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Chapter 86: The Stalker

Penulis: Evve
last update Tanggal publikasi: 2026-01-10 07:24:53

The penthouse was no longer a sanctuary. It was a cage with glass walls.

Two days had passed since Vanessa’s visit to the Cross Empire tower. Two days since she had listened at the vent, since she had held the lighter in her hand.

Aurora didn't know about the lighter. She didn't know about the recording. But she knew something was wrong.

It was a feeling. A cold draft in a sealed room. A shadow that lingered a second too long when she turned her head.

She was standing in the kitchen of Liam’s r
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    The Apple logo glowed white in the center of the black screen.To Liam Cross, it looked like a sunrise.He stood in the center of his study. They had moved here from the living room, leaving Ethan with a fresh pizza and Mrs. Higgins in the kitchen. This wasn't something a child needed to hear again. This was evidence. This was radioactive material.Liam placed the phone on the mahogany desk. He plugged it into his computer speakers.Aurora stood next to him, her hand gripping his forearm. Marcus leaned against the locked door, arms crossed, guarding the room.The phone vibrated. It unlocked.Liam’s finger hovered over the Voice Memos app."If it's corrupted..." Aurora whispered."It's not," Liam said. He didn't know that. He just needed it to be true.He tapped the app.A list of files appeared. Most were short—Ethan recording Lego sound effects, or humming Star Wars themes.But at the top of the list, dated today, was a file named New Recording 4.Duration: 47:12.Forty-seven minutes

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    The cab ride felt like it took a hundred years.Ethan sat in the backseat, clutching the dead phone to his chest with both hands. He pressed it hard against his sternum, as if his own heartbeat could charge the battery. As if he could keep the voice inside alive just by willing it.Henry owed me a lifetime. His son will pay it.The words echoed in his head, bouncing around like a marble in a tin can. They were scary words. Grown-up words.The cab slowed."This is it, kid," the driver said. "The Cross Building. Fancy."Ethan looked out the window. The building rose up into the rain, tall and glass and safe. The doorman, Henderson, was standing outside under the awning. He looked upset. He was talking into his radio, waving his arms.Ethan opened the door.He stumbled out. His legs felt like they weren't attached to his body anymore. They were wet noodles."Henderson!" Ethan yelled.Henderson spun around. His eyes went wide. He dropped his radio."Ethan?" Henderson shouted. "Holy mother

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    The vibration against Ethan’s thigh was soft.Bzzt.It wasn't the long, angry buzz of a phone call. It was the short, stuttering pulse of a warning.Ethan sat perfectly still in the velvet chair. His hands were folded on the table, just like Isabella’s. He tried to keep his face blank, the way Uncle Marcus had taught him when they played poker with pretzels. Don't let them see your cards, kid.But his heart was beating so hard he thought Isabella could hear it.Bzzt.Another one.Ethan knew what that meant. He played games on his iPad. He knew the warnings.Low Battery. 20%. Or maybe 10%.He had been recording for over an hour. Audio files were big. They ate battery. And he hadn't charged his phone since last night because he had fallen asleep reading The Hobbit to River.He squeezed the worry stone in his left pocket. He squeezed the phone in his right pocket. It felt warm. Too warm. Like it was working too hard."You're fidgeting," Isabella said.Ethan froze.Isabella was refilling

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    The tea in the china cup had gone cold.Ethan looked at the dark liquid. It reflected the single, battery-powered lantern sitting on the table, a tiny artificial sun in a universe of shadows.Across from him, Isabella Voss was refilling her own cup. She poured with a steady hand, the stream of tea perfect and graceful, as if she weren't sitting in a rotting warehouse in Queens, plotting the destruction of his family.Ethan shifted in the velvet chair. His legs didn't reach the floor. He pressed his heels against the chair legs to stop them from shaking.Be a spy, Uncle Marcus had told him once, when they were playing hide-and-seek. Spies don't wiggle. Spies wait.Ethan touched the phone in his pocket. It was still there. Still humming with the silent vibration of the recording app.He looked at Isabella. She looked like a witch from a fairy tale who had dressed up as a queen."You're quiet," Isabella said. She took a sip of tea. "Henry was quiet when he was plotting. Are you plotting,

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    The inside of the warehouse didn't smell like secrets anymore. It smelled like Earl Grey tea.Ethan followed the woman in the cream coat through the shadows. His sneakers didn't make a sound on the concrete floor—he was walking on the balls of his feet, like a spy, like Uncle Marcus taught him.They walked past rusty machines that looked like sleeping metal dinosaurs. They walked past stacks of rotting pallets. And then, in the center of the vast, empty space, they found a room without walls.It was a setup. A movie set.There was a folding table covered in a white cloth. There were two chairs—not plastic ones, but velvet chairs with gold legs. There was a silver tray with a teapot and two china cups. A battery-powered lantern sat in the middle, casting a warm, yellow circle of light that fought against the gray gloom of the warehouse."Sit," Isabella said.She didn't sound like the bad man in the lobby. She sounded like a teacher. Or a grandmother.Ethan hesitated. He touched the pho

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    The warehouse district in Queens smelled of wet cardboard, diesel fumes, and secrets.Ethan Vale-Cross stood on the corner of a cracked sidewalk, the hood of his navy puffer jacket pulled up against the biting wind. The sky was the color of a bruise—purple and gray and swollen with rain that hadn't fallen yet.He wasn't supposed to be here.He was supposed to be at the robotics camp in Manhattan. He had told the driver, Russo, that the session ran late. He had told the instructor he was getting picked up early by his uncle. He had slipped out the back door, walked three blocks, and used the prepaid debit card he had saved his allowance for to hail a yellow cab.It was the first time he had ever been in a taxi alone. The driver hadn't even looked at him, just grunted when Ethan gave the address he had found on his father's desk.1402 Borden Avenue.The address was written on a sticky note stuck to the back of the embezzlement spreadsheet Liam had been staring at for days. Ethan had see

  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 119: The Birthday Cake

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    The morning of July 14th broke over Montauk with a clarity that felt like a promise. The sky was a brilliant, unblemished blue, the ocean a shimmering expanse of diamonds. The beach house, usually a solitary outpost against the elements, was transformed. It was a fortress of joy. A massive whit

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  • Runaway Heiress: The Billionaire’s Forgotten Bride   Chapter 110: The Ethical Dilemma

    Liam Cross sat in the dimly lit study of his private residence, the silence heavy around him. The digital clock on his desk read 2:00 AM, but sleep was a distant memory. In front of him lay the "Secret Heir" article, the black text glowing ominously on his tablet screen. It had been two days since

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    The bubble of Montauk was perfect. It was a world of salt air, dragon cakes, and a "Papa" who slept in the guest room but made pancakes in the morning. But bubbles, by definition, are temporary. It was Sunday evening. The sun was setting on the weekend of Ethan’s sixth birthday. The guests were

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