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Chapter 7

Author: Ivy Monroe
Adrian didn't spare a glance at the panicked man trying to flee.

He looked down at Chloe, lifted his hand, and hurled the cracked phone into her face.

"Ten years," he said. His voice was hoarse, scraped raw, and edged with something lethal. "For filth like you, I drove my wife to her death and lost my only child. Tell me, Chloe. Did you ever feel even one second of guilt?"

"Adrian, listen to me." Chloe lunged forward and tried to grab the hem of his coat. "I love you. I was just afraid of losing
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  • Life Is Not Late   Chapter 10

    Adrian walked toward me as if every step carried the weight of a lifetime.The perfectly controlled man I remembered was gone. His cheeks were sunken, his bones too sharp beneath his skin, and the old arrogance in his eyes had been replaced by a sick, desperate plea."Evelyn," he said when he stopped a few paces away. "You've tanned a little. You're thinner too... but you look well."He stared at me as if he had been surviving on the memory of my face for years.I didn't break down. I didn't scream. I didn't even feel the rage I once thought would never leave me.I simply looked at him the way one looks at a stranger from a past life."Evelyn, I only have half a day," Adrian said when I didn't answer. He took an urgent step forward, but the women from my hiking group immediately moved closer, wary and protective. "I have to leave soon."He gave a self-mocking laugh and slowly lifted the hem of his pant leg.In the fading sunset, the cold metal of an electronic ankle monitor flashed aro

  • Life Is Not Late   Chapter 9

    Two years later, I was living at the foot of the Alps.The mornings there were always cool and clean, carrying the scent of grass, stone, and distant snow.No one in that little European town knew Oscar-winning actress Evelyn. To them, I was simply Cindy.I had traded my heavy Manhattan gowns for hiking boots and soft sweaters. I bought bread from the same bakery every morning, learned the names of my neighbors' dogs, and walked through streets where no one raised a camera at my face.After surviving the wreckage of my old life, that kind of ordinary peace felt almost unreal."Eve, you forgot something!"Paul's hurried footsteps came up behind me.I turned and saw him holding my hiking pack, worry carved into his face."Are you sure you don't need me to go with you?" he asked.I smiled and took the pack from him."Our hiking group is all women. If you join, they'll be nervous.""Cindy, le bus va partir!" one of my friends called from the bus.Just as I was about to climb on, Paul rubbe

  • Life Is Not Late   Chapter 8

    Adrian drove through the midnight streets of Manhattan.Neon lights smeared across his blood-stained face as the car sped forward. The man who had once ruled the careers of countless stars, the king of producers, now calmly called the police."This is Adrian," he said. "I've killed two people, and I'm on my way to turn myself in."He didn't hire a top legal team. He didn't call PR. He refused every possible way out.To him, the world outside had become more of a prison than prison itself. Everywhere he looked, he saw Evelyn's shadow.But at the final turn before the police station, a massive black SUV roared out of the darkness and slammed into his car.The impact flipped the vehicle in the middle of the road.Glass shattered with a deafening crash.Through his blurring vision, Adrian saw a tall man jump out of the SUV.The man pried open the twisted car door and dragged him out of the wreckage by force.It was Paul."Please," Adrian gasped, blood running down his face. There was somet

  • Life Is Not Late   Chapter 7

    Adrian didn't spare a glance at the panicked man trying to flee.He looked down at Chloe, lifted his hand, and hurled the cracked phone into her face."Ten years," he said. His voice was hoarse, scraped raw, and edged with something lethal. "For filth like you, I drove my wife to her death and lost my only child. Tell me, Chloe. Did you ever feel even one second of guilt?""Adrian, listen to me." Chloe lunged forward and tried to grab the hem of his coat. "I love you. I was just afraid of losing you. Those messages were nonsense. I didn't mean any of it.""Love me?"Adrian let out a broken laugh. A single tear slid down his cheek, but there was no tenderness left in it, only mockery."Do you love me, or do you love my resources? My PR team? The fool you could move around like a puppet?"He grabbed Chloe by the hair and dragged her close, forcing her to look at the truths on the phone screen."The kidnapping was fake. The assault was fake. The betrayal that night was fake. And this firs

  • Life Is Not Late   Chapter 6

    Seven days after Evelyn disappeared, a heavy rainstorm hit Manhattan.Adrian wandered through the mansion like a ghost. He no longer dared to sleep in the wedding bed. Instead, he spent every night in the study, digging through everything Evelyn had left behind.Recordings. Interviews. Behind-the-scenes clips. Old voicemails.He was desperate to hear her voice one more time.In a dusty drawer, he found an old phone with a cracked screen.At first, he thought it belonged to Evelyn. But when it powered on, the pink case stirred a memory.It was Chloe's phone.She had dropped it in his car two years earlier, and he had kept it ever since.That night, driven by an impulse he couldn't explain, Adrian typed in the password.The phone unlocked.What appeared on the screen was not the soft, pretty world he had imagined.It was an encrypted album titled "Game."Adrian opened the first video.It was from ten years ago, during the kidnapping that had changed all their lives.In the video, Chloe w

  • Life Is Not Late   Chapter 5

    Adrian lost track of how he survived the next three days.Scandal crashed over him like a tsunami. The board suspended him from all duties. Reporters surrounded his companies, investors demanded answers, and every news outlet in the country was replaying the final video Evelyn had left behind.Adrian barely noticed any of it.He spent his days locked inside the empty soundstage, staring at the dark, dried bloodstain on the floor.He refreshed his phone like a madman, searching for any proof that Evelyn was still alive. A hidden account. A hospital transfer. A private jet record. Anything.But Evelyn had vanished overnight.Then he saw an old post from Paul: a photo of autumn leaves.The location tag was a small town in Connecticut, Evelyn's birthplace.She had once told him that if she ever got too tired, that was where she wanted to rest.By the time Adrian reached the rural church, the sunset had turned the brick cemetery walls the color of dried blood. There were no cameras, no flas

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