From His Fake Wife to Billionaire Heiress Chapter 151: A Selfish Plan

Her voice faded out, and before Lucas could get another word in, the line went dead.

He stood there listening to the dial tone, his expression darkening by the second.

Everything Riley had thrown at him during that last part of the call kept replaying in his head.

To keep her calm and maintain her role as his wife, he really had fed her all kinds of promises—most of them empty.

He'd even told her he'd be with her and only her for the rest of his life.

Looking back now, that vow, along with every other assurance he'd given, felt like nothing more than hollow words he could never live up to.

With all the public noise about Sophia and Jeremy lately, if he didn't come up with something soon to satisfy Riley, she could easily blow the whole thing wide open.

Back in his study, Lucas remained seated long after hanging up, completely still.

It was becoming clear to him that the heart of all this trouble was Sophia and Jeremy.

And given how things were unfolding, if the press ever dug up Jeremy's true parentage and confirmed he was Lucas' biological son, everything Lucas had built would come crashing down.

At that thought, Lucas pushed himself up from his chair.

All traces of hesitation left his eyes, replaced by something cold and unyielding.

It didn't matter how late it was. He headed straight for the guest room where Sophia was staying.

He eased the door open quietly. Inside, Sophia had just managed to settle a fussy Jeremy to sleep and still looked worn out.

When she noticed Lucas step in with that stern look on his face, her stomach dropped. She quickly straightened up and forced a warm, concerned smile. "Lucas, it's so late... How's Riley doing? Still refusing to come home?"

Lucas' gaze moved past her to the boy sleeping soundly in the bed, and his frown deepened.

"Not here," he said quietly, his voice low. "Let's talk in the study."

A sense of dread settled in Sophia's chest, but under Lucas' unspoken pressure, she bit her lip and nodded.

They walked to the study one after the other.

Lucas didn't take a seat. Instead, he paced a few times before stopping in front of Sophia, looking more unsettled than she'd ever seen him.

"Sophia, things are worse than we anticipated.

"On the media side—yes, I've thrown a lot of money at PR firms to keep them quiet for now. But our story's blowing up online. We need to address it, and fast."

Sophia's throat tightened.

She twisted her fingers together, trying to sound calm. "Isn't it just people online with too much time on their hands? That's how these things go these days. Can't we just hire some trolls to sway the comments? Once the next big story hits, everyone will move on."

She was oversimplifying it, and Lucas knew it.

"No," he replied flatly. "You can buy off one outlet, but you can't silence the entire internet. This involves the Ashford name. People are paying way more attention than usual. Plus, you're in the public eye—everything you do gets magnified. You attract more gossip than the average person. Bringing in trolls will only backfire and make us look guilty."

Sophia paled.

The seriousness of it all was sinking in. Her voice shook slightly as she asked, "Then... what are you thinking?"

Lucas was quiet for a long moment, as if wrestling with a difficult choice.

Then he took a deep breath, stepped closer, and took Sophia's cold hands in his.

"Sophia," he said slowly, "for the sake of our future—and Jeremy's—I need you to make a sacrifice."

Her heart sank straight to the floor.

Then Lucas laid out his plan, clear and merciless, word by word. "Tomorrow, you'll issue a public statement. Say Jeremy's father is someone else."

Sophia's eyes widened. She stared at him, unable to believe what she was hearing.

But Lucas acted as though he didn't notice her shock. He pressed on, "We'll create a father for Jeremy. Say the two of you were in love, but he died in an accident. Say you're a strong single mother raising your son on your own."

His tone was gentle, but each word felt like a knife twisting inside her.

"Don't worry," he said, squeezing her hands tighter, trying to sound earnest. "This is just temporary. Once things settle down and I've fully taken over the family assets, I'll marry you publicly—a proper wedding, everything.

"And then, we'll tell everyone the truth about Jeremy. We'll let the world know he's the rightful heir to the Ashford family."

But in that moment, staring into that familiar face, Sophia felt nothing but a deep, chilling cold spread through her bones.

He was utterly, completely fake.

To protect his own position and future, he'd actually concocted something so twisted and cruel.

Have my son grow up known as some other man's posthumous child?

Put a dead man who never existed in the role of her baby's father?