ログイン~ Avelyn ~The first thing I noticed was the quiet. The kind of quiet that doesn’t belong anywhere near me. Not the silence of sleep, not the calm after a storm, something heavier. Thicker was waiting.I blinked. Slowly. My vision swam, sharp light cutting through my lids like it had been waiting for me. The bed felt too big. Too empty. My arms reached instinctively across the sheets. Nothing. No one.Panic fluttered like a trapped bird. My pulse jumped, loud in my ears. The memory hit me before I could catch it, the chaos, the shots, the screaming. Ciara. The child.I sat up abruptly, pulling the sheets around me like armor. My body still trembled, small jolts of adrenaline making my fingers shake. And then I realized the space beside me. The bed was undisturbed. The weight I’d expected… wasn’t there.Xander hadn’t come in.My stomach twisted. My chest tightened. A shiver ran up my spine, involuntary, like my body had remembered every second of fear it had been forced to endure. I sw
~ Xander ~ I walked away, didn’t go in. The door had been right there. A few steps. That was all it would take. I could hear movement inside—soft, controlled. The quiet rhythm of machines. The low murmur of nurses who didn’t know they were standing in the middle of something that had just rewritten everything. She was in there and so was the child. My child. The word still didn’t sit right. It didn’t settle into anything I recognized. It moved through me like something unfamiliar, something that didn’t belong in the same space as everything else I was. I stood there longer than I should have. Long enough for it to mean something. Long enough for it to become a choice. I could walk in. Demand answers. Demand explanations. Demand what was mine. But the thought stopped before it could fully form. Because the truth was already there. Clear. Unavoidable. She hadn’t told me. Not by accident. Not by circumstance. By choice. Everything she had done—
— Xander —The chaos was behind us. Gunfire, shouting, blood—it all fell away the second I cleared her from the line of fire. I didn’t stop until there was space, until nothing remained between us and the men closing ranks behind. Then I stopped. Not because it was safe. Because I needed to see her.My grip on her arm was firm, controlled, as I scanned her face, shoulders, hands checking, assessing, searching. “Are you hurt?” My voice was low, measured, but not without weight. She shook her head too quickly. “I’m fine.” A lie. Or maybe not. I couldn’t tell. Her chest rose unevenly, her hands trembling, her body still taut from the seconds she’d spent kneeling with a gun to her head.And it wasn’t just that. It was the way she looked at me, eyes meeting mine briefly, then slipping away. Avoiding. Not relief, not anger but something tighter, restrained. My jaw tightened. I stepped closer, hand rising to brush under her chin, tilt her face back toward the light. She stiffened instantl
— Xander — I had never knelt for anyone. Not for men with more power. Not for men with more money. Not for men who thought fear could bend me into something smaller than what I was. Power wasn’t given, it was taken. And once you had it, you didn’t bow. You didn’t lower yourself. You didn’t break. So when he said it— “Kneel.” The word didn’t land as an order. It landed as an insult. Silence followed, heavy and deliberate, stretching just long enough to demand a reaction. My gaze stayed on him, unmoving. Gjarpri stood there like he had already won, like the outcome had been decided and I was just catching up to it. Around me, my men shifted subtle, tense, ready. One command. One signal. That was all it would take to turn this place into a graveyard. I could already see it—the angles, the openings, the first men to fall before the rest even understood what was happening. I could end this. Right here. Right now. Then— A sound. Soft. Fragile. Out of place. My eyes flickered, j
~ Avelyn ~At first, I thought I imagined it.The sound didn’t belong here. It didn’t fit with the guns, the tension, the men standing too still like they were waiting for something violent to happen. It was too small. Too soft. Too… fragile.But it came again.Sharp. Unsteady. A cry.My heart didn’t stop. It dropped. So fast it felt like it tore through my chest on the way down.My head lifted before I could stop it, my body reacting faster than thought, faster than fear, faster than logic.And then I saw her.Everything inside me broke.“Ciara—”The name slipped out of me, raw and breathless, my body lurching forward on instinct alone. The hand at my neck tightened instantly, the gun pressing harder against my temple, forcing me back down before I could move again.But I didn’t feel it.I didn’t feel anything except her.She was in someone else’s arms. Too small. Too exposed. Her face scrunched, her tiny hands curling and uncurling as she cried, the sound uneven, fragile, wrong in a
— Xander —The moment I saw her on her knees, something in me shifted. Not outwardly. Not in a way anyone here could measure or use. But inside—something tightened. Locked. Refused to move.They had forced her down like she was nothing. Like she belonged at the mercy of men who didn’t understand what they were touching. Her hands braced against the ground, shoulders tense, spine rigid, holding herself together by sheer force.And there was a gun to her head.I didn’t look at it for long. Because if I did, I wouldn’t be standing where I was. I wouldn’t be playing this the way it needed to be played. My gaze returned to her face. She had already seen me. I knew the exact second it happened. The slight stillness in her body. The way her breathing changed, almost imperceptible unless you knew what to look for. Unless you knew her.I let my expression remain unchanged. Cold. Controlled. Untouched. Anything else would cost her. And I wasn’t paying that price.“Welcome, Xander.”Gjarpri’s vo
~ Avelyn ~Laura’s laugh was the kind of sound that made my palms itch.Not loud, not sincere—just sharp and loud enough so nearby people would notice.I stared at her in silence for a second, mostly to confirm that yes, she actually had the audacity to be here.She looked exactly the same as she
~Avelyn ~“Come to my room.”There was no warmth, no mockery or teasing edge in his tone. Just command.I stood there for a second longer than necessary, my body lagging behind my mind like it didn’t want to cooperate anymore. Everything in me was tired. My feet hurt. My head throbbed. My chest fe
The agent was still talking when I walked away. She called after me once, politely at first, then louder—“Miss Avelyn!”—but I didn’t stop. Her words bounced around the foyer like loose marbles, but I didn’t care. The only thing in my head was Xander.Three penthouses.Three.In my name.It wasn’t
~ Avelyn ~Darkness didn’t come gently, it crashed into me.When I came back to myself, the first thing I felt was softness beneath my fingers. Not the cold marble of the garden. Not the rough grip from earlier. This was… fabric. Thick cushioned and expensive.My lashes fluttered.The ceiling above







