Chapter 75

[James’ POV]

Rudolf stared at James as though he’d truly lost his mind. His brows furrowed together in confusion. “What the hell are you talking about?” he questioned sharply. “How could that not be Evelyn?”

“You said it yourself, Evelyn would never do something as horrible as shoving another person down a flight of stairs. So, the point I’m trying to make is—what if that woman who’s in the kitchen with Monica, right now, isn’t actually Evelyn?”

James ran a hand roughly through his hair and shook his head in deep contemplation. “As I told you before, I’d been trying to get as much information out of her as possible to try and make sense of what happened all those years ago. But each time I would try and bring any of that up, she would immediately change the subject. She refuses to let me, or really anyone, get close to her.”

Rudolf narrowed his eyes and hummed with deep thought. “Sounds like she’s trying to hide something.”

James nodded his head in agreement before the two of them were joined by a perplexed-looking Monica. Rudolf reached for his sister and rested a supportive hand on her shoulder. “How is she?”

Monica lowered her gaze and gently shook her head. “That was...terribly awkward,” she muttered. “It was like talking to a reflection of Evelyn. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, it looks like her but it’s as though there’s something else hiding behind her eyes.”

“More like someone else,” James murmured.

He and Lawrence shared another glance between themselves. “Monica, were you able to ask her anything real? Any that pertained to her life before she went missing?” he asked.

She shrugged her shoulders. “I merely asked her where she’d been all this time.”

“What did she say?”

Monica sneered. “Some nonsense about ‘being here and there and just wanting to travel around and see the world’.”

“For over five fucking years, without so much as a phone call or a damn letter?! Bullshit!!” Rudolf growled. “Alright, Derek, I'm really beginning to believe your theory.”

“Perhaps, it’s time the three of us have a proper chat with this mystery woman,” James suggested.

They all nodded in agreement and made their way back into the kitchen where a nervous-looking Evelyn sat waiting. They intended to find out what had been going on and to finally get some literal answers. James was prepared to be patient and controlled through the process. However, Monica came off rather blunt and steamed.

“Alright, you imposterous bitch, who the hell are you?”

The woman put on a weak smile and tried batting her eyes with false innocence. “What do you mean? I’m Evelyn.”

“If that’s true, then why didn’t you ever reach out to your actual family? Why did you come straight back to James Derek?” Rudolf asked tightly.

The woman shrugged her shoulders. “Well, he is my husband...Why wouldn’t I come here?”

“You’ve been gone for over five years. Five years without a single trace. Anyone in that sort of predicament would have gone straight to the police. Why didn’t you?”

“I say we jump on to the more intriguing question,” Rudolf stated. “Why did you viciously shove Mia down the stairs?”

Monica let out a sharp gasp in shock and gaped at James. “What?! Jesus Christ, is she okay?”

James was a bit taken aback by Monica’s level of concern for Mia, considering their not-so-decent background with one another. He slowly nodded his head and ignored the ache in his chest over the talk of his absent mate.

“She’s okay. She went to the hospital and got checked out,” he explained.

“Our sister would never do something so horrible,” Monica snarled.

Without warning, Monica impulsively reached out and grabbed the woman by her chin and forced her to look at all of them. A strange sight caught James’ attention almost instantly.

“Monica, wait...”

He noticed something strange regarding the outer corners of Evelyn’s face. There were small, faded lines—scars that were lining her jaw and forehead.

“Lawrence, have you ever seen something like this?”

“They look like scars from some sort of an operation?”

“Not quite,” Monica gritted. “I know what these marks are from...This bitch had plastic surgery. A complete change in identity.”

James’ mouth fell open in disgruntled horror. Oh my God. “Tell us who you really are,” he pressed.

The woman was determined to remain silent. Monica, growing impatient, snatched one of the knives off the counter and held it against the woman’s cheek. A nasty snarl tore from the back of her throat, causing a lethal tension to fill the room.

“How about it, sweetheart? Start talking or I will happily send you back to the doctor who gave you that fake face to begin with?” she threatened venomously.

James found himself deeply disturbed yet impressed with Monica’s methods of uncovering the truth. And from the way things were turning out, he could see that the woman whose face was being threatened with a kitchen knife was on the verge of cracking.

The moment Monica started applying real pressure to the woman’s cheek, she let out a sharp cry and begged her to stop.

“Alright, alright! I’m not Evelyn.”

Simply hearing this revelation hit James harder than he expected. A good part of his intuition always knew something was off, but actually hearing it confirmed was a difficult thing to swallow.

“Who the hell are you then?” Rudolf snapped.

“My name is Julia Hoffman,” she said. “And the reason I look like this is, well...Because some man paid me a lot of money to look this way and put on this whole persona.”

“Who paid you?”

“Some man named Edward,” Julia said.

James felt his mind break out into a silent panic. “Edward? Edward Derek?” Julia nodded. “Why did my uncle plan something as morbid as this?”

“Said something about wanting to ruin your life as Alpha from the inside out.”

Rudolf let out a long breath. “He thinks that if he ruins your marriage with Mia it will in turn cause you to fall apart.”

“He knows how much I love her, it’s why he views her as a weak point to me.”

“Leave this house. And never come back,” Monica hissed.

The three of them watched as the woman who was parading around as Evelyn rushed out of the house without looking back. James was hurt to have something like this happen twice in his life. But deep down, he was glad that he was now able to focus on trying to get Mia back without any further interruptions.