共有

The Press Conference

作者: DiellaNoir
last update 公開日: 2026-08-22 02:37:03

POV: Ava Bennett

"You're doing what?" I said, gripping my phone so tightly my knuckles went white as I paced my office an hour before the press conference was set to begin, my heels clicking sharply against the floor with every turn.

"I need you to trust me, Ava, just for the next hour, that's all I'm asking," Noah said on the other end of the line, his voice steady in a way I hadn't heard from him in six years.

"Noah, if you walk onto that stage and something goes wrong, Sterling could still b
この本を無料で読み続ける
コードをスキャンしてアプリをダウンロード
ロックされたチャプター

最新チャプター

  • The Ice King's Forbidden Heir   I Want It Undisturbed

    POV: Ava Bennett"You came," Vanessa said.She stood on the courthouse steps at four o'clock in the same green sweater from the lobby camera, a paper bag of her belongings clutched against her chest. Her hair was flat from two nights under fluorescent lights. A pale strip of skin showed where her watch had been taken and given back.I had rehearsed it in the car. Every word was gone."I was wrong," I said. "I was wrong, and I said it in front of your daughter, and I won't ask you to forgive it.""Good," Vanessa said. "Because I can't."The wind pulled at her sleeve. She did not look away from me, and I made myself hold her stare."Don't tell me it's all right," she said. "It isn't. I spent two nights in a cell telling myself that nobody who knew me would believe it, and the first person I looked at in that apartment was you. You didn't hesitate. Not once.""I know.""Three months ago you let me into your house. I thought that meant something.""It did. It does." My voice shook. "Vanes

  • The Ice King's Forbidden Heir   Who Was In The Vault?

    POV: Noah Callahan"I do not release session records for convenience," Dr. Ingrid Sol said, and folded her hands over a leather desk blotter. "Not for police, not for lawyers, not for famous hockey players. I want that understood before we begin.""Understood," I said.It was eight in the morning. Dylan sat in the chair beside mine with his arms crossed, still wearing yesterday's hoodie. Renata sat on the sofa under the window, her face gray with sleeplessness, a signed release form in her lap.Dr. Sol was sixty or so, with a silver braid down her back and the stillness of someone who had heard every lie there was and no longer needed to flinch. She slid a thin file across the desk."Tuesday, nine o'clock. Family session. Vanessa and Renata Sterling." She tapped the page. "Vanessa arrived at 8:55. She signed in on the waiting room tablet. I have the timestamp. The session ran until 9:58. She left at ten past ten, after speaking with the receptionist about rescheduling.""Is it possibl

  • The Ice King's Forbidden Heir   In your bedroom

    POV: Ava Bennett"Ma'am, you can't come in here," the young officer said, and put a hand flat against the doorframe of apartment 3C."I'm Ava Bennett. I'm the one whose daughter was photographed."His hand dropped. Behind him, the apartment glowed under bright evidence lamps. A woman in a navy blazer knelt by an open closet, snapping photographs of a shoebox. Two technicians in blue gloves worked through the bookshelf. A box of crayons lay spilled across the living room rug beside a half-finished drawing of a purple horse.Vanessa stood against the far wall in her socks, one hand pressed over her mouth. Beside her, a small girl in rabbit pajamas gripped her leg with both arms."Ava," Vanessa said. Her voice cracked in half. "Thank God. Tell them. Please tell them I didn't do anything."I did not move from the doorway. Noah stood just behind me. I could feel the warmth of him, and I held very still, because if I leaned back I would stop being angry."Detective Ruiz," the woman in the b

  • The Ice King's Forbidden Heir   Box Fourteen

    POV: Noah Callahan"Mr. Kline never came up from the garage," said Ms. Aldana, the branch manager, leading us down a marble corridor with her heels clicking like a metronome. "Our attendant noticed his car this morning. We checked the vault log and then we called your office. I should tell you the bank's lawyers are very unhappy that I did.""Thank you," Ava said. "We'll be quick."The vault door was the size of a pickup truck, round and polished and thick as my chest. Inside, rows of small steel doors lined the walls like a honeycomb. Ms. Aldana stopped at one near the floor. Number fourteen. The door hung open an inch."It was like this when the attendant arrived," she said. "The box is empty."Okoye crouched, his flashlight already out. He ran the beam along the lock and grunted. "No force. Somebody opened it with a key.""Kline has one key," Ava said."The second is held by a co-signatory." Ms. Aldana pulled a printed sheet from her folder with the care of a woman handing over a l

  • The Ice King's Forbidden Heir   I'm the only thing I have left

    POV: Ava Bennett"Phones, watches, belts, and jewelry in the tray," the officer said. "Ma'am, the necklace too."My hand flew to my collarbone before I could stop it. The thin silver chain had not left my neck in eight years. The officer waited, bored and unbothered, and I unclasped it with fingers that would not stay still."I'll hold it," Noah said quietly, and cupped his palm under mine.I let the chain pour into his hand. He closed his fingers around it, and I walked through the metal detector feeling lighter and stranger than I had any right to.FCI Sheridan sat in a gray valley of Oregon where the wind never seemed to stop. The visiting room had low plastic tables bolted to the floor and a vending machine that hummed against the wall. A guard led us to the one in the far corner. Noah took the chair beside me. His brace creaked.Roland Sterling came in through the opposite door.I had last seen him in a courtroom, handcuffed, shouting at the bailiff. The man who crossed the room

  • The Ice King's Forbidden Heir   Dragons are hard

    POV: Noah Callahan"Say that again," I said. "Slowly."Femi Okoye did not look up from the laptop. FrostTech's head of security was a broad, patient man in his fifties who spoke as if he were setting glasses down on a shelf. "The picture was not taken through a fence, Mr. Callahan. Someone made it look that way."It was six in the morning, three weeks after my surgery, and the kitchen smelled of burnt coffee and ice packs. I sat with my leg propped on a chair and a brace locked around the knee. Ava stood behind me with one hand on my shoulder. David leaned against the counter with his arms folded. The photograph from the cream envelope lay in the middle of the table, and none of us had touched it in an hour."Explain," Ava said.Okoye turned the screen toward us. "I blew it up. The chain links are flat. Every wire is equally sharp, and a real fence would blur at that distance. They were drawn on afterward." He tapped the corner. "The stamp says Saturday, 10:14 in the morning. The shad

続きを読む
無料で面白い小説を探して読んでみましょう
GoodNovel アプリで人気小説に無料で!お好きな本をダウンロードして、いつでもどこでも読みましょう!
アプリで無料で本を読む
コードをスキャンしてアプリで読む
DMCA.com Protection Status