My Accidental Billionaire Husband (Katia and Julian) novel Chapter 412

The Wrong Target

+15 Bon

The Wrong Target

Katia’s POV

I woke up to Julian’s phone buzzing like crazy on the nightstand. It wouldn’t stop. Whatever it was, it wasn’t waiting for us to finish sleeping.

He grabbed it without even opening his eyes properly. The second the screen lit up his face, his expression changed. Confusion first. Then something sharper.

“What?” I asked, sitting up against the pillows.

“Zane,” he said, already sitting up and scrolling. “You need to see this.”

He turned the phone toward me.

TESSA STERLING UNMASKS CATWOMAN. GAIL WINDSOR IDENTIFIED AS UNDERGROUND RACING PHENOM.

I stared at the headline. My stomach dropped hard. It had nothing to do with the pregnancy and everything to do with the photo underneath it. A grainy still of Gail disappearing into the crowd right when the cars lined up at the start. Next to it, another photo of her showing up near the same spot minutes after the race ended, mid-conversation with someone just out of frame.

“She thinks it’s Gail,” I said slowly.

“She thinks it’s Gail,” Julian confirmed, scrolling further. His jaw tightened with every line. “Look at the timeline she’s built. Gail vanishes right before the race starts. Gail reappears minutes after Catwoman crosses the finish line. She’s treating it like it’s confirmed.”

I grabbed my own phone. My hands were already shaking as I pulled up the same article, then a dozen others already spreading behind it. Every single one repeated the same claim with more confidence. The two photos stitched together into one sequence that, out of context, looked exactly like proof.

“This is my fucking fault,” I said quietly.

Julian looked at me.

“How is this your fault?”

“Gail disappeared to protect me,” I said. “She took Aiden somewhere away from the main crowd, then vanished the second the race started because we planned it that way. We wanted exactly this kind of confusion to protect my identity. I just didn’t think it would land on her. I thought it would just muddy the water enough that nobody could point at anyone directly.”

“It did muddy the water,” Julian said. “It just muddied it in the wrong direction. Tessa needed someone to accuse, and the timeline gave her the easiest target available.”

My phone buzzed. A text from Gail, sent only minutes earlier,

The Wrong Target

• 15 Gorus

‘Have you seen this? My phone will not stop ringing. Reporters are already outside Grandma’s estate.

I closed my eyes for a second. The weight of what we had built settled over me like something physical

“We have to fix this,” I said. “Right now. Before it spreads any further.”

“How?” Julian asked. “We can’t just announce who Catwoman actually is to clear Gail’s name. That defeats the whole point of everything we did last night.”

“I know,” I said. My mind was already racing, searching for some version of the truth that protected both of us. “But we can’t let her carry this either. She did nothing but help us, Julian. She took Aiden into that crowd, she disappeared exactly when we asked her to, and now she’s the one dealing with cameras outside her own grandmother’s house because of a plan we built to protect me.”

Julian ran a hand through his hair and started grabbing clothes, moving with that fast, focused urgency! recognized from every crisis this family had gone through.

“We go to the estate,” he said. “Now. Before this gets any more out of hand.”

I dressed as fast as my body would let me. The morning sickness I usually managed to avoid until later hit hard now-adrenaline and nausea tangled together. I forced myself past it. By the time we reached the car, my phone already had a dozen more notifications. The story was spreading with the kind of speed this city reserved for the scandals it loved most.

The drive to the estate felt longer than it actually was. Both of us stayed quiet, both of us turning over every possible way to handle what was waiting for us.

“What if we can’t fix this?” I said quietly somewhere around the halfway point.

Julian glanced at me. His expression had none of the panic I felt building in my own chest.

“Then we find another way,” he said. “We’re not letting my sister take the fall for something that was never hers to carry. Whatever it costs, we find a way to make this right.”

I looked out at the city passing by the window, at the headline still glowing on the phone in my lap, and thought about Gail’s easy laugh at the race the night before. Completely unaware that helping us would cost her this much by morning.

We arrived at the estate to find exactly what Gail had warned us about. A small cluster of reporters already at the gate. Cameras went up the second our car came into view.

Julian didn’t slow down.

We drove straight through, leaving the shouted questions behind us, and found Gait waiting in the front hall when we walked inside. Her face was pale. Her phone was still buzzing nonstop in her hand

“I don’t know what to do,” she said the moment she saw us. Every reporter in the city thanks I’m some kind of underground racing legend. My phone won’t stop. I’ve had three calls hom people at the hospital asking if the rumors are true.”

the Wrong Target

+15 Bonus

I crossed the room and pulled her into a hug before she could say anything else. I felt her shake a little against me. The full weight of an accusation she never asked for was finally catching up to her.

“We’re going to fix this,” I said. “I promise you. We’re going to fix this.”

Over her shoulder I met Julian’s eyes. Neither of us said a word out loud, but we both understood. Whatever came next was going to take every bit of careful strategy this family had left.

Grandma Celeste came out of the study a moment later. Her expression was composed despite the chaos, but I could see the tightness at the corners of her mouth. Even she hadn’t fully prepared for something like this.

“The board of directors at the hospital called an hour ago,” she said. “They want a statement from Gail before thisaffects her position there. I told them she wouldn’t be making any statements until we understood exactly what we were dealing with.”

“Good,” Julian said. “Nobody says anything to anyone until we have a plan.”

Gail pulled back from my embrace and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. Some of her composure returned now that she was surrounded by family instead of facing this alone.

“What do we actually do?” she asked. “I can’t just deny it and hope people believe me. Tessa has photographs. She has a timeline. Denial alone isn’t going to be enough against evidence that clear.”

“We don’t deny the timeline,” I said slowly. An idea was already forming as I spoke. “We explain it. You disappeared because you took Aiden somewhere quieter, away from the crowd, because that’s what any responsible aunt would do with a six-year-old at a loud, chaotic event. You returned once the race ended because that’s when you went looking for the rest of the family again. None of that requires you to be Catwoman. It only requires people to stop assuming the worst explanation is automatically the correct one.”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify