Please Me Daddy (Gracie) novel Chapter 222

Conse flow

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Call me Eloise

Grace

I had always wondered who the killer was, and in the night when sleep refused to come, I would imagine their face over and over again, building different versions in my mind and preparing myself for every possible outcome, telling myself repeatedly that no matter who it turned out to be, I would not be surprised. I knew it could be anyone. A stranger. An enemy. Even someone close. I had trained my heart to expect betrayal from every direction.

But never did I imagine it could be her.

She had hidden herself too well. She had made herself so ordinary, so plain, that no one would ever think to look twice at her. She stayed close to us, moved among us, worked with us, smiled at us, and that was how confident she had been. That was how fearless. She was the kind of woman who believed she was untouchable, the kind who thought she could orchestrate chaos and still sit elegantly in the middle of it without getting her hands dirty.

And now she was standing right in front of me.

I had always thought that if I ever discovered who the killer was, I would not hesitate. I imagined myself walking straight up to them and clawing their face until they bled, until they felt even a fraction of the pain they had caused. I imagined screaming, breaking, and losing control. But I did none of that.

I just stood there, completely still, my body rigid and my mind strangely clear.

The woman stared at me with a slow, amused smile, her blue eyes sparkling with mockery as though this entire situation was nothing more than entertainment for her.

“Well,” she said lightly, tilting her head, “nice to meet you properly, Grace.”

My brows furrowed, and my hands clenched tightly at my sides as I forced her name out of my mouth. “So it’s you. Sarah… head of the sales department.”

She chuckled softly at that, almost delighted, and waved her hand dismissively. “No,” she said, pushing her blonde hair back with grace. “Don’t call me Sarah, love.”

Five bulky men stood behind, and one of them stepped forward to place a chair in the center of the room. She sat down slowly, crossing one leg over the other with elegance, leaning back as though she owned the space. The gun rested casually on her lap, her fingers brushing over it absentmindedly. Her simple white shirt and tailored pants made her look clean, and in charge, as if she had never once lost control of anything in her life.

“That,” she continued smoothly, meeting my eyes, “is not my name. It was never my name. It was simply convenient.”

Her smile deepened. “Call me Eloise.”

Eloise.

The name echoed in my mind, stirring something distant. I narrowed my eyes slightly, trying to place it.

Why did that name sound familiar? Why did it feel like I had heard it somewhere before?

As if reading the recognition forming in my expression, River’s voice cut through the tension. “It sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”

I slowly nodded without taking my eyes off her.

Eloise’s smirk widened, and there was something almost proud in her expression, as if she enjoyed the fact that her real name made me confused.

River stepped forward slightly and said, his voice tight, “She’s Eloise. My uncle’s ex–wife.”

I turned to him sharply. “Your uncle?”

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He hesitated for a brief second before answering, bis gaze shifting away from mine. “Apollo.”

The word hit me harder.

“Apollo?” I repeated, my voice barely above a whisper. “Apollo is your uncle?!”

I was shocked beyond words. My eyes widened as I stared at River, truly seeing him for the first time.

River… was a Reed.

How had I never known that?

I stood there in complete shock, my mind still struggling to process the fact that River, my friend, the person who had stood beside me more times than I could count, was Apollo’s nephew, and before I could even fully digest that revelation, his earlier words replayed in my head like a broken record.

She’s my uncle’s ex–wife.

My body went rigid. My eyes widened slowly as the weight of that sentence finally sank in.

“W–what… what did you just say?” I asked, my voice unsteady despite my attempt to control it.

River looked at me directly this time and said clearly, “Apollo is my uncle.”

I shook my head almost immediately, because that was not the part that had shaken me to my core. “No,” I insisted breathlessly. “You said something else. You said she was your uncle’s-

“”

He did not let me finish. He nodded once and said, “She’s Apollo’s ex–wife. The one who was supposed to be dead.” The air left my lungs in a sharp gasp, and I instinctively took a step back as if the truth itself had physically pushed me. “Impossible,” I whispered, my thoughts spiraling. “She is- how could she be Apollo’s ex–wife? What is going on?” At my confusion, Sarah, no, Eloise, smirked, clearly entertained by the chaos unfolding inside me.

“It’s not that complicated if you think about it,” she said lazily, tilting her head. “River is just terrible at explaining things. I sometimes wonder how he ever got along so well with my uncle.”

“Uncle?” I repeated faintly, even more confused than before.

She sighed dramatically as if I were a slow student in need of patient instruction. “Let me explain it in a way even you can understand,” she said. “I am Apollo’s ex–wife, the one who was publicly declared dead after that tragic accident. But I didn’t die, because it wasn’t me in the car that night. It was a lookalike.”