로그인The city did not erupt into cheers when they escaped. There was no victorious laughter, no cathartic release, no moment where relief flooded in and washed everything else away. What followed was quieter and heavier. The rain had scoured the streets raw, leaving them gleaming and empty, but the unease clung to their skin like soaked fabric, heavy and unshakable. You could rinse the blood from the pavement, but not from memory.Back at the mansion, the night splintered into tasks. James locked the drives away in a fireproof safe, his movements precise, almost reverent, as if the truth itself were fragile glass. Clara spoke in hushed, urgent tones to a legal team carefully chosen for one reason alone: Lucas had not yet poisoned them with his influence. Not yet.Ava said nothing. She perched on the edge of the couch, arms wrapped tightly around her torso as if she might shatter if she let go. Her eyes were empty, cavernous, stripped of bravado and lies. No one confronted her. No one neede
The mansion breathed in silence, the kind that pressed against the ears and made every thought echo louder than it should. The storm had passed, but its presence lingered in the air—cool, damp, and heavy with the scent of rain-soaked earth and crushed leaves. From the open balcony doors, night crept inward, carrying with it the whisper of things unfinished. Sophia George sat rigid on the edge of the couch, her posture tense, her fingers worrying the seam of her sleeve until the fabric warmed beneath her touch.She couldn’t escape the weight of what she knew now. The files her father had hidden. The truths he had buried to protect her. The way Lucas had twisted fear into a weapon sharp enough to cut through loyalty, memory, and conscience alike. Every revelation felt like a fresh bruise—very tender, unavoidable, impossible to ignore.Across the room, Liam stood with James and Clara, their voices hushed but urgent, words overlapping in fragments of strategy and risk. Maps were spread ac
Sophia felt the world lurch violently, as if the floor beneath her had suddenly lost its grip on reality. James’s words didn’t just land,they detonated. Her father. Evidence. Lucas. Each word struck like a hammer against glass, splintering everything she thought she understood. The room blurred, sounds warping into distant echoes, her body light and heavy all at once, like she was drowning on dry land.Liam’s arm came around her just in time, firm and grounding, anchoring her before her knees could give out. His hand tightened at her waist, steady but urgent, as though he could physically hold her together if she started to break.“Sophia, breathe,” he murmured, his voice low and close, cutting through the fog.She pulled away slightly, not rejecting him but needing space,space to think, to survive the tidal wave crashing through her chest. Her heart thundered. Her mouth felt dry. “What… what exactly did Lucas take?” she asked, forcing the words past her throat.James looked wrecked.
The atmosphere inside the mansion didn’t just change when Ava broke down,it fractured. It was as if the house itself recoiled, walls tightening, air growing dense and sharp. Every breath felt borrowed. Lucas was no longer a shadow lurking at the edges of their lives. He had stepped fully into the light, and his presence pressed down on them like a blade hovering just above skin.Sophia stood frozen in the wreckage of Ava’s bedroom, surrounded by overturned furniture and torn fabric, watching Ava shake as though the floor beneath her had turned to ice. Ava’s phone was clenched in her hand, knuckles white, fingers trembling, as if the device might detonate at any second. Clara lingered by the doorway, torn between stepping forward and retreating, her silence heavy with dread. Liam stood apart from them all—still, composed, terrifyingly focused. It was the face he wore when something inside him had already decided this was war.Ava dragged a sleeve across her face, smearing tears without
Sophia woke to the delicate patter of rain brushing the window, a soft percussion that almost lulled her back into dreams. For a few precious seconds, she forgot where she was, suspended between sleep and the echo of yesterday’s chaos. But then the scent of the room pulled her fully into reality — cedarwood, cool mint, and the faintest trace of Liam’s morning coffee. His home. His world. A place that should’ve felt forbidden. A place that felt far too safe.She inhaled slowly, chest tightening with the weight of what he said last night —,words he had no right to say, feelings he should’ve buried long ago. He wasn’t supposed to care. Not like that. Not anymore. And yet he looked at her like she was made of something delicate, something breakable, something that mattered to him. That was the part that hurt the most. Because it made it impossible to pretend she was immune.She dressed quietly, trying not to linger on the way her heart wouldn’t settle. When she stepped into the hallway, s
Sophia remained in the study long after Liam had slipped into the shadows of the hallway. The soft glow of the screen bled across the dimly lit room, illuminating the harsh truths she could no longer deny. Every file, every clipped audio, every timestamp carved into those documents spelled out the same chilling revelation:Lucas wasn’t merely dangerous. He was consumed by power,vengeance and by her.A violent ache coiled inside her chest as she braced herself against the cold desk, fingers trembling. How had she missed the signs? How had she let herself believe she was safe?Minutes blurred into a dull, throbbing silence before she finally shut off the screen. Darkness swallowed the room, save for the faint pulse of rain beginning to drum against the windows.She turned to leave and nearly collided with Liam.He stood against the doorframe like he had been crafted from shadows and quiet restraint, arms crossed, eyes fixed on her with an intensity that made her breath catch. It wasn’t







