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New roots

Penulis: Leelee
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-08-05 19:37:37

Layla’s POV

The courtroom was quiet—too quiet. I sat with my hands laced tightly in my lap, palms slick with sweat. Damian was beside me, his knee bouncing in restless rhythm. Jaden was across the room, fidgeting with the hem of his hoodie like it was the only thing anchoring him to earth.

The judge was reading through the papers, nodding occasionally, flipping a page. Every tick of the wall clock echoed like a hammer in my chest.

It was strange, surreal even—how something so life-altering could happen in such a cold room with flickering fluorescent lights and uncomfortable chairs. No fireworks. No music. Just a decision. A signature. A boy. A future.

“Mr. and Mrs. Blackwood,” the judge finally said, looking over his glasses. “You've both reviewed the responsibilities of guardianship, and you understand what this means—not just legally, but emotionally.”

“Yes, Your Honor,” I said, my voice steady, though my heartbeat was anything but.

Damian added, “We’re ready.”

The judge turned his
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    Damian’s POVThe zipper’s teeth scraped shut slowly, each pull deliberate. Not rushed. Not careless. The kind of sound that lingered just long enough to be carried through the hallway, into the wrong ears. The bag was small—a black leather holdall, polished from years of use, and exactly the size that suggested a quick, routine business trip. Nothing dramatic. Nothing suspicious… at least not to someone who didn’t know better.Inside, I’d arranged everything with surgical precision. Three neatly folded shirts—white, pale blue, charcoal. One pair of slacks. My dark grey blazer, pressed so sharply it could cut paper. A second pair of shoes, polished to a shine. I tucked my watch into the side pouch where it would bulge slightly, a quiet hint for any prying eyes. The details mattered. Lies always fell apart when the details didn’t make sense.The tablet slid into the outer pocket with a soft thud. That part was bait. If anyone happened to glance inside, they’d assume it was for some high

  • A Love Forged In Ruins    Baiting the hook

    Damian’s POVBy the time I closed the study door behind us, my jaw ached from clenching. Jaden’s face was pale, his eyes still darting like a trapped animal’s. Layla hovered by the window, arms crossed tight, her thumb rubbing the edge of her palm — a nervous habit she thought no one noticed.We were all thinking the same thing: the breach wasn’t random. It was personal.“They’re inside,” Jaden muttered, pacing the length of the rug. “Not just my laptop — my phone, my accounts. They were in real time, Damian. Watching. Listening.”I didn’t respond immediately. Instead, I stood by the desk, letting my mind sort through the facts like puzzle pieces. Fear was useful — but only if it didn’t lead.Layla turned to me, her voice sharper than I’d heard in weeks. “So what’s your brilliant plan? Sit and wait for them to do it again? Because right now, we’re blind.”I met her gaze. “No. We feed them.”Her brow furrowed. “Feed them?”“Misinformation,” I said, stepping toward the desk. “They’ve go

  • A Love Forged In Ruins    The digital break-in

    Third person's POV The room was quiet except for the soft hum of Jaden’s laptop fan and the muted clicks of his keyboard. He sat hunched over the desk, a half-empty coffee mug growing cold beside him. The twins’ muffled giggles drifted up the stairs, a faint, comforting background to his focused work.He was deep into his search—digging through public records, sifting through obscure forums, and cross-referencing encrypted archives that most people didn’t even know existed. Every lead mattered now. He felt it in his gut — the person they were after was close.Jaden found a promising link and his pulse quickened. This could be it. He leaned forward, ready to click.And then… the screen froze.At first, he thought nothing of it — his system sometimes lagged when he ran too many heavy files at once. But the lag didn’t go away. The cursor began to move.On its own.Jaden’s hand hovered over the mouse, but he didn’t touch it.The arrow glided across the screen, slow and deliberate, like s

  • A Love Forged In Ruins    The warning in plain sight

    Layla’s POVThe gymnasium smelled faintly of polished wood and fresh paint, the kind that made you think of school assemblies and long-forgotten PE classes. Bright banners hung from the rafters, each one proudly displaying the twins’ school motto in gold letters. Parents milled around, chatting in small groups, holding paper cups of lukewarm coffee.I stood near the refreshment table, smiling politely at a couple of mothers who were deep in a discussion about bake sale logistics. Damian was across the room, talking to the principal. Even from here, I could see the way he leaned slightly forward, shoulders squared — his business posture.It was supposed to be a simple event. A small gathering to celebrate the twins’ class project presentation. But if I’d learned anything in the past few weeks, it was that “simple” didn’t exist for us anymore. Not with the pressure building, not with the way eyes seemed to follow us in places they shouldn’t.I had just taken a sip of my coffee when a wo

  • A Love Forged In Ruins    Shadows in the ranks

    Third person's POV The kitchen door swung open without warning, the hinges creaking in protest as Damian stepped inside, gun already in his hand. The house had been quiet—too quiet—but the faint shuffle of footsteps had pulled him from his study like a trigger.“Turn around,” his voice cut through the dim light, steady but low. “Slowly.”The figure at the counter froze, back rigid, hands hovering over the marble surface. A long second passed before they obeyed, turning just enough for the light from the small lamp over the sink to catch their face.Jaden.Damian’s breath hitched, the rush of adrenaline in his veins hitting a hard wall of relief. He lowered the weapon at once, the metallic tension in the room deflating just slightly.“Jesus, Jaden,” he muttered, shoving the gun back into its holster. “You don’t wander around this house at night without saying something.”Jaden’s expression didn’t change much—just a flicker of something between irritation and guilt. “I was just getting

  • A Love Forged In Ruins    Cleaning house

    Damian’s POVIt was nearly midnight, but my office looked like midday.The desk lamp’s golden light spilled over piles of files and my open laptop, while the rest of the house lay in heavy, silent darkness. The air was still, thick with the faint smell of paper and printer ink. My eyes felt raw, like sand had been ground into them, but I didn’t stop. Stopping meant thinking about what would happen if I failed.The foundation’s books sprawled before me in a chaos only I could navigate — digital ledgers flashing cold numbers on the screen, printed bank statements stacked in uneven piles, and handwritten notes I’d scrawled in the margins when something didn’t sit right.On the surface, it was clean. Respectable. The kind of numbers that would make any audit nod with approval.But numbers lie. People make them lie. And I’d been in this game too long to trust the surface.I traced my finger along a neat column of donations. Fifty thousand dollars from a “community outreach initiative” in D

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