The Pretender and The Prince novel Chapter 45

Riverdale City.

It had been over a month since Ellis had last heard from Ondine. He had turned Riverdale upside down searching for her, but she was nowhere to be found. She had blocked him on every platform, and every text he sent from a friend’s phone was met with another block.

Using his connections, Ellis managed to find Ondine’s home address. But when he arrived, a neighbor informed him that Yvaine had been diagnosed with stomach cancer and Ondine had taken her out of town for treatment. The neighbor had no idea where they had gone, only that Yvaine had been staying at Meridian Hospital before they left.

Ellis went to the hospital, but he couldn’t find any records of her.

The news of Yvaine’s cancer hit him hard. He remembered Ondine asking to borrow money and how he’d kept up his charade of being poor. The regret was crushing.

“Ellis, you’re a monster,” he muttered to himself, his voice thick with self-loathing. “Look what you did to her.”

He spent his days in a drunken haze, the memory of Ondine a constant, sharp pain in his chest.

…

Christmas was just a few days away when Chantal’s uncle, Harley, the vice president of Meridian Hospital, found himself in serious trouble.

An anonymous tipster had accused Harley of bribing his way into his position. Worse, the tip alleged that during his tenure, he had engaged in embezzlement and used his authority to facilitate a black-market organ trafficking ring.

The story exploded. Major news outlets ran with it, and Harley’s name trended on Twitter and every social media platform. Public outrage was so immense that it couldn’t be contained.

The authorities moved swiftly, taking Harley into custody. The investigation quickly uncovered the officials he had bribed, implicating both the Jefferson and Henson families in the scandal.

The Jeffersons had some influence in Riverdale and would normally have been able to make a problem like this disappear with enough money. But this time was different. No matter how much they spent, the story refused to die. Every time they managed to get a trending topic removed, it would pop right back up. News articles they paid to have taken down were reposted within hours. It was as if someone was actively working against them.

No matter how hard they dug, they couldn’t figure out who was pulling the strings.

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