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Trimming branches

Author: Jason Banks
last update publish date: 2026-03-12 22:07:58

The truth is,” I said, voice low but firm, “if we’re going to understand who the League really is, we have to dig into the past first. Everything we’ve been fighting, all the shadows moving behind the curtains—it didn’t start with us. It’s been decades in the making.” That means we will have to head back to Japan today .

I stared out at the city lights streaking past the windshield, my reflection fractured across the glass, and felt the weight of it pressing down. “I still haven’t paid my dues
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  • Before love Lies   Coming out of hiding

    Bella – POVThe plane ride was silent.Not the kind of silence that felt peaceful—The kind that pressed in on you.Heavy.Final.Every second in the air felt like a countdown we couldn’t stop. No turning back. No rerouting. No more hiding.I sat across from John, my hands folded tightly in my lap, staring at nothing—and everything—at the same time.Because once we landed…Everything would change.Everything had to.A voice crackled softly in John’s ear.Sam“Master John… this decision cannot be reversed.”I didn’t look at him—but I listened.“Allowing the others to know you’re alive will… cost you your life.”A pause.Even the air felt like it stopped moving.“Sam,” John said quietly.Firm.Controlled.“That’s enough.”Silence.Then—“Shut down.”My eyes shifted slightly toward him.My jaw tightened as a I leaned back, closing my eyes for just a moment.“My decisions from here on out must be my own,” he continued.“I can’t allow the League…”A breath.“I can’t allow the people on the

  • Before love Lies   Queen Bella

    Bella – POV (Mumbai Safehouse)The email came in without a sound.No alert.No warning.Just… there.Sitting at the top of my inbox like it had always belonged.No sender name.No subject line.Just a single attachment.My chest tightened before I even touched it.Because deep down—I already knew.“…No,” I whispered, my finger hovering over the screen.For a second, I almost didn’t open it.Almost.Because as long as it stayed unopened—It wasn’t real.But that’s not how my life works.That’s not how his world works.So I pressed play.The video flickered to life.Static for half a second—Then clarity.My breath stopped.The room disappeared.Everything disappeared.Because there they were.My parents.Lifeless.Still.Wrong.The angle was deliberate. Cruel. Intimate.My father lay motionless, eyes half-open as if he had tried to understand something in his final seconds.My mother—Her hand was stretched toward something off-screen.Toward someone.Toward me.And then—Her scream.

  • Before love Lies   A killers thoughts

    Edward Harper – POV (The Auditor)Princess Bella.How amusing.Not in the way others might laugh—no, not humor.Irony.The kind that coils slowly in your chest and tightens when you realize someone has mistaken defiance for freedom.I leaned back into the leather seat as the jet carved a silent path through the night sky. Below us, continents shifted, oceans stretched endlessly—but up here, none of it mattered. The world was quiet at this altitude.Controlled.Just the way I preferred it.The engine hummed steadily, a low mechanical pulse. Not alive—but close enough to mimic it.A heartbeat without consequence.“She thought she could choose,” I murmured, my voice barely louder than the cabin’s whisper.Smoke curled upward from the cigar between my fingers, twisting into thin, dissolving threads before vanishing into filtered air.“People like her don’t choose…”I tapped ash into a crystal tray with precise, measured movement.“They’re assigned.”My gaze dropped to the tablet resting i

  • Before love Lies   Edward Harper

    Bella – POVYou think choosing a side is just words.It’s not.It’s loss.Immediate.Permanent.And I felt it the second I said it.“I’m choosing you.”The silence that followed?That wasn’t relief.That was consequence.My phone vibrated again.Once.I didn’t even have to look.I already knew.Slowly… I lifted it.One message.No name.No number.Just a symbol.A circle.Cut in half.My breath caught.“…No…”Mei stepped closer.“What is it?”I couldn’t answer right away.Because that symbol?It only meant one thing.Erased.Not removed.Not disowned.Deleted.From records.From systems.From existence.I forced myself to speak.“They’ve cut me off.”John’s voice came low.“The League?”I nodded slowly.“That’s not all.”My hands tightened around the phone.“They don’t forgive betrayal.”A pause.“They rewrite it.”Flash – Bella’s MemoryA room.Cold.White.A younger version of me sitting in a chair.A man standing in front of me.“You belong to us now,” he said.“No past.”“No futu

  • Before love Lies   New path

    Debbie Edison (Olivia Rothchild) – POVSomething had shifted.Not just on the surface.Not just in the data that had been collected and analyzed. It went Deeper.I felt it before I saw it.“Sam,” I said quietly.“Yes, ma’am.”“Update John’s behavioral pattern.”A pause that seemed to a few moments felt like hours.Then“Deviation detected.”My eyes narrowed slightly.“How severe?”⸻“Outside projected pathways.”Silence that made my heart sinkThat didn’t happen.That shouldn’t happen.I stepped closer to the main screen, watching John’s movement replay.Different posture the way he stood made him seem stronger more defensive and more confident .Different pacing.Different energy.“He’s thinking,” I whispered.Not just reacting.Not just following.Thinking.That was dangerous.“What triggered it?” I asked.“Pattern recognition,” Sam replied.Of course he caught on to my pattern it won’t be long before he finds out the truth .I exhaled slowly.“I underestimated how fast he’d see it…”

  • Before love Lies   Breaking character

    Debbie Edison (Olivia Rothchild) – POVThey think this is about war.About families.Power.Revenge.They think this is about the League of Silence.They’re wrong.That was never the endgame.That was just…The door.I stood in the control room, lights dim, screens alive with movement—shipping routes, financial systems, satellite feeds, political chatter across continents.All of it flowing.All of it… predictable.“They’re getting closer,” Sam said.“I know.”Dennis is moving faster.Carl is becoming reckless.Garrison is watching.And now?John is awake.A faint smile crossed my face.“Perfect timing.”Flashback – Years AgoBefore the war.Before the chaos.Before John ever knew who he was—There was a meeting.Five families.One table.Power at its peak.They thought they ruled the world.But what they didn’t realize?They were already losing it.Because the world was changing.Faster than they could control.Technology.Information.Systems.And at the center of it all?Sam.“He’s

  • Before love Lies   Race to find Michelle

    We left the parking garage shortly after that, the echo of the tires against concrete following us like a warning we couldn’t shake. The city lights blurred past as we pulled into the lot of a small hotel on the edge of town, the kind of place no one looked at twice. I parked near the back, away fr

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-23
  • Before love Lies   Who is Thomas Williams?

    The open air left me speechless.State after state slipped beneath the wings, borders reduced to invisible lines that meant nothing at this altitude. The sky felt endless, the horizon stretching farther than it should have, like time itself had begun to thin. We stopped only long enough to refuel—s

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-25
  • Before love Lies   Leaving clues

    Sam I said can you hack into Jeff fisherman car? Sam didn’t hesitate.“Yes, Master John,” he replied. “I can do that.”The lights in the room dimmed slightly as systems came online. I could hear the faint hum beneath the floor—servers spinning up, data paths opening, invisible doors unlocking acro

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-22
  • Before love Lies   The hunt

    The line went dead.I stood there with the phone still pressed to my ear, staring at the blank wall like it had just sentenced someone to death. The silence was deafening—no laughter, no threats, no sound of Michelle’s breathing. Just emptiness.Slowly, I lowered the phone.My hands were shaking.I

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-24
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