Chapter: 78Morana’s POVDr. Clive Wilder talked for a long time and I let him. I didn’t interrupt or ask questions. Interrupting felt wrong like stopping someone mid-confession after they’d been carrying it for thirty years.He told me about my mother. The way you talked about things that broke you permanently. Mira Mortaine. MCRF at three times what I currently produce. Her body generated the compound with an efficiency that made everything Xavier extracted from me look like the rough draft it actually was.My father found her through a private medical network. Some cardiologist who noticed anomalous healing markers in a patient and didn’t know what to do with them. Ivo Mortaine knew exactly what to do with them.He spent eighteen months studying her blood before he asked her to dinner. Romantic huh. “She knew he was a researcher” Dr. Wilder said to his coffee cup. “She knew he was interested in her biology. She wasn’t naive. But she believed the interest had become secondary to the love. I th
Last Updated: 2026-06-03
Chapter: 77Morana’s POVThe kitchen smelled like medical doctor and I don’t know if it makes sense. Clive made coffee without asking and I sat at the table and looked around at the life of a man who’s been hiding for fifteen years.There are books on every surface. Research papers in stacks that suggested a specific organizational system only he understood. A photograph on the windowsill above the sink that I couldn’t see properly from where I was sitting.He set mugs in front of us and sat across the table and looked at me like he was still processing the fact that I existed.“How did you find me?” He asked.“The same way Xavier did probably.” I shrugged because there is nothing to hide. He nodded slowly. Not looking at all surprised. His hiding time is actually over now. “He came to see you. What did he tell you?”“What did he tell me or what did he offer me?” Dr. Wilder wrapped both hands around his mug. “They’re different things.”“Both” Tristan said from beside me. Following my lead the
Last Updated: 2026-05-31
Chapter: 76Morana’s POVThe drive to Connecticut took ninety minutes and Tristan drove himself which surprised me. No driver or Reid in the passenger seat feeding him intelligence updates. Just him behind the wheel of the Aston Martin in a dark coat with his jaw set and his eyes on the road.I sat in the passenger seat with Felix’s documents in my lap and tried to read them but kept looking at his hands instead. The way they held the wheel. Loose but controlled. Everything about Tristan Rothschild was loose but controlled and I’d spent enough time studying him now to understand that the looseness was the more dangerous part.We’d been on the road for twenty minutes before either of us said anything.“Reid found him through a research grant,” Tristan said, eye still forward. “Filed under a different name but the contact chain led back to a PO box in Westport. From there it was just property records.”“How long has Xavier been meeting with him?”“Three weeks minimum. Possibly longer.” He changed
Last Updated: 2026-05-31
Chapter: 75Morana’s POVWe got back to the penthouse at seven. Tristan ordered food because neither of us had eaten properly since the cold eggs that morning and I sat at the kitchen island going through Felix’s documents while he made calls in his office.We hadn’t resolved everything. The fight was still sitting between us like furniture that hadn’t been moved back to its original position. But something had shifted at Felix’s apartment. It wasn’t fixed. But it was different.I was reading through the third document Felix has printed when my phone rang. Mabel. I stared at the screen for two rings then answered.“Morana.” Her voice was different from the dinner. And every other time I’d heard it. The warmth was gone but so was the performance underneath it. What was left sounded almost tired.“Mabel.” I said carefully.“I’ve seen the press conference,” she said without beating around the bush. “The prenup and headlines. All of it. I’m not calling about any of that.”“Then why are you calling?”
Last Updated: 2026-05-31
Chapter: 74Tristan’s POVFelix lived four blocks from the nearest subway station which meant I walked past three coffee shops and a farmer’s market and approximately forty people who recognized me and didn’t say anything because New Yorkers have the decency of pretending not to notice things.I cancelled the suppression order from the car. Twelve minutes after she’d left. Reid called it premature. I told him to file an interview request with two major publications instead and he’s gone quiet. He recalculating everything he thought he understood about me.The brownstone was exactly the kind of building Felix Mortaine would live in. The place suggested the person inside has enough money to live anywhere and has chosen this specifically because they actually liked it.I knocked once. Felix opened the door and looked at me for a long moment with an expression that communicated several things at once. That he’z been expecting me. He wasn’t entirely sure I deserved to be let in. And he was going to l
Last Updated: 2026-05-31
Chapter: 73Xavier’s POVThe house in Connecticut was exactly the kind of place people disappeared to when they wanted the world to stop finding them. It has colonial architecture, overgrown hedges and driveway that hadn’t been properly maintained in years. Same sort of house that said I have money but I stopped caring about appearances a long time ago. He did good for himself. I have found Dr. Clive Wilder the same way I found most things. And people have the nerve to think I wasn’t smart enough. Ha. I find people through the paper trail people left when they thought they’d buried it deep enough. He’s been careful. Much more careful than most I’ll give him that. But fifteen years was a long time to maintain perfect silence and even careful people got comfortable eventually.He opened the door on my third knock and looked at me. There’s something in his eyes that tells me he’s been hoping i won’t show up.“Mr. Lancaster.” He greeted trying to not appear wary. “Dr. Vance.” I stepped inside wi
Last Updated: 2026-05-31
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