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Chapter 39: Surveillance

작가: HIL’Bray
last update 최신 업데이트: 2025-08-21 17:05:24

“...and the financial trail, while deliberately obscured, is consistent with the pattern established in the fabricated emails and demands.”

Maddox’s voice was a low, gravelly monotone, devoid of inflection. He stood ramrod straight beside the expansive mahogany desk, a stark contrast to the sun-drenched opulence of Alessandro De’Luca’s private Sicilian villa study.

Outside, the turquoise Mediterranean glittered under a relentlessly cheerful sun, mocking the storm gathering within the room. On the desk’s polished surface lay a spread of documents and photographs that felt like shrapnel tearing through Alessandro’s carefully constructed control.

Alessandro didn’t look up. His gaze remained fixed on the topmost photograph: Isabel, pale and drawn, hoodie pulled low, exiting the discreet clinic door. The "Women's Wellness Center" sign was cruelly clear. Confirmation.

The grainy ultrasound image Maddox had procured lay beside it – the tiny bean, the crosshair, the damning measurements
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    The world narrowed to the space between them: the stretch of moon-pale sand, the roaring silence filled only by the crashing waves and the frantic drumming of her own heart. Alessandro stood frozen, the notebook hanging from his hand as if it were made of lead, his face a mask of such profound, shattered shock that Isabel’s own fear momentarily receded, replaced by a dizzying sense of exposure. He had seen it all. Her most private, unguarded thoughts. Her love, her fear, her devastatingly honest assessment of him. For a long, suspended moment, neither moved. The wind whipped a strand of hair across her face, but she didn’t brush it away. She could only stare, paralyzed, waiting for the storm in his eyes to break. It did not break into anger. It broke into anguish. A ragged, broken sound escaped him, something between a gasp and a sob. He took an unsteady step forward, then another, his boots sinking into the soft sand. He didn’t stop until he was standing right before her, the no

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