From His Fake Wife to Billionaire Heiress Chapter 42: A Flimsy Excuse

Riley took the phone and looked down at it, pretending to study the image carefully.

The living room was dead silent. Everyone held their breath, waiting for her to cook up an excuse.

Finally, she looked up, wearing an expression of sudden realization.

"Oh, now I remember," she said, her tone casual. "That guy was probably a tourist from out of state—maybe Kingston or something. He was visiting Havenbrook for the first time. I ran into him earlier today when I was grabbing lunch downtown. His accent was clearly not from around here, and he was totally lost, trying to use GPS on his phone but still going in circles. He was sweating and looked pretty overwhelmed. Since the place he was trying to find was basically on my way, I just walked him over."

When she finished, she kept her face perfectly calm, meeting everyone's eyes.

The explanation was so ordinary and uneventful that the Ashfords—who had set the whole scene up to catch her in an affair—felt like they'd punched a wall of fog.

"That's it?" Anthea snapped, disbelief dripping from her voice. "You expect us to buy that? Some random tourist story?"

Riley ignored her and handed the phone back.

"Fine. If you don't believe me, it's easy enough to check."

"You said he looked college-aged, right? Tomorrow, I'll get this photo blown up, print a few hundred copies, and post them all over every university campus in Havenbrook as a 'Have you seen this man?' notice. Then we'll see if we can track down this mystery guy and bring him right here in front of you."

"How dare you!" Julian shouted, his face reddening.

"You may not care about your reputation, but this family does!"

Riley let out a quiet sigh and continued, her voice measured. "All of you—if you want to accuse me of cheating, that's one thing. But next time, could you at least get a decent photo?

"A hug, a kiss, holding hands... or maybe a shot of me going into a hotel with someone. Don't bring me a picture of me walking next to someone in broad daylight. Honestly, you could give this to TMZ for free and they wouldn't run it. They couldn't even come up with a headline."

For a moment, everyone's expressions shifted uncomfortably.

They knew she had a point.

But Riley wasn't done.

Her eyes returned to Lucas, full of quiet disappointment.

"Lucas, back when I was still working at the firm, I met with male clients all the time. Business lunches, one-on-one meetings—it was completely normal. Why did no one ever accuse me of cheating back then?

"So ever since I left the company, I've suddenly become untrustworthy?

"Or is it that, deep down, you all see yourselves as the real family, and I've always been the outsider who can be questioned and judged anytime?"

"Of course not!" Lucas took a step back under the weight of her words, guilt flashing across his face.

He thought it over and realized Riley wasn't wrong—a simple street photo proved nothing.

He tried to backtrack quickly. "Riley, don't take it like that. I'm not accusing you. I trust what we have... It's just when I saw that picture, I felt I had to ask."

"Had to ask? So from now on, should I wear a sign that says 'Stay back, don't talk to me' when I go out?"

She shook her head softly. "Trust between people shouldn't be this hard." Then she added, almost gently, "Like the other day, when I was shopping at the mall, I saw Julian walking into that steakhouse downtown with a very young, very pretty woman."

The moment the words left her mouth, Julian's face went pale.

Riley acted like she hadn't noticed and went on, her tone still light. "It never even crossed my mind to take a picture and come home to interrogate him about it. Because I trust Julian's character. We're family, after all. Shouldn't there be some basic trust?"

Anthea still looked confused, but Julian's heart was pounding wildly.

He didn't know if Riley was seeing someone—but he absolutely was seeing someone behind Anthea's back.

And that could not come out.

Riley was warning him.

In that split second, Julian made his choice.

He turned and shot Anthea a sharp, silencing look, furious she'd stirred up trouble without solid proof.

This whole "cheating intervention" had been built on rumors and guesswork—they'd planned to pressure Riley into confessing just by ganging up on her.

But now the fire was burning back toward him, and Riley held the one card that could ruin him.

"Enough!" Julian took a deep breath and put on his best dignified-family-man voice, forcing calm into the room.

"Since Riley has given her explanation, this was clearly a misunderstanding! This is all your fault..."

He pointed firmly at Anthea. "You hear a little gossip and blow it out of proportion! From now on, no one brings this up again. I won't have this harming our family's peace."

"Now," he said, gesturing toward the dining room, "everyone, let's go have dinner."

Anthea, scolded without fully understanding why, knew she'd lost this round.

Swallowing her anger, she shut her mouth and followed the rest toward the table, frustration simmering in her eyes.