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Ghosts of the Living
publish date:
2025-10-14 19:23:54
Latest chapter
The Bodyguards boy Verdict
The jury deliberated for three days.Cassian spent most of it unable to focus on anything else pacing the apartment, staring at his phone, jumping every time it buzzed with a notification that turned out to be nothing more than another news alert speculating on the timeline."You should eat something," Rowan said, for what felt like the tenth time that day, watching Cassian abandon another plate barely touched on the kitchen counter."I can't," Cassian admitted. "Every time I try to think about anything else, it just comes back to this. What if they don't convict him. What if all of it the video, the trial, everyone testifying, everything Elias" His voice caught on the name, still raw even weeks later. "What if all of it wasn't enough.""It was enough," Rowan said firmly, crossing to sit beside him, taking his hand. "The evidence is overwhelming. His own voice, on record, confessing to exactly what he did. Whatever the jury decides about sente
The Bodyguards boy Testimony
The courtroom was packed by the time Preston Wesley was led in, cameras banned from the room itself but crowded thick on the courthouse steps outside, the whole trial already the kind of story networks built entire morning segments around.Cassian sat in the second row, Rowan beside him, Sloane and Adrian just behind. Taryn and Lennox had taken seats near the back, closer to the door, some old operational instinct neither of them had fully shed even now that the danger was supposedly over.Preston looked smaller than Cassian remembered. Not physically he still carried himself with the same rigid posture, the same carefully composed face but something underneath it had visibly hollowed out in the weeks since the airfield. He didn't look at the gallery as he was led to the defendant's table. He didn't look at anyone.The prosecutor, a sharp, unhurried woman named Alvarez, opened without theatrics, laying out the case in the same plain, methodical langu
The Bodyguards boy Farewell
The funeral was small, deliberately so Sloane's decision, made in the quiet days after the airfield, when the idea of turning Elias's death into another public spectacle had felt like the one indignity she refused to let happen to him."He spent his whole life staying out of the spotlight everyone else in my world seemed to crave," she'd told Cassian, the night before. "I'm not going to let his funeral be the first time he's forced into it."It hadn't stayed entirely private. Word of Elias Cole's death had already circulated by the time they arrived not the full truth yet, just enough of a name and a headline to draw a small cluster of reporters to the edge of the chapel's gravel drive, cameras angled and waiting the moment the first car pulled in."Mr. Wesley can you confirm reports that the man who died at the airfield was more than a bystander?""Is it true Elias Cole worked for Preston Wesley's company decades ago?""Sources are say
The Bodyguards boy Undone
Sloane was still at the kitchen table when her phone rang, the same table she'd sat at for what felt like every difficult call this past week Cassian's video, the decision to finally see him, all of it funneling through this one small, worn piece of furniture like it had become the center of her entire unraveling life.She saw Rowan's name and answered immediately, some old instinct already bracing for bad news before she'd even said hello."Rowan."There was a pause on the other end too long, too careful, the particular silence of someone gathering courage for words he didn't want to say."Sloane." His voice was rough, thick with something she recognized instantly, having heard variations of it in her own throat too many times this past year. "I need you to sit down, if you're not already."Her stomach dropped. "I'm sitting.""It's Elias." Another pause, agonizing in its length. "Preston tried to run tonight. We caught up to him at a
The Bodyguards boy Tarmac
Lennox found the flight plan at just past four in the morning."Private charter, filed under a shell company I almost missed," he said, voice sharp with adrenaline despite the hour. "Departure window opens in forty minutes. Regional airfield, thirty miles out.""That's him," Rowan said, already reaching for his jacket. "Running now that the recording's out."Elias, who'd stayed at the apartment since the meeting at the house, stood as well, something quiet and resolute settling over his face. "I know that airfield. I know the pilots Preston's used for private charters for years men who won't ask questions if the money's right. If you're moving on this, I can help you identify exactly which hangar, which plane, faster than any database will.""You don't have to come," Sloane said, her hand finding his arm."I want to," Elias said gently. "I spent twenty-six years watching him from a distance, unable to do anything that mattered. I'm not stayin
The Bodyguards boy Confession
Adrian's contact found Preston's location within the hour not fled yet, just delayed, still moving through the mansion gathering whatever remained of a life he was about to abandon."He's still there," Adrian said, ending the call. "Which means we have a window. A small one.""To do what," Rowan asked, already reading something in Adrian's expression he didn't like."To get him on record," Adrian said. "Not a shredded file, not a frozen account. His own voice, admitting what he did, while he still believes there's a version of tonight where talking costs him nothing because he's already planning to be gone before anyone can use it against him.""That's dangerous," Taryn said flatly. "Walking into a cornered man's house while he's actively trying to disappear.""It's the last chance we get," Adrian said. "Once he's gone, he's gone. Money like his doesn't disappear cleanly, but it disappears well enough to make a trial difficult, drawn out, bre
The Bodyguards boy Bruises You Can’t See
Cassian wasn’t sure what woke him the sharp blade of sunlight cutting through the penthouse curtains or the dull ache pounding behind his eyes. Either way, morning didn’t feel like a beginning.It felt like punishment.The sheets tangled around his legs like restraints. His mouth was dry, his chest
The Bodyguards boy The invitation
Cassian hated suits.Not because they didn’t look good on him he could turn heads in a garbage bag. He hated them because they symbolized everything his father loved: control, conformity, image. Tonight’s charity gala was just another attempt to show the world that Cassian, scandalous heir to a bil
The Bodyguards boy The Hangover
Cassian woke with a sour taste in his mouth, an aching head, and the distant, humiliating memory of being protected. Again.The penthouse was quiet. Too quiet. Sunlight stabbed through the tall windows like punishment. He groaned and sat up, squinting at the floor scattered with designer clothes, h
The Bodyguards boy Trial by fire
Cassian Wexley never turned down an invitation to be seen.So naturally, the night after Rowan Maddox entered his world like a walking threat in black boots and bad moods, Cassian decided it was the perfect time to cause a scene.He didn’t tell Rowan where they were going only that he was expected.
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