They Wanted Her, I Gave Her Everything, Now He’s Begging for Me Back Chapter 06

They Wanted Her, I Gave Her Everything, Now He’s Begging for Me Back Chapter 06

Reese was getting sloppy, drunk on victory.

She spun around and shoved both men out of my room.

“Sage just went to clear her head. She’s fine.”

“My missing maid of honor? That’s the actual crisis. You two need to find me a replacement.

Now.”

She planted her hands on her hips, issuing orders like a general.

“The new maid of honor has to look at least eighty percent like her.”

The whole family blinked at the request, confused.

But spoiling Reese was muscle memory at this point. Even confused, they obeyed.

They threw themselves into the hunt for a stand-in.

By then, I was already overseas.

The death certificate had gone through. I’d thrown cash at the problem and bought myself a

clean slate. A new name: Lark Ashby.

Lark. The bird that sings at dawn. A new sun. A new start.

My acceptance letter had been shredded, sure. But the knowledge in my head? She couldn’t

shred that.

I’d earned it once. I could earn it again.

So I drowned myself in work. Books. Applications. Research.

And it paid off. A second acceptance letter. Same school. Same program.

Move-in day was the happiest I’d been in years.

Until I saw Holden standing at the campus gates.

The smile died on my face. Cold. Blank. I looked straight through him and turned away.

He scrambled after me.

“Sage! Don’t walk away!”

Three strides and he cut me off, his eyes roaming my face like a starving man’s.

I kept my voice flat. Distant.

“Sorry. You’ve got the wrong person.”

Sage Caldwell died the day I walked out.

The woman standing here was Lark Ashby. Reborn. Clean.

Everything tied to Sage had been buried. I wasn’t wasting a single breath on old ghosts.

I stepped to leave, but his hand clamped around my arm.

His voice cracked-unhinged, possessive.

“No. It’s you. I know it’s you.”

“I’ve known where you were for a while. Gideon told me to stay away. Said we should give you

space. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t.”

The words spilled out of him-unfiltered, desperate.

That’s when I learned. The wedding fell apart.

According to him, after I left, everyone started noticing things about Reese. Cracks in the act.

Something off.

One ordinary day during their pre-wedding cohabitation.

He’d spent over ten hours hunting for my look-alike, then dragged himself home early,

exhausted.

And walked in on Reese on the phone. Her old doctor.

“I know you want the Caldwell and family fortunes. What’s the rush? My brother and Holden

jump when I snap my fingers now. You really think you won’t get paid?”

“The replacement? God, it’s just for my own satisfaction. Yeah, I faked the coma because I

didn’t want to go to school. So what? Sage still got years of luxury I didn’t. Watching a face that looks like hers twist up with misery? That’s fun for me.”

Holden had stood there, rooted, unable to process.

Every word dripped through his chest like acid.

It blew up. Massive. Edward and Eleanor found out.