LOGINShare
Chapter Sixty-Six: The Man Who Knew My Name
publish date:
2026-08-06 00:52:46No one reached for a weapon.
Not yet.
The underground garage fell into a heavy silence, broken only by the quiet hum of the SUV's engine.
The man closed the driver's door with deliberate care.
His charcoal suit was immaculate despite the dust drifting through the old garage. Silver streaked the dark hair above his temples, and his posture carried the effortless confidence of someone accustomed to command.
He looked to be in his early fifties.
Old enough to have known my father.
Young enough to be dangerous.
His gaze settled on the envelope in Ronan's hands before returning to me.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't open that just yet."
His voice was calm.
Cultured.
There was no trace of urgency.
As though we had met for a scheduled business appointment rather than in a hidden garage beneath the city.
Inspector Mara Voss stepped forward, her pistol raised.
"Hands where I can see them."
The man obeyed immediately, raising both empty hands.
"I have no intention of fighting."
Marcus snorted.
"That's what everyone says before they start shooting."
A faint smile crossed the stranger's face.
"Not everyone."
His eyes found me again.
"You've grown into your father's stare."
I held his gaze.
"You knew him."
"I did."
"Were you friends?"
"No."
The answer came without hesitation.
"We respected each other."
"That's not what I asked."
"I know."
The smile faded.
"Friendship became impossible a very long time ago."
Ronan shifted subtly beside me.
I recognized the movement.
He was positioning himself between the stranger and the envelope.
The man noticed.
"Victor taught you well."
Ronan's expression hardened.
"You knew my father too."
"I knew both of your fathers."
His voice softened almost imperceptibly.
"I wish I had known them longer."
Something about that sentence felt genuine.
That bothered me more than another lie would have.
"You've been following us."
"I have."
"You attacked the library."
"I did not."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I expect you to verify it."
He nodded toward Inspector Voss.
"Ask her whether my face appeared on any security footage."
Voss frowned.
"It didn't."
The man looked back at me.
"I arrived after your firefight began."
Marcus folded his arms.
"Convenient."
"Timing often is."
I studied him carefully.
No visible weapon.
No body armor.
No security detail.
Either he was reckless...
Or he was absolutely certain we wouldn't shoot him.
"I have a question," I said.
"I imagine you have many."
"Answer this one first."
He inclined his head.
"What is your name?"
For the first time since we'd met him...
He hesitated.
Then he smiled.
"A better question."
He reached slowly into the inside pocket of his jacket.
Immediately, Ronan stepped forward.
"Don't."
The man froze.
"I warned you."
"I know."
"I'm taking out a business card."
"Slowly."
He nodded once.
With deliberate movements, he withdrew a single ivory card and held it between two fingers.
No one moved.
I crossed the distance myself and took it.
The card was unusually heavy.
Real cotton paper.
Embossed lettering.
Only three lines appeared.
Gabriel Thorne
Strategic Advisor
No company.
No address.
No telephone number.
Nothing else.
I looked up.
"Strategic advisor to whom?"
He answered quietly.
"To your father."
The words struck like a physical blow.
Marcus actually laughed.
"You're lying."
"I expected that reaction."
"You worked for Sebastian?"
"No."
Gabriel shook his head.
"I advised him."
"For how long?"
"Eighteen years."
Ronan's eyes narrowed.
"My father never mentioned you."
"Neither did Sebastian."
"Why?"
Gabriel looked around the hidden garage.
"Because my job required that neither of them admit I existed."
Silence settled over us.
Finally, I asked the question that mattered.
"If you advised my father..."
I stepped closer.
"...why is he in prison?"
Gabriel didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he looked at the Aston Martin.
Then at the envelope resting in Ronan's hands.
Only then did he meet my eyes again.
"Because he ignored my advice."
The garage seemed colder.
"What advice?"
"I told him never to surrender."
My heartbeat slowed.
"But he did."
"Yes."
A shadow crossed Gabriel's face.
"He chose to become a father instead of a strategist."
No one spoke.
Because every one of us knew exactly what that meant.
Sebastian hadn't made the best strategic decision.
He'd made the decision that protected me.
Gabriel exhaled quietly.
"It was the first argument we ever had."
"The last?"
I asked.
His eyes drifted toward the ceiling, where Silverfang Tower stood somewhere above us.
"The last one..."
He smiled sadly.
"...ended three nights ago."
Three nights.
The missing time.
The visitor register.
"You saw me."
"I did."
"You knew I'd lose my memories."
"I was standing in the room."
A chill ran through my body.
"You watched it happen."
"I objected."
"You let it happen."
"I respected your choice."
The words landed harder than any accusation.
I searched his face for deception.
I found regret.
Real regret.
Before I could ask another question, Ronan unfolded the edge of the envelope slightly.
A small photograph slipped free and fluttered onto the concrete.
It landed face up.
Every person in the garage stared at it.
The photograph showed a conference room.
A date stamp in the corner read:
Three Days Earlier.
Around the table sat five people.
Sebastian Vale.
Victor Ashcroft.
Gabriel Thorne.
Myself.
And...
Ronan.
I felt the blood drain from my face.
Not because Ronan was in the picture.
Because he was smiling.
Looking directly at me.
As if we had already remembered everything.
As if, three days earlier...
We had never been rivals at all.
Latest chapter
My Rival Alpha Knows I'm an Omega Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Five: The Last Page
The lighthouse stood exactly where it always had.Wind polished its white stone.Salt stained its windows.The sea continued its endless conversation with the cliffs below.It had watched generations arrive.It had watched generations leave.It had never asked to be remembered.Only to keep shining.Years passed.Then more.The names changed.The work did not.The children who once raced through Beacon Twelve became teachers.The teachers became grandparents.The grandparents slowly became stories.New hands repaired fishing nets.New voices filled the schoolhouse.New volunteers polished the lighthouse lens every spring.No one remembered who had first started the tradition.They only knew it mattered.One bright summer morning, a ferry arrived carrying a class of children.They could not have been older than ten.Their teacher led them through the village.Past the bakery.Past Victor's old workshop, where young carpenters now taught children how to carve toy boats.Past the oak tre
My Rival Alpha Knows I'm an Omega Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Four: The Light We Leave Behind
The morning began with a funeral.Not for one of the main characters.For Old Ben Carter.The village blacksmith.He had lived on Beacon Twelve for nearly fifty years.Most people outside the island had never heard his name.Everyone on the island had.He had repaired anchors.Straightened bent hinges.Mended children's bicycles without charging a coin.Forged the iron brackets that still held the school bell.He had never led Orion.Never spoken at an international conference.Never appeared in a newspaper.Yet nearly the entire village gathered beneath the great oak tree.Children carried wildflowers.Fishermen removed their caps.Teachers stood beside carpenters.No one checked the time.Some people deserved an unhurried goodbye.The service was simple.Just as Ben had requested.Stories replaced speeches.A fisherman remembered the time Ben had repaired a boat through the night so a family wouldn't lose their season's catch.A teacher laughed while describing how he secretly sharp
My Rival Alpha Knows I'm an Omega Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Three: When No One Is Watching
Winter returned quietly.Beacon Twelve wore frost like an old coat.The harbor was still.The sea breathed slowly against the cliffs.Nothing remarkable happened that morning.That was precisely why it mattered.Adrian woke before sunrise.Not because he had to.Because the habit had never left him.He stepped outside carrying two mugs of tea.Ronan joined him a moment later, wrapping a scarf around his neck."You still wake too early.""I blame the lighthouse.""You've blamed the lighthouse for twenty years.""It hasn't argued yet."Ronan smiled."Perhaps it's too polite."They stood together on the porch, watching the first light touch the ocean.For several minutes...There was only silence.Comfortable silence.The kind people earn after a lifetime together.Across the village, the bakery lights flickered on.Mrs. Henderson's granddaughter, Lily, unlocked the front door.She was no longer "Mrs. Henderson's granddaughter."She had become the village baker in her own right.The reci
My Rival Alpha Knows I'm an Omega Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Two: The Bench Beneath the Oak
It was market day on Beacon Twelve.The village square buzzed with quiet life.Fresh bread cooled on wooden racks outside the bakery.Children darted between market stalls carrying apples much too large for their hands.Visitors browsed handmade carvings, knitted blankets, and jars of blackberry jam.Nobody hurried.Nobody needed to.Time moved differently here.It always had.The largest oak tree in the square had become impossible to ignore.Its broad branches stretched across nearly half the green.In summer it offered shade.In autumn, a blanket of golden leaves.In spring, birds nested among its highest branches.A small wooden bench rested beneath it.Simple.Unpainted.Worn smooth by countless conversations.A bronze plaque had been attached years ago.It read:Sit long enough to hear someone else's story.Nothing more.No names.No dedication.Just an invitation.Adrian sat there most mornings.Not because he was expected to.Because he enjoyed it.Some days no one spoke to hi
My Rival Alpha Knows I'm an Omega Chapter One Hundred Thirty-One: Twenty Years Later
Twenty years later...No one on Beacon Twelve remembered a world without visitors.Children grew up believing it was perfectly ordinary to hear five languages while walking to school.They thought nothing of seeing historians eating breakfast beside fishermen.Or architects learning carpentry from retired boat builders.To them...This had always been home.The oak trees were enormous now.Their branches stretched across the village square, casting cool shade over long wooden tables every summer.No one remembered exactly who had planted each tree.Only that someone had.Children climbed them every afternoon.Parents pretended not to worry.Grandparents secretly smiled.The lighthouse still stood.Older.Weathered.Patient.Its great lens had been replaced twice.Its walls repaired countless times.The original brass lens key still rested inside the small maintenance box beside the door.Exactly where Adrian had left it.Nobody locked the box.Nobody needed to.Whoever maintained the
My Rival Alpha Knows I'm an Omega Chapter One Hundred Thirty: The Last Keeper
The letter arrived without ceremony.It was handwritten.Folded twice.Addressed simply:To Adrian.He recognized the handwriting immediately.Eleanor.She had been living on Beacon Twelve for so long that she rarely wrote notes.If she wished to speak to someone, she simply walked across the village.Adrian unfolded the paper slowly.Meet me at the lighthouse tonight.Come alone.There is one last story I owe you.The sun had already disappeared when Adrian climbed the familiar spiral staircase.Every step creaked exactly as it always had.The stone walls held the scent of salt and old wood.Nothing had changed.Everything had.Eleanor waited beside the great lantern.She stood with one hand resting gently on the brass railing.The evening light softened the lines on her face.She smiled as Adrian entered."You came.""You asked.""I wasn't sure you still listened to old women."He laughed."I learned that lesson years ago.""Good."She looked out over the sea."So did I."For severa
You may also like
Pop My Cherry Daddy!
Xee write699.1K viewsBillionaire's Ex-wife is Mommy of Twins
Lami274666.4K viewsOn My Professor's Bed
Xee write855.5K viewsThe CEO's Ex-Wife Is A Famous Doctor
LiLhyz4.1M viewsThe Hockey Legend's Obsession
Sparkles 67 viewsOFFSIDE HEARTS: His Dr. Anchor
MeryKendy55 viewsPleasured by my Ex-Husband’s Uncle
Cord3lia74 viewsAccidentally Finding My Perfect Match
E. Dahlia37 views
