The Net Tightens

Ethan leaned forward, setting the glass aside. He tapped the phone screen, enlarging Amara’s image.

Her eyes were tired, her chin lifted in quiet defiance. He admired her strength, even as he plotted to redirect it.

“Let him play the savior in front of cameras,” he said softly to the empty room.

“I’ll be the man who stands beside her when the cameras are gone.”

His reflection in the glass window smiled back at him—sharp, calculating, patient.

This wasn’t over.

In fact, the real game had only just begun.

The air carried that familiar hospital scent, though Amara barely paid attention to it.

The hospital had become her second home, its humming lights and steady beeps more familiar than the echoing marble of the Hale mansion.

Here, she was steady. Here, she could breathe.

Or so she thought.

“Amara.”

The voice slid through the quiet like velvet over steel. She froze, her fingers tightening around the chair by her mother’s bedside before turning.

Ethan stood in the doorway, dressed casu