seen before. "See this?" The police slid over a copy of a bank transfer confirmation, traced from Roger's old account to Carlos Delgado and Macy Clarke. "If you didn't know these people, why did you send them money seven years ago?" Roger's mouth fell open in shock. His lips quivered as he stammered, "That's fake! Why would I send money to a sex worker and her pimp?

How could | ever be affiliated with such people?" Watching the truth spill out from Roger's own mouth, Calum's ---- usual composure faltered. He didn't need any more evidence, but even then, the investigators brought more forward. There was a recording of their conversations. Apparently, one of the female officers had gone undercover as a housekeeper for the Rowans. Devices had been planted, and their recent exchanges captured.

The most damning proof were Marvin and Roger's own words: Marvin: "Seven years ago, you all had a part to play in Calum's drugging!" Roger: "I'm worried they're onto us. What if they uncover what happened seven years ago? | was the one who paid the prostitute and her pimp!" And as for Camilla Rowan? She admitted to everything, begging Cedric to give her children a lighter punishment in exchange for her cooperation. For the first time in Calum's life, betrayal struck deeper. His chest grew heavy. His stomach churned, and his vision blurred at some point.

These were the people he had grown up with-his uncle, who once took him fishing, his aunt who baked him cookies as a boy, his cousins who never missed his birthdays. He remembered the laughter at family dinners and how he had once believed the Rowans were the ones he could trust with his life. And yet, the same people who shared those memories had orchestrated his drugging seven years ago. Most horrifying of all, they had plotted to leave him with a life sentence in the form of a deadly disease. ---- The bond he thought unbreakable was nothing but a mask for treachery. And for what?

Inheritance? Was it even his fault that both he and his father, Cedric, were more inclined toward business? Marvin might have flaunted his "management skills," but he had never initiated a venture that could truly grow Montclair Group. Calum, on the other hand, had expanded the corporation into new business fields as soon as he took over. The logistics company was supposed to be Calum's biggest acquisition, but it had also marked his greatest downfall. At some point, Calum felt the wetness at the corners of his eyes, but he held back the tears, refusing to let their betrayal break him.

Calum's mother hadn't come with them to the police station. Cedric forbade her. But when they got home, naturally, Cedric told Amanda everything. Amanda looked broken-hearted. She turned to Calum and bitterly said, "It's strange, isn't it, Calum, how we guard ourselves against people we see as enemies, yet it's the ones we trust who hurt us most." A tear rolled down her cheek as she went on. "Seven years, Calum. Soraya carried the weight of being blamed for that night. You despised her, yet in truth, she unknowingly saved you.

"If Soraya hadn't gotten a little drunk that night and gone up to her room first, she never would have bumped into that sex worker, Macy. They wouldn't have exchanged room keys. You would have ended up with Macy and lived a lifetime carrying ---- that disease." "You never would have been Calum Montclair, the CEO. You'd have been remembered as the weak, sickly heir of the Montclairs." Calum's body stiffened. A tear slipped down his face before he could stop it. He gulped. "Are you blaming me, Mom?

Neither you nor Dad suspected my uncle!" "No!" Amanda shot back, breaking down into uncontrollable sobs. "I just wish-l just wish you had given Soraya the chance!" "Enough, Amanda. This isn't good for your heart." Cedric immediately went to her, wrapping his arms around her on the sofa. "It's already come to this point. We just need to face it together." In the next few minutes, Cedric simply soothed Amanda. He himself couldn't help shedding a tear. As for Calum, he sat down across from his parents. Sage was upstairs in her room, blissfully unaware of the chaos swallowing the Montclairs.

When the tears had died down, Calum said, "I'll make it up to Soraya." "At one point, | thought of canceling our divorce, but there were too many disagreements between us now." He shook his head. "And | can't abandon Rose. She's carrying a child. We've been together-really together, not like with Soraya." "And Sage? She likes Rose." He added quietly, "And... | still think it was wrong for you to force me to marry Soraya when | wasn't ready." ---- "And you're ready now to take responsibility for Rose's child?" Cedric asked. Calum nodded. "Yes.

| am at the right stage of my life." The room fell silent, yet he could feel the weight of everyone's unspoken regret pressing down on him. "| don't know if we'll ever accept Rose. To us, she'll always be the woman who came between you and Soraya," Amanda said, her voice steadier now. "But that only proves you don't deserve Soraya." "And don't even think about going after Soraya. She has moved on!" Amanda added. In the past, whenever Amanda sided with Soraya, it only made Calum angry. But now, it wounded. With the truth out, he realized how much he had wronged Soraya.

And yet, despite everything, she had stayed by his side for seven years. Calum drew in a deep breath, trying to lift the heavy weight on his chest. "Again, I'll make it up to her." "Then make it up to her by giving her custody of Sage," Amanda said firmly. "Sage belongs with her mother-her real mother." Calum swallowed hard. His lips parted, then closed again. He rubbed the bridge of his nose before finally answering, "I'll talk to Sage about it." The next day, he sat down with his daughter, and Sage met him with unwavering resolve. "No," she said. "I want to stay with you... and Aunt Rose."