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Chapter Eleven: Smoke and Mirrors
Last Updated:
2025-08-29 02:14:00
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The Full Moon Verdict Chapter Sixty-Two: Home
The wheels kissed the tarmac with a soft shudder. Seventeen hours of sky collapsed into one brief sound — arrival.By the time they cleared customs and stepped into the coastal sun, the air itself felt different — warm, damp, smelling faintly of salt and bougainvillea. Anna blinked against the brightness. Ethan lifted his sunglasses, scanned the waiting line of cars, and nodded to a driver holding a small card that read Cross.The chauffeur, an older man with an easy smile, took their bags with quiet efficiency. “Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Cross. The villa is ready.”Mrs. Cross.The words still hit her in small, unbelievable waves.They climbed into the back seat of a sleek black sedan. The city blurred past — a quilt of palms, tiled rooftops, and open markets spilling fruit and flowers onto cobbled streets. Anna leaned against the window, watching strangers laugh over morning coffee, children racing bicycles along the waterfront.Ethan’s hand found hers across the seat, palm warm, thumb t
The Full Moon Verdict Chapter Sixty-One: Departure
The airport shimmered with morning light, all steel and glass and movement. Voices rose and fell in overlapping languages, the soft roar of departures and arrivals blending into a single pulse that felt too large, too alive.Kyle parked in the designated security lane, the convoy halting behind him. Officers stepped out, crisp and professional, one of them tipping his head toward Ethan in quiet acknowledgment. The world around them had turned ordinary again—families, luggage trolleys, rolling wheels, airport coffee—but underneath it all was a hum of tension neither of them could shake.Myrena flicked her cigarette into the gutter and exhaled smoke like punctuation. “Well,” she said, squinting up at the glass façade, “you two actually did it. Never thought I’d see the day Ethan Cross settled down. Hell, I owe Kyle fifty.”Kyle smirked. “I told you he would.”Anna smiled faintly, though her stomach was too tight for laughter. “And what happens to you now?” she asked.“Same as always,” M
The Full Moon Verdict Chapter Sixty: Paper Shields
The City Hall doors sighed shut behind them, muting the buzz of clerks and fluorescent hum into the morning air. Outside, the city was fully awake—horns tangled in chorus, shopfronts rattling open, voices rising like the tide. But to Anna, it all seemed distant, muffled, as though she were walking inside a bubble of glass.Her shoes clicked against stone steps, the sound oddly far away. People brushed past, laughing, arguing, dragging bags, spilling words she couldn’t catch. All she could think—over and over, as if her mind had seized on a single loop—was I’m married.Married.Not after months of planning, not after a long courtship, not even after safety had been guaranteed. Married in an office that smelled of old paper and disinfectant, to the man who had both terrified and saved her life. Married to Ethan.She lifted her hand once, almost unconsciously, the diamond scattering sunlight into sparks. It dazzled her eyes, too bright, too much, so she lowered it quickly, as if the weig
The Full Moon Verdict Chapter Fifty-Nine: A Vow in the City
The city was still rubbing the sleep from its eyes when Ethan called Kyle and Mireya. By the time the streets warmed with light, their sedan was loaded. Papers, passports, exit visas—all tucked into Mireya’s neat envelope, the weight of escape sealed in paper.“We have a few stops before we leave the country,” Ethan said, his tone clipped.Anna looked at him, expecting another safehouse, a backdoor embassy. Instead, he guided her into a boutique.The shop was all glass and light, mannequins draped in silk and linen that spoke of a summer Anna hadn’t thought she’d live to see.“Anything she wants,” Ethan told the sales attendants. His voice wasn’t a request.Anna flustered, cheeks heating. “Ethan, I don’t need—”“You do,” he said, no softness in the words, only certainty.The attendants hurried to please them, carrying armfuls of fabric into the dressing room. Anna tried one after another—soft blues, muted greens, pale pinks, trousers paired with crisp blouses. Each time she stepped ou
The Full Moon Verdict Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Call
The safehouse was nothing more than a crooked cabin buried in trees. Paint flaked from the siding like old scabs, shutters hung at odd angles, and the porch groaned under their steps. It smelled of mildew and dust inside, a place no one had cared for in years. Perfect.Ethan closed the door with a quiet click, sliding the bolt home. He stood for a long moment, back pressed to the wood, shoulders tight with a weariness he refused to show.Anna dumped the duffel on the warped table. “Sit,” she ordered.He gave her a look, faintly amused despite the pallor of his skin. “Since when do you give the orders?”“Since you’re bleeding,” she shot back.Something in her tone silenced the retort. He lowered himself into the chair, breathing carefully, one hand hovering near his ribs. Anna pulled out what little they had salvaged—alcohol wipes, gauze from a battered first-aid tin, a roll of tape gone yellow at the edges.“Not much,” she muttered.“It’ll do.”The wound was ugly up close. Angry flesh
The Full Moon Verdict Chapter Fifty-Seven: The Hidden Wound
The sedan rolled on through darkness, its engine a low hum against the weight of silence. The night stretched forever, road unspooling in a ribbon of shadow. Anna sat curled in the passenger seat, hands clasped tight in her lap, her heart still hammering from the encounter in the motel.Ethan drove with the same quiet concentration he always carried, jaw set, eyes pinned to the road. To anyone else, he looked untouchable—calm, sharp, in control.But something was wrong.Anna had felt it first in the way he breathed. Too measured, too shallow. And then she noticed the way he leaned, ever so slightly, toward the left, guarding his side.The truth slammed into her as the car veered into the shelter of a stand of trees. Ethan cut the engine, headlights vanishing, leaving them in darkness.Only then did she see it.His shirt, darkened across one side. Stained, spreading.Blood.Her throat closed. “Ethan.”He looked at her, steady, almost defiant. “It’s nothing.”“Nothing?” Her voice cracke
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