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Chapter 33: The First Tender Touch
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2026-04-03 18:58:11Luc’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’d panicked. Then he’d said two words that wouldn’t leave my skull.
Dad knows.
The driver opened the car door before I reached it. Gabriel’s man. Quiet. Watchful. The kind who co
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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 mother left something behind. He had one hand on the back of a chair, knuckles pale, as if the chair might try to move.I glanced at the screen.Unknown number.A photo loaded before I could talk myself out of tapping it.Luc.My brother’s face filled the screen, grainy and close. His eyes were too wide. A bruise was starting to bloom at his cheekbone, purple under yellow light. He looked like he’d been dragged out of bed and reminded, the hard way…that fear has rules.The room behind him was bare…a concrete wall, a metal chair, no windows. Someone had taken the photo from above, making him look smaller than he was.
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. “You don’t need the list.” His tone was clipped now, like he’d snapped back into his usual armor. “You need the rules.” “I’m not a child.” “No,” he said. “You’re stubborn. That’s worse.” I should have been offended. Instead, a laugh slipped out, short and sharp. “You married the wrong woman if you wanted obedient.” “I didn’t marry you for obedience.” That stopped me. My heart did an annoying little stumble. I moved closer before I could stop myself. “Then why?” Renaud looked toward the window, past it, as if the answer lived somewhere outside the glass. “Your father made enemies,” he said. “He makes speeches,” I shot back. “He makes donors. H
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’d panicked. Then he’d said two words that wouldn’t leave my skull.Dad knows.The driver opened the car door before I reached it. Gabriel’s man. Quiet. Watchful. The kind who could look bored while counting every hand in a crowd.“Madame Valois,” he said.I still hated hearing it. Still sounded like a coat I hadn’t broken in yet.“Home,” I told him, and slid into the back seat.The city blurred past, all wet pavement and winter light. I kept my hands in my lap, palms up, as if I were proving to the world I wasn’t holding anything sharp. My right wrist throbbed where Luc had grabbed me at the café entrance when he thought someone was watching
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.”Nothing.I pressed my ear to the wood and heard movement…soft, quick, like someone shifting weight, deciding whether to run or surrender.“Luc,” I said again, lower. “If you don’t open this, I’m calling Gabriel.”The locks clicked.The door opened a fraction, chain still on.Luc’s face appeared in the gap…hair messy, eyes bloodshot, and a bruise blooming faintly under his cheekbone like a bad excuse.He looked at me like I was the police.“Yselle,” he whispered.I pushed the door. The chain caught.“Let me in.”“I can’t,” he said,
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 31: The Missing Footage
Smoke still clung to my hair when the last fire truck rolled away.Morcant Glassworks looked the same from the road…old brick, tall windows, the chimney that had watched over three generations, but the air had changed. The kind of change you taste. Bitter. Metallic. Like the building itself had swallowed fear and couldn’t spit it back out.Workers stood in clumps, coats half buttoned, eyes still wide. A few held mugs of coffee they weren’t drinking. Mireille Lenoir paced like a storm looking for somewhere to land.I walked through them anyway.“Yselle,” Mireille called. No “Madame.” No “Mrs.” She didn’t do titles when the floor was burning.“I’m here,” I said.Her stare dropped to the soot on my sleeve. “That exit door was locked.”“I know.”“That’s not an accident.”“I know,” I repeated, s
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