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CHAPTER 144: EDGE
publish date:
2026-08-06 15:49:12
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OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 145: RUN WAY
CIARAThe runway lights were brutal.They weren't designed to flatter anyone standing beneath them. They flooded the stage with a sharp white glare that erased everything beyond the catwalk. Once you stepped into them, the crowd disappeared. The cameras disappeared. The thousands of eyes watching disappeared.All that remained was the walk.Backstage was another world entirely.Stylists rushed between racks of clothing with armfuls of garments. The air smelled like expensive perfume, hairspray, and nervous energy. Someone shouted for a missing model. Another person cursed because a zipper had broken seconds before showtime.Everything was moving at a hundred miles an hour.I stood in the middle of it all, perfectly still.The deep bass of the music vibrated through the floor beneath my heels, pulsing up my legs and settling somewhere in the center of my chest.I inhaled slowly.The cool air inside the Bryant Park pavilion helped clear my head.Fashion shows weren't my natural battlefi
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 144: EDGE
MATHEW The squeak of wet sneakers on the freshly waxed floor was what finally set me on edge.I stood by the counter, a half-empty beer warming in my right hand. The kitchen smelled like a strange mix of burnt sugar, vanilla frosting, and the sharp, chemical tang of the industrial cleaner the staff had used to prep the place. Outside the bay windows, the June heat was brutal, but the central AC was humming a steady, freezing vibration that kept the sweat dry on the back of my neck.It was Adam’s fifth birthday.Through the archway leading to the sunroom, I could hear fifteen kids screaming over a folding table. My sister, Carlista, stood near the patio doors holding a tray of juice boxes, her silver-cropped hair catching the light. She looked entirely out of place but fiercely protective. Beside her, Louis leaned against the doorframe in his shirtsleeves, his jacket discarded, eyes constantly tracking the backyard fence.We had tried to make it look normal. A real cake with blue fro
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 143: SUSPICIOUS INVESTOR
CIARA The glass doors of Horizon Holdings slid shut behind me with a soft click, sealing out the damp Manhattan afternoon.Coming back to work after the wedding felt strange. Most people returned from something like that carrying memories, photos, and a lingering sense of celebration.I came back checking for vulnerabilities.The executive floor was quiet. The smell of fresh espresso drifted through the office, mixing with the faint sound of expensive servers hidden behind reinforced walls. To the outside world, Horizon Holdings was just another international logistics company handling shipments and contracts across continents.The truth was buried several layers deeper.Every system inside this building was part of a fence.A very expensive fence and the people who built it knew exactly why it existed."The server-room integration is finished."Luke's voice broke through the silence.I looked toward the conference table and couldn't stop the small smile that appeared.It was good t
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 142: RECEPTION
MATHEW The heavy oak doors of the chapel groaned shut behind the wedding guests, but the echoing snap of the security latch was the only sound that truly mattered.I stood at the reception bar, my six-foot-four frame cutting a jagged silhouette against the amber track lighting of the estate’s private pavilion. I slowly rolled my left shoulder, the sting of the stitched flesh down to a dull, manageable thrum. My right hand gripped a glass of neat scotch, the white medical tape hidden beneath the starched cuffs of my tuxedo sleeve tightening as my fingers flexed. My only sister was now officially married to my best friend. When we started out, things were so simple looking until maturity caught up to us and finally we dealt with the reality of our present lives.The perimeter was locked down. Louis and Mary’s men had established a seven-mile clean perimeter around the property, and the internal thermal grid was perfectly green. There were no ghosts in the valley. The old world was buri
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 141: WEDDING
CIARA The white orchids draped over the mahogany arches of the estate’s private chapel didn't smell like perfume. To me, they smelled like a clean perimeter.I stood in the vestibule, adjusting the heavy silk of my midnight emerald chief bridesmaid dress in the full-length mirror. Outside the reinforced leaded glass windows, the Hudson Valley fog was rolling thick over the hills, but the internal security grid was completely green. Louis and Mary’s vanguard had established a seven-mile kill-zone around the property. There were no ghosts in the valley today. The old world was officially locked behind the stone walls of the western wing, and the blueprint we had torn up at Pier 42 was already buried under fresh concrete."You're tracking the reflections again, Sterling."I turned my head slightly as Carlista stepped into the room. She looked magnificent—a terrifying, brilliant queen in a structured white silk gown that completely avoided the illustrated, cartoonish styles we had reject
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 140: STERLING CODES
MATHEW The air hit me the second I stepped out of the boutique's back exit.It felt heavy, sticky against my skin, carrying the smell of hot pavement and city exhaust. For a moment, I just stood there in the alley, adjusting my collar and drawing in a slow breath.The tension that had been coiled inside my chest minutes ago had settled into something colder now.New York continued around me completely unaware.Taxis blared their horns.People crowded sidewalks.Somewhere nearby, music drifted from an open restaurant door.Nobody knew that behind the polished storefronts and expensive boutiques, another war had quietly begun.I walked the two blocks back to the truck, my boots striking the pavement in a steady rhythm.When I climbed into the driver's seat, Louis didn't immediately look up from the tablet mounted to the dashboard but I noticed the slight pause in his fingers.He'd seen something."Your biometrics had a pretty dramatic spike," Louis said casually.I started the engine.
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 6: THE FIGHT
MATHEW I stood in the centre of the ring, my knuckles wrapped in tape, looking at the guy opposite me. Tony. The same guy who had been buying drinks for Ciara at the university bar for months. The same guy who looked at her with those smarmy, possessive eyes and the same idiot who came with her to
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 5: THREAT
CIARAMaggie's eyes narrowed as she took in our dishevelled state-mud-caked shoes, rain-soaked clothes, and the undeniable scent of sex clinging to us like a second skin. I instinctively stepped back, crossing my arms over my chest as if that could hide the evidence of our encounter."Well, isn't t
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 4: ARGUMENT
CIARAMaggie's eyes narrowed as she took in our dishevelled state-mud-caked shoes, rain-soaked clothes, and the undeniable scent of sex clinging to us like a second skin. I instinctively stepped back, crossing my arms over my chest as if that could hide the evidence of our encounter."Well, isn't t
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 3: FORBIDDEN FRUIT
I began pacing around. "Go check out Ciara's movement, and if she's recently made new friends. "Damn .. I need to fix this fast." What did you find?""She's just recently started seeing Tony. She's not made new friends, and she just got out of the hospital."I still go very still at the word hosp
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