After I Stopped Loving Him (Isabella and Ethan) novel Chapter 158

On the way home, Jordan glanced at Natalie and asked, “That whole thing back there... That was your idea, wasn’t it?”

Natalie just smiled. She never bothered to hide things from him. The two of them were always on the same side, especially when it came to dealing with Isabella and Cynthia. Jackson was getting old, and retirement was right around the corner. Lately, he’d started making all sorts of plans for Cynthia’s future, and that worried them. What if he decided to give her a big chunk of the inheritance?

It didn’t matter if Isabella and Cynthia were innocent. Natalie and Jordan were determined to stir up trouble, to make Jackson lose faith in them. If Jackson stopped trusting them, they’d get less when the time came. Isabella didn’t have much claim on her own, but Cynthia was Jackson’s legal wife, so anything she got would eventually go to Isabella, her only daughter.

Natalie didn’t hesitate. “Yeah, I set it up.”

“Isabella’s getting bold. She doesn’t even pretend to respect me anymore. I just needed to shake things up between her and Ethan. We’ve known Ethan since we were kids. He’s always been closer to us. Of course he’ll take our side.”

She sounded so sure of herself. “They barely made up after their last fight. If I can get them to argue again, their relationship will fall apart even faster.”

Jordan squeezed her hand. “Babe, I know it wasn’t easy. You had to embarrass yourself in front of everyone.”

Natalie shrugged. “It’s nothing. If my plan works, who cares if I lose face?”

She explained her doubts, keeping her voice quiet. “You know how Isabella used to be. Around us, she was always timid, never talked back. But ever since she married Ethan, she’s different. When I try to pick a fight, she just ignores me, or she goes out of her way to avoid me. Sometimes she even stands up to me. I mean, sure, she married Ethan, she’s Mrs. Adams now, but do you really think someone can go from being scared of us to that confident in just a month?”

“That kind of fear doesn’t disappear overnight. Unless she was faking it for the last twenty years.”

Jordan fell silent for a moment, thinking it over. “You really think someone’s pretending to be her? But she grew up with us. We know all her habits. She looks the same, sounds the same, even acts the same with Cynthia. Her likes and dislikes haven’t changed. If she’s an imposter, then where’s the real Isabella? And if someone’s been planning this long enough to pull it off, this is way bigger than just her. They’d be targeting both the Lane family and the Adams family.”

He looked troubled as the idea sank in. “But you’re right, she’s changed a lot. Now she’s started her own business, investing in that short drama project. That’s such a niche market. Hardly anyone’s getting involved in stuff like that. For someone like her, who never took risks before, it’s weird.”