?Chapter 1224:


    Egan left quietly, closing the door softly behind him.


    Unbeknownst to Alex, someone lingered in the shadowy corner of the hallway leading from the guest room to the living room.


    Hailey stood in the dark, watching with eyes filled with malice. She had overheard everything.


    Stuart? The man who had escaped during the chaos that erupted in the urban vige?


    Wasn’t he supposed to be hiding like a rat in some dank sewer, barely surviving?


    Had Sadie caught him and somehow subdued him?


    Had he revealed anything about Hurst?


    No, that was impossible. Stuart had nearly killed Noah.


    There was no way Sadie would have let him off so easily.


    So for her to go through the trouble of setting up a clinic for him… It made no sense.


    Hailey’s eyes flickered as another thought crossed her mind.


    Without making a sound, she turned away and padded back to the guest room. As she approached the room, the bodyguards stationed at the door scowled at her.


    “What took you so long in the bathroom?”


    Hailey’s head snapped downward as she clutched her lower abdomen, her face contorting into a mask of manufactured pain. “Sir, I suddenly felt unwell, which dyed me for a moment.”


    The bodyguard examined her through narrowed, suspicious eyes before waving her away with visible impatience. “Fine, fine. Go inside and feed the baby. Salex has been wailing for ages now, creating quite the disturbance.”


    Relief washed over Hailey as she nodded with practiced obedience.


    She entered the room with her head lowered, striding quickly toward the cradle. Inside, the newborny red-faced and screaming, his piercing cries echoing through the room.


    Intense irritation crashed through her chest like a tidal wave.


    She thought bitterly about how this little pest could produce such endless noise. He was just like histe father, Sutton—equally maddening in every way. Yet now Alex, that naive fool, along with everyone else, believed Noah was his father.


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    That delusion served her purposes perfectly.


    Nothing else mattered beyond that crucial misconception.


    Despite her rage burning so fiercely that she longed to hurl the screaming infant away, Hailey’s face transformed instantly into a mask of gentle, loving devotion.


    She lifted the baby with calcted care, patting his back while cooing in a voice dripping with artificial sweetness, “There, there, Salex. Be good now. Don’t cry. Mommy’s here. Mommy’s got you.”


    This child represented her sole path to revenge and her most valuable piece in the dangerous game ahead.


    Regardless of her true feelings, she needed to embody the perfect mother.


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