Divorced CEO's Forgotten Wife Strikes Back (Riley and Bryce) novel Chapter 181

**Title: Dreams Refuse Gravity by Leo Arden Knox**

**Chapter 181: They Caught the Kidnapper**

**Lucky Draw**

Riley found herself transfixed by the image on her phone screen—a snapshot from the recent orphanage event. In it, a teenage boy stood confidently at the microphone, his gaze fixed on Bella as he called her to the stage.

The resemblance was uncanny; the boy’s frame mirrored the shadowy figure of the kidnapper from the video she had seen. A chill ran down her spine as a nagging instinct whispered that they were one and the same.

Could it really be possible that this teenager was the very kidnapper they had been searching for?

As her thoughts spiraled back to the orphanage, Riley began to connect the dots. She recalled the news clip that had aired five years prior about a devastating border fire, a clip that had mysteriously found its way to the island. Then, during the orphanage event, a reporter had abruptly received a text message and confronted Bella about that very fire right in front of everyone.

All these threads wove a tangled web that led back to the orphanage. The coincidence of the time—11:21—was too glaring to dismiss.

That boy now seemed increasingly suspicious in her mind.

**Lucky Draw**

Determined to uncover the truth, Riley delved deeper into the details surrounding the co-pilot who had tragically perished in that border fire five years ago. She discovered that the man had been left to raise his son alone after his wife had died long before. At the time of the fire, the boy had been just eleven years old.

Doing the math, it clicked for her—the teenager from the orphanage could indeed be the co-pilot’s son.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Riley picked up her phone and dialed the police, eager to report her findings.

Once she hung up, she turned to find Bryce watching her intently, his expression a mix of confusion and disbelief. “Why are you helping Bella? I thought you couldn’t stand her,” he questioned, his voice laced with incredulity.

Riley’s gaze remained unwavering, her voice cutting through the tension like ice. “I don’t like Bella, but I was a soldier. We don’t leave people behind.”

Even though she had distanced herself from the military, the soldier’s code still burned fiercely within her. It was a part of her that she would carry for the rest of her life.

Bryce faltered, his eyes locking onto hers. For the first time, he saw her not just as Riley, but as a woman shaped by discipline and honor, a stark contrast to the image he had held of her.

**Lucky Draw**

He had never truly respected Riley’s military background. To him, she had always been just another person who had served her time—nothing more, nothing less.

In fact, he had often looked down on her for it, convinced that aside from enduring hardship, she possessed no other real skills.

He had proposed to her during a tumultuous period in his life, a time when he felt utterly lost after the loss of his own parents. Being with her had somehow made his own pain feel a little lighter, a little more bearable.

She brought him a sense of peace he hadn’t realized he craved. So, he had vowed to be good to her and to remain loyal to their marriage.

Yet, somewhere along the way, the dynamics had shifted.

Bryce couldn’t pinpoint exactly when they had begun to drift apart. Perhaps it was because he had become too consumed by his startup ambitions, or maybe it was the day Bella had returned to the country. That day at the airport, when he had seen Bella approach him in her captain’s uniform, everything had changed.

Even he couldn’t fully understand the whirlwind of emotions that had followed.

**Lucky Draw**

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