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The First Payback
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2026-03-12 04:53:19The master bedroom of The Obsidian was larger than Ava’s entire apartment. But she barely had time to take in the silk sheets and the panoramic view of the city before Caleb’s phone chimed.
Actually, it wasn't Caleb’s phone. It was hers. She pulled it from her clutch, her heart leaping into her throat. 15 Missed Calls: Stepmother Eleanor. 22 Missed Calls: Marcus. "It seems the market has crashed earlier than expected," Caleb remarked, pouring two glasses of amber liquid from a crystal decanter. He didn't look like a man who had just destroyed a multi-million dollar company; he looked like a man who had just finished a light workout. The phone rang again in Ava's hand. It was Marcus. Caleb gestured to the phone with a tilt of his head. "Answer it. Put it on speaker." Ava’s fingers trembled as she swiped the screen. Immediately, Marcus’s voice exploded through the speakers, stripped of all the arrogance he’d had at the gala. He sounded frantic, breathless—like a man drowning. "Ava! Ava, thank God you picked up!" Marcus yelled. "Listen to me, something insane is happening. The bank just froze my personal accounts. My father’s firm... we’re being liquidated. Someone is shorting our stock into the ground! I need you to talk to the Millers. Use your connection! Ask that crippled husband of yours if his family is behind this. There’s been a mistake!" Ava looked at Caleb. He was standing by the window, swirling his drink, his face a mask of cold indifference. "A mistake, Marcus?" Ava said, her voice gaining a strength she didn't know she had. "Two hours ago, you told me I was trash. You told me I was a 'voided bet.' Why would I help you now?" "A mistake, Marcus?" Ava said, her voice gaining a strength she didn't know she had. "Two hours ago, you told me I was trash. You told me I was a 'voided bet.' Why would I help you now?" "Ava, don't be a bitch! This is serious!" Marcus barked, his true colors leaking through the panic. "I’m a Sterling! I don’t just go broke! Talk to Caleb. Tell that freak to use his pity-allowance from the Miller elders to put in a word for me. I’ll make it worth your while. I’ll even take you out to dinner once this is over—" Caleb reached out and plucked the phone from Ava’s hand. "She’s busy, Marcus," Caleb said, his voice like a blade sliding over silk. The silence on the other end of the line was absolute. Marcus’s breathing hitched. "Who... who is this? Caleb? Is that the cripple?" "The 'cripple' just bought your debt for ten cents on the dollar," Caleb said, a dark smirk playing on his lips. "By tomorrow morning, your father’s office building will be my new storage unit. And Marcus? Don't bother calling my wife again. I don't like it when the help disturbs her." "You... you can't—" Caleb ended the call with a flick of his thumb. He tossed the phone onto the bed like it was garbage. "Step one complete," Caleb muttered. Ava stared at him, her pulse racing. "You really did it. In less than an hour, you wiped him out." "I told you, Ava. I don't play games I haven't already won." Caleb stepped closer, his presence suddenly overwhelming. He reached out, his hand hovering near her neck, before he settled it on the wall behind her, pinning her in place. "I told you, Ava. I don't play games I haven't already won." Caleb stepped closer, his presence suddenly overwhelming. He reached out, his hand hovering near her neck, before he settled it on the wall behind her, pinning her in place. "But Marcus is small fry. Your stepmother is already calling the Miller elders, trying to claim you 'stole' the marriage contract. The real battle starts tomorrow at the shareholders' meeting." He leaned in, his eyes locking onto hers. "Tonight, you need to rest. Tomorrow, the world finds out that the 'Broken Ghost' has a Queen. And they’re going to hate how much power you have." Ava looked at the man everyone pitied, realizing he was the most dangerous shark in the ocean. And she was the only one he wasn't biting. "What's step two?" she whispered. Caleb leaned down, his lips inches from hers. "Step two is making sure everyone who ever made you cry... begs for your forgiveness."
Bab terbaru
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The entrance to the grotto groaned as Volkov’s tactical team blasted through the rock. Dust filled the air, and the beam of their weapon-mounted flashlights cut through the gloom like searchlights, hunting for targets."Sweep the sector!" Volkov’s voice commanded, metallic and cold. "The girl is the priority. Harvest the samples. Leave nothing alive."The soldiers moved in, expecting a shootout. They were prepared for bullets. They were prepared for Caleb Miller.They were not prepared for the Garden."Ava, stay behind me," Caleb whispered, his weapon raised."No, Caleb," Ava said, her voice sounding different—layered, resonant, like the earth itself was speaking through her. "They are in my house now."She didn't raise a gun. She raised her hand, palm open, toward the invading squad.The glowing blue petals of the Roses near the entrance shuddered. In a blink, they didn't just bloom—they erupted. The stems, thick and armored with thorns as sharp as steel needles, whipped out from the
The Maid’s $100 Billion Hidden Husband The Blue Rose Garden
The explosion behind them was a roar of fire and collapsing stone, but as Ava and Caleb leaped into the white spray of the waterfall, the world fell into a terrifying, weightless silence.They hit the water hard—a cold, shocking impact that knocked the breath from her lungs. Ava tumbled through the dark, rushing current, the weight of the water trying to drag her into the depths. Then, she felt a hand—strong, calloused, and unyielding—grab her vest and haul her upward.They broke the surface, gasping, coughing up river water, and dragging themselves onto a ledge of smooth, phosphorescent stone.Ava blinked, her vision clearing. They weren't in a dark cave.They were in a grotto that defied reality. The walls were lined with thousands of glowing, blue-petaled flowers—the Blue Roses. They didn't just bloom; they pulsed with a soft, rhythmic light, synchronized with the pounding of her own heart. The air smelled of honey, ozone, and something electric."The Source," Caleb whispered, his
The Maid’s $100 Billion Hidden Husband The Ghost’s Redemption
The heat of the jungle was a humid, suffocating blanket, a jarring contrast to the Arctic ice they had just escaped. The sound of Volkov’s men crashing through the undergrowth behind them was rhythmic—a steady drumbeat of impending death.Caleb hauled Ava into a limestone crevice hidden behind a curtain of tangled vines. He pressed his back against the damp stone, his chest heaving. His tactical gear was shredded, and the "Ghost" persona seemed to be cracking, revealing the raw, bleeding man beneath."Don't touch me," Ava hissed, pulling her arm away. Her eyes were bright with a mixture of terror and fury. "Volkov called you a cleaner. He said you were sent to eliminate us. Was the fire just a failed hit, Caleb? Did I save the man who was trying to kill me?"Caleb didn't look away. He pulled a serrated combat knife and began to carve a mark into the cave wall—a tracker for Silas. "Ten years ago, I didn't have a name, Ava. I was a tool for the Circle. My father 'donated' me to them to
The Maid’s $100 Billion Hidden Husband The Blood Oath
The flight back from the Arctic should have been a victory lap. The "Stabilizer" vial sat in a reinforced cooling unit between Ava and Caleb, its blue glow pulsing like a steady heartbeat. But the cabin of the Miller jet was silent, the air thick with the weight of the secret Caleb was clutching in his pocket. "You’re staring at the clouds, Caleb," Ava said, her voice soft but piercing. "But your mind is still back in that vault. What did the Sentinel show you?" Caleb didn't turn. He was watching the horizon, where the aurora borealis flickered like a dying neon sign. "It showed me that the past never stays buried, Ava. No matter how much ice you pile on top of it." Before she could press him, the jet suddenly loped to the left. The seatbelt sign flashed red, and the cabin lights flickered into an ominous amber. "Boss!" Silas’s voice crackled over the intercom, sounding more panicked than Ava had ever heard him. "We’ve got two unmarked stealth fighters on our tail. They’re not
The Maid’s $100 Billion Hidden Husband The Mirror of Souls
The titanium doors didn't lead to a lab. They led to a void.As Ava and Caleb stepped forward, the white light swallowed the walls, the floor, and even the sound of their own breathing. The sub-zero wind of the Arctic was gone, replaced by a terrifying, sterile silence."Caleb?" Ava reached out, her hand grasping at the air.He wasn't there. The man who had been her shadow, her protector, and her husband had vanished into the white.“Welcome to the Sector Prime,” the Sentinel’s voice resonated, but it no longer sounded like a machine. It sounded like her own voice, layered a thousand times. “To heal the Blood, the Heart must be weighed. The Miller Legacy is built on the sacrifice of others. To break the cycle, you must choose what you are willing to lose.”The white void shimmered. Suddenly, Ava was standing in a replica of the Miller Boardroom. But it wasn't empty.On the left side of the long mahogany table sat a physical manifestation of the Miller Fortune. It wasn't just money; it
The Maid’s $100 Billion Hidden Husband The Ice Tomb
The private Miller jet didn’t land; it fought the sky until the wheels slammed onto a strip of permafrost that felt like landing on iron. Outside the reinforced windows, the Svalbard tundra was a horizontal scream of white. The sun was a ghost, a pale disc that offered no warmth to the jagged landscape below."The Vault is three miles inland," Caleb said, his voice tight as he buckled his tactical parka. He looked at the monitors. "The wind is hitting eighty knots. If we don’t reach the airlock in sixty minutes, the humvees will be buried."Ava pulled her thermal hood up, her face pale but determined. Every breath felt like inhaling needles, a reminder of the "Alpha Strain" ticking away in her veins. "Then we don't have time to talk about the 'what-ifs,' Caleb. Let’s go."They descended the ramp into a world of blinding white. Silas and a hand-picked team of Titan veterans moved like shadows in the blizzard, their thermal goggles glowing like red embers.They reached the entrance of t
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