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Chapter 64: Liam's Investigation

Author: Evve
last update publish date: 2026-01-01 23:28:17

The "war" wasn't being fought with supply chains anymore. It was being fought in the dark.

Liam Cross sat in the back of his Maybach, the city of New York sliding past the tinted windows like a film noir. It was raining again, a relentless, gray drizzle that matched his mood.

He wasn't going to the office. He was going to a small, unmarked building in Hell’s Kitchen.

It was the office of Blackwood & Associates. Private Investigators.

Liam had used Blackwood before. For corporate espionage. For
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    The scream didn't stop.It didn't taper off into a sob. It didn't break into a whimper. It just kept going, a continuous, tearing sound that shredded the lining of Aurora’s throat and filled the penthouse with the frequency of absolute ruin.She wasn't screaming because she was sad. She was screaming because the world she lived in—the world of gravity, logic, and cause-and-effect—had just been incinerated.I killed them.The note on the table wasn't paper anymore. It was fire.Aurora grabbed the heavy crystal vase in the center of the table—white roses, innocent, stupid roses—and she threw it.It didn't just fall. It flew. It smashed into the mirrored wall of the dining room, exploding in a shower of glass, water, and petals. The sound of the crash was satisfying. It was the only thing that made sense."Aurora!" Liam’s voice was a distant roar, underwater.She didn't look at him. She looked at the room.The perfect, curated, architectural life she had built. The herringbone floors. Th

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    The words vomited out of her, acid and hot, burning her throat as they hit the cool air of Dr. Chen’s office."Maybe they're right," Aurora sobbed. Her body was curled tight on the moss-green sofa, her hands gripping her knees so hard her knuckles popped. "Maybe I am exactly what Isabella says I am. Maybe I'm a monster who built a castle on a graveyard."She looked at Liam, then quickly away, unable to bear the love in his eyes because it felt like a spotlight on her fraudulence."My mother walked into the ocean because she was empty," Aurora whispered. "My father worked himself to death to cover it up. And I... I took the money. I took the insurance payout and I went to architecture school. I built AVA on the checks from their deaths."She took a ragged breath."And then I married you," she said to Liam’s shoes. "Not for love. Not at first. For revenge. For leverage. I used you. I used everyone. Just like Henry used Isabella."The silence that followed was heavy, filled only with the

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    The morning sun hit the limestone of the balcony with a deceptive warmth.Aurora sat at the dining table, the remains of breakfast scattered around her. Four empty plates—Ethan had left early for his internship, River for the conservatory, Hope for the studio, and Grace for school.The silence they left behind was usually a comfort, a moment to breathe before the machinery of Vale-Cross Global demanded her attention.She picked up her phone to check the Tokyo schematics.A notification banner slid down the screen.It wasn't an email from Claire. It wasn't a calendar reminder. It was a push alert from The Daily Truth, the same rag she had bought and gutted years ago, now resurrected under new, shell-company ownership.AURORA VALE BUILT EMPIRE ON PARENTS' DEATHS: THE BLOOD MONEY QUEEN.The coffee cup in Aurora’s hand didn't fall. She set it down. Her movement was precise, mechanical, the careful motion of a bomb disposal technician who hears the timer accelerate.She tapped the screen.

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    The rain had stopped, but the air in the small apartment in Queens was heavy with the smell of damp plaster and impending disaster.Liam Cross stood in the center of the room, the laptop open on the table, the map of his son's life taped to the wall. The word BURN was scrawled in red marker next to

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