Regretting the Wife He Threw Away

Chapter 431

Back at Skybreeze Retreat.

Briony opened the file the moment she walked in.

Stewart's research was thorough-painfully so.

Her mother's old case wasn't as simple as it seemed. There was a hidden layer, a secret that changed everything.

And at the center of it all... Neal.

Briony flipped through the documents, her hands trembling. All of this had only come to light in the past few months.

Lauren and Neal had known each other from the very beginning.

Neal had started out in business too, but his ambition got the better of him. Greed led him into smuggling and dirty money. Then, during a government crackdown, Neal killed a federal agent while trying to escape, and ended up at the top of the most-wanted list.

After Neal went on the run, Lauren discovered she was pregnant. Alone, she gave birth to Rosita. Not long after, desperate to survive, she started working in nightclubs.

That world introduced her to wealthy men-years spent as someone's kept woman, but most of them grew bored quickly, discarding Lauren with a severance check when the thrill wore off.

Lauren refused to accept that fate. She began hunting for a man who could give her real status.

reappeared, having learned that Lauren had borne his

involved with Malcolm Kensington. To keep Neal quiet,

her place as Mrs. Kensington. That way, their daughter Rosita would become the legitimate Kensington heiress. Lauren would try to have a

Neal would get rid of Malcolm for good. Everything the Kensington

all went smoothly-until the day Malcolm caught Lauren and Neal together. Enraged,

battered and terrified, acted on pure instinct. She shoved Malcolm away- then, thrown off balance, she fell herself, slamming her

Malcolm had

Julia had accidentally pushed Malcolm to

of Malcolm's death, a housekeeper saw Lauren fleeing the back garden, visibly

of being implicated, had quit and returned to her

Stewart's team track her

witness, there was no direct proof

real breakthrough hinged on

Because Neal wasn't dead.

of his body. Stewart's people secretly rescued him, and for four years

recovery-comatose, hidden away.

Neal

brought Neal to Lauren's

was dying her illness eating away at her, mind and

her pills, convinced the expensive medication she'd bought would