The Impostor

My husband Julian Hawthorne was supposed to be dead, a casualty of the corporate wars.

But as the victory news echoed, a chilling memory resurfaced: he wasn't dead.

He was a liar, a manipulator, and he' d returned, impersonating his twin, Damian.

Just as I remembered his brutal betrayal-how he' d orchestrated my ruin while publicly adoring my stepsister Cassie-his mother, Isabelle, announced my fate: five years of deep mourning, social seclusion, and no remarriage.

This was the same trap from my first life.

When I defied her, Julian, playing the grieving brother, and Cassie, the picture of tearful devastation, tried to paint me as unhinged.

Then, 'Damian' fastened a diamond pendant around Cassie' s neck-a design I' d created, a cruel symbol of their shared deception.

The true horror wasn't just Julian's monstrous fraud, but Cassie's chilling confession: she knew.