ログインKAEL'S POVThe door clicked open. Before my brain could catch up, my hand was already moving—instinct driving my fingers to the familiar, freezing grip of the gun at my hip. Behind me, Sylvie let out a sharp gasp, her back slamming hard against the doorframe.It was John.I didn't let my hand relax right away. He stood there with his tie loosened, his face doing that thing it did when he'd rehearsed how to deliver bad news and still hadn't found a good way to say it. He tipped his head toward the hallway, and that was enough signal.I turned to Sylvie. She'd gone pale, her knees starting to buckle, and I caught her arm before she could go down. Her skin was freezing."Stay here," I said, low. She grabbed my sleeve for a second, just held on, then let go, but I didn't wait to see what was in her eyes. I couldn't afford to.I pulled John into the study and shut the door hard enough that the frame rattled."Tell me.""It wasn't an external attack." He was already pacing, two steps one wa
SYLVIE'S POVNeither of us moved for a second after the kiss ended. Kael's forehead rested against mine, his breath still uneven, like he was fighting the urge to close the distance again."We should go," he murmured, but he didn't move either."You keep saying that." I could still feel the warmth of his mouth, the ghost of it. "And yet."That almost got a laugh out of him — a low, rough sound in his chest. "And yet." He pulled back, just enough to look at me properly. "Come on. Let's get inside."I nodded, not trusting myself to say anything that wouldn't give too much away, and reached for my door handle while he opened his. The second I pulled my door open, I heard the shift in him—felt it, almost, the way the air around him changed. By the time my feet hit the ground, his phone was already at his ear, the softness from a moment ago gone like it had never existed."John," he spat out. "The safe house was compromised and we're at the second safe house." He paused, dragging his free
SYLVIE'S POVThe city lights blurred into long, jagged streaks of neon against the black glass of the car window. Kael drove with a terrifying, focused intensity, his knuckles white against the steering wheel. Every few seconds, his eyes flickered to the rearview mirror, his jaw tight, his entire body coiled like a spring."Where are we going?" I asked. My voice sounded thin, alien to my ears.Kael didn't answer immediately. He took a sharp turn, tires protesting against the pavement, heading away from the city center toward the dark, winding roads of the hills."A secure safe house," he finally said, his voice strained. "My team is already sweeping the route. We won't be followed.""You have a team for this? For people breaking into your house?""I have a team for everything, Sylvie." He glanced at me, and for a split second, the cold mask slipped. His eyes were wide, dark with a raw, ugly fear I'd never seen before. He wasn't just worried about the house. He was shaken to his core.
SYLVIE'S POVThe air in the study felt thin, like the oxygen was being sucked out of the room by the sheer weight of Kael's confession. I could almost feel his heart hammering against his ribs—a frantic, uneven rhythm that betrayed everything he was trying to hide behind that frozen executive mask."Let them try," I repeated, my voice barely a whisper. I didn't pull my hand back. I wanted him to feel it. I wanted him to know I wasn't going anywhere and that I wasn't leaving him.Kael let out a jagged exhale, his eyes darkening to a near-black. "You have no idea what you're inviting in, Sylvie.""Then show me," I said, my courage a thin, fraying wire. "Show me the world you're so afraid I'll see."He didn't move; rather, he just stared at me, his gaze dropping to my lips before snapping back to my eyes. It was a look of pure, unadulterated conflict. He was a man fighting himself, and I was the battleground.Then suddenly, the house felt quieter in a way it had never been before. Not ex
KAEL’S POVI slammed the door to the study with the heavy oak shuddering in its frame. My hands were shaking. I shoved them deep into my pockets, pacing around.‘How to crush her.’The words echoed in my head, a confession I had spent the last weeks suffocating.My phone buzzed on the desk—a sharp, insistent vibration that felt like a drill against my nerves. I didn't want to look at it. I just wanted to stay in the silence, to forget the way Sylvie’s laughter had sounded, the way it had ripped through my resolve like a bullet.I grabbed the phone.John."Talk," I said, my voice barely controlled."We have a problem." John’s voice was unusually thin and static-filled. "The investors in Singapore just pulled their commitment. They’re citing 'instability' in our regional operations."I walked to the window, staring out at the fence. The world outside was a battlefield, and for the first time, I felt the walls of my own house closing in. "They don't pull ten million because of 'instabili
SYLVIE’S POVThe music room was a vast space that felt entirely removed from the rest of the villa. It smelled of aged mahogany, beeswax, and a faint, lingering trace of Kael’s cologne. Sunlight slanted through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Dust motes drifted through the stale air like thoughts I couldn't quite catch. In the center of it all sat the grand piano, a hulking, obsidian beast that looked both inviting and menacing.Kael led me toward it, his hand resting firmly on my elbow. His touch grounded me. Whenever he was close, the frantic buzz in my mind quieted. He guided me to the bench, the leather cool beneath my thighs, and he took his place beside me.He didn’t say anything at first. He just sat there, his shoulders broad and square, staring at the piano as if it were a tactical map he was analyzing for weak points. I looked at the keys—the endless, repeating sequence of ivory and ebony—and felt that familiar, sickening lurch of inadequacy. "Place your hands," he command
Sylvie’s POVAt first, there was nothing, just absolute stillness and black. It felt like a long-needed rest after a stressful day, the kind of sleep that anchors you so deeply you forget you have a body.Then, something shook me. It wasn't rough, just a persistent tugging at the edges of my consci
Darian’s POVSoon, I’d be having the perfect day with my wife.My Wife.The word echoed in my head, pulling a low, triumphant laugh from my throat. It was a title of possession. Soon. Very soon, I’d finally have someone I could call mine,someone the world would know belonged to me. I adjusted my cu
Sylvie's POVThe wedding morning is finally here. After three long years, I can not wait to say yes and become Mrs Thorne.The hotel door was pushed open by Evelyn and Darian's cousins.“The bride is awake.” One of the girls said laughing. “ It's time for your makeup my dear.”“You have to look you
Sylvie’s POV “If you don’t want to die, leave him now. Darian isn't who you think he is.”The words were scrawled in a jagged, aggressive handwriting as if the writer had been in a frantic hurry. I stared at it, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. My breath hitched, as I stared at







