ANMELDENEthan had barely returned to his office when the next problem found him.The port investigation had already turned his morning into chaos. Federal agents had taken copies of company records, security footage, access logs, and communications from his headquarters, while the investigators had made it clear that the questions were not finished. Someone had used his executive credentials to authorize a shipment carrying illegal firearm components and encrypted communication equipment, and until they discovered who had done it, his name remained attached to the crime.He stood behind his desk, staring through the glass wall at the city below, but he wasn't really seeing the buildings. His mind kept returning to the same question.Who had accessed his system?His security chief had told him the suspicious remote connection appeared to have originated from Russia. Ethan had immediately thought of Dimitri Volkov, but suspicion wasn't proof, and accusing a man without evidence would only make
The problem at Blackwood International Port began just after dawn, when a customs inspection team stopped a container that had been cleared to leave the terminal. The container had arrived the previous evening aboard a cargo vessel from Rotterdam and was listed on the manifest as industrial hydraulic equipment being delivered to a machinery company in New York. Nothing about the paperwork immediately looked unusual, but an officer noticed that the recorded weight was almost two tons heavier than the weight declared by the shipping company. That small difference was enough to make him order a secondary inspection before the container could leave the port.The container was moved into the inspection area while several customs officers gathered around it. The port supervisor arrived shortly afterward, irritated by the delay because the shipment had already passed through the first stage of clearance. He checked the paperwork twice before looking at the customs officer standing beside the
Aurora waited until the house was quiet before making the call. She sat alone in the dimly lit sitting room, with the curtains drawn and only one lamp glowing beside her. The wedding dress she had touched earlier was still upstairs, hanging inside the wardrobe like a reminder of the future that had been taken away from her. Ethan had walked out of the house and left her with nothing but his final words, and now the anger that had been burning inside her had settled into something colder.She picked up her phone and stared at the number saved under a name she rarely allowed herself to look at for too long. Dimitri Volkov was in Russia, far away from the city where everything had begun to fall apart, but distance had never stopped him from reaching people when he wanted something. Aurora knew he was dangerous. She also knew that she had already crossed enough lines that another conversation with him could no longer frighten her.She pressed the call button.The line rang for several sec
Three days had passed since the night in Central Park.Marcus had barely noticed the days changing. Everything around him had continued as though nothing extraordinary had happened. Cars still filled the streets, people still hurried along the sidewalks with their phones pressed to their ears, and the city still woke every morning and settled into darkness every night. But for Marcus, time had become strangely uneven since the moment he had seen Luna standing beneath those lights. Sometimes, the memory felt so close that he could almost feel her trembling in his arms again. Other times, it seemed impossible that after months of grief, anger, and unanswered questions, he had actually found her alive.Yet there was another memory that had refused to leave him alone.Clara walking away.Marcus sat behind the wheel of his car outside County General Hospital, staring through the windshield at the entrance. His hands rested on the steering wheel, but he made no effort to start the engine or
Two days had passed since the wedding that never happened, but Aurora still woke every morning expecting everything to return to normal. She would open her eyes, stare at the ceiling for a few seconds, and remember the wedding dress waiting upstairs, the guests who had come expecting to see her become Ethan Blackwood's wife, and the promise Ethan had made in front of the entire world. Then she would remember Luna standing alive in Central Park, and the certainty she had once carried about her future would begin to slip away all over again.Her phone lay on the pillow beside her. Aurora reached for it before she was fully awake and checked the screen, hoping to see Ethan's name. There was nothing. She unlocked the phone and opened their messages, scrolling through the last conversation they had before everything changed. Her fingers stopped over his name, and after staring at it for several seconds, she pressed call.The phone rang.Once.Twice.Three times.Then the call ended.Aurora
Clara stood several steps away from Marcus and Luna, watching them hold each other beneath the dim lights of Central Park. She had seen Marcus cry before. She had seen him angry, exhausted, frustrated, and nearly broken by everything that had happened to Luna, but she had never seen him hold anyone the way he was holding her now. His arms were wrapped tightly around Luna as though letting go, even for a second, might make her disappear again.Luna's face was pressed against Marcus's chest, her shoulders trembling as quiet tears slipped down her cheeks. Marcus kept one hand against the back of her head while the other remained around her waist, and every few seconds his fingers moved slightly, almost as though he needed the physical reassurance that she was truly there. Clara swallowed hard and looked away, giving them the privacy they deserved.She had spent months watching Marcus carry the weight of losing Luna. She had watched him sit beside hospital beds, search through documents,







