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CHAPTER 41: Renaud’s Sleepless Guard
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2026-04-11 16:13:46I woke up because the house changed.
Not the usual nighttime settling. Not a pipe complaining or a window flexing in the cold. This was the kind of quiet that feels arranged—like someone had asked the estate to hold its breath.
I sat up slowly, sheets sliding off my shoulder. The clock on the bedside table glowed past two. My throat was dry, my mind still running in circles around Sabine’s warning from earlier.
Including your brother.
She’d said i
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VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM CHAPTER 41: Renaud’s Sleepless Guard
I woke up because the house changed.Not the usual nighttime settling. Not a pipe complaining or a window flexing in the cold. This was the kind of quiet that feels arranged—like someone had asked the estate to hold its breath.I sat up slowly, sheets sliding off my shoulder. The clock on the bedside table glowed past two. My throat was dry, my mind still running in circles around Sabine’s warning from earlier.Including your brother.She’d said it with a smile, as if she were reminding me about a dinner reservation.I swung my feet to the floor and stood, careful not to let the mattress creak. My slippers were right where I’d left them, neatly aligned like the room expected me to behave.The door to my bedroom was closed. It shouldn’t have made me nervous. But it did.I reached for the handle and paused.A shadow moved on the other side… barely a shift, but enough.I didn’t ope
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 40: Sabine’s Sweet Knife
The door didn’t open.It stopped halfway, like the person outside wanted me to feel the near-miss. Wanted me to imagine what would happen if the lock gave way.Then the handle eased back to center.Silence.Julien didn’t move. Not at first. His hand hovered near the knob, like he was deciding between courage and foolishness.“Don’t,” I whispered.He froze.The printer finished and chirped like a cheerful idiot. The papers sat in the output tray, crisp and accusing.I crossed the room and snatched them up. My hands shook so hard the pages fluttered.Julien finally spoke. “We need to tell Renaud.”“I know,” I said. “But I need one minute.”“One minute for what?”“To breathe,” I snapped. Then softened it because Julien wasn’t my enemy. “To think without someone else deciding what I’m
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 39: The Father’s Network
I woke before the house did.The estate always had its own rhythm. Soft footfalls from staff in the corridor. The hush of thick walls. The distant sound of a kettle that belonged to someone who believed in mornings.I didn’t believe in mornings anymore. Not since I’d learned how easily a quiet day could turn into a headline.I slipped out of bed without waking Renaud. He was awake anyway. I could tell by the way his breathing didn’t change. He stayed still, like stillness was a weapon.“Where are you going?” he asked, voice rough.“To see my brother,” I said.A pause. The kind that meant he wanted to argue but had decided not to.“Take the west stairs,” he said. “And don’t stop for anyone.”“Is that your version of good morning?”“It’s my version of staying married.”My mouth tried to smile. It didn’t land.
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 38: Luc Returns Shaken
The second shot didn’t come.That was the strange part.The warehouse held its breath after the gunfire, as if even the men who fired the first round were listening to what it had done to us. The silence wasn’t peace. It was calculation.Renaud kept me pinned behind the forklift, one arm across my shoulders, his body angled to block the open floor. I hated how safe it made me feel. I hated more that I needed it.Gabriel crouched a few feet away, weapon raised, eyes locked on the office window and the shadows along the far wall. Julien was behind a stack of pallets, pale and sweating, his folder-hand empty now.My phone buzzed in my pocket. I didn’t reach for it. Every movement felt like an invitation.Above us, the office window shifted again. A shape moved behind the glass.Then a voice drifted down, amused. “No more shots. Not yet. We’re not here for blood.”“Then bring him out,” Renaud said, v
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 37: The Empty Warehouse
The industrial side of the river always smelled like cold metal and old rain.I sat in the back seat of Renaud’s SUV with my hands folded the way polite wives do when they are trying not to shake. My coat was buttoned to my throat. My hair was pinned up, neat enough to pass inspection, even if my nerves were doing cartwheels.Wife camouflage, I reminded myself.Beside me, Renaud stared through the windshield like the night had personally offended him. The dashboard light cut a clean line along his jaw, catching the faint scar near the corner. He looked calm. Too calm.Gabriel drove. Both hands steady on the wheel, eyes moving in small, careful checks…mirrors, road, mirrors again. He didn’t speak much, but he didn’t miss anything either.Julien sat in front, clutching a slim folder like it was a baby bird.On the speaker, Sabine’s voice slid in and out of the quiet.“You’re five minutes out,&r
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 36: A Rescue Plan
The door didn’t open.For three long seconds, the handle stayed angled, held in a patient grip.Then it eased back into place.No footsteps retreating. No hurried escape.Just… absence.Renaud’s eyes stayed fixed on the door as if he could burn a hole through it with attention alone. He didn’t reach for dramatics. He reached under the console and pulled out a compact earpiece, then pressed it into his ear.“Gabriel,” he murmured.“Already,” Gabriel said, and I heard keys tapping in the background. “Cameras on that corridor glitched eight seconds ago. Someone looped the feed.”Renaud’s mouth flattened. “Inside help.”“I’m sending two men,” Gabriel said. “Quiet. They’ll sweep.”“No,” Renaud replied. “Not two. Four. And keep them off the main stairs.”He looked at me then,
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 35: The Threat Message
My phone buzzed once.Not a call. Not even the polite trill I’d assigned to family. Just a hard vibration against the wood of the war-room table, like something knocking from the inside.Renaud was standing at the spot where he’d been when he said it… Your mot
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 34: The Shield Claim
“A shield,” I repeated, because if I didn’t say the word out loud, it might not be real. Renaud stayed still, hands at his sides, as if he’d already decided not to touch me again. Maybe he didn’t trust himself. Maybe he didn’t trust what touching did to me. “What people?” I asked.
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 33: The First Tender Touch
Luc’s front door shut behind me with a soft click that felt louder than the street.I stood on his tiny landing for a second, breathing through my nose like I’d been taught to do in meetings with angry suppliers. Same trick. A different kind of anger.My brother had begged. Then he’
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 32: Brother Cornered
Luc’s apartment smelled like cheap cologne and panic.The hallway outside his door was too quiet. One of those old buildings where the walls held sound like secrets. I knocked once, then twice, then harder.“Luc,” I called. “Open the door.”Nothi
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