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Chapter 45: Hector’s Panic Call
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2026-04-15 16:42:45The pendant sat in my palm like a pulse that did not belong to me.
I stood in the war room long after Renaud had gone still at the sight of it. He had not tried to take it. That was what unsettled me. A man like Renaud Valois controlled rooms, people, and outcomes. But when I uncapped the metal tube and tipped the small carved pendant into my hand, he looked at it as if it had stepped out of a grave.
“What is it?” I had asked.
His jaw had tightened. “Not
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Renaud was waiting in the lower library when we returned.That alone told me Gabriel had called ahead with more than a location. Renaud did not wait. He summoned, paced, cornered, or cut through people like a winter blade. Waiting was what happened when fear had gotten there first and pride had not managed to bury it yet.He stood by the fire, jacket off, tie loosened, one hand braced on the mantel. He looked up the moment I stepped in, and whatever he saw in my face was enough to wipe the controlled anger from his.“What happened?”Gabriel answered before I could. “Her file is sealed. Recently reconfirmed. We were watched on the way out.”Renaud’s gaze went hard. “By whom?”“We didn’t stay to collect names.”“That is not an answer.”“That is why she’s alive.”I would have smiled at the two of them if my thoughts had not been scrapi
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VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 45: Hector’s Panic Call
The pendant sat in my palm like a pulse that did not belong to me.I stood in the war room long after Renaud had gone still at the sight of it. He had not tried to take it. That was what unsettled me. A man like Renaud Valois controlled rooms, people, and outcomes. But when I uncapped the metal tube and tipped the small carved pendant into my hand, he looked at it as if it had stepped out of a grave.“What is it?” I had asked.His jaw had tightened. “Not tonight.”That was all he gave me.Not tonight.Then he walked out with that rigid, measured stride of his, the kind that told the world he was calm while his mind broke furniture in private.So I stayed behind in the hidden room, staring at the old letter and the pendant, trying to decide which one frightened me more. The letter was written in a hand I knew only from birthday cards saved in a tin box upstairs in my old room at the factory house. My mother&rsqu
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 44: The Stone Compartment
The stone didn’t move at first.I pushed harder, and for a humiliating second I thought Colette had set me up to look foolish. My breath tightened.Then something clicked inside the wall.A low, mechanical sound: old metal shifting against older stone.The block gave way with a smoothness that didn’t match its age. It slid inward just enough to reveal a dark cavity behind it.My skin prickled.Colette didn’t look satisfied. She looked resigned, like she’d been waiting years for someone to do exactly this.“Take it,” she said.I hesitated. The opening was narrow, and the darkness inside felt thick. Not supernatural. Just secret. There’s a difference, but neither one is comforting.Renaud’s hand hovered near my elbow. Not grabbing. Not steering. Just there, like a promise he wouldn’t let me topple into whatever waited behind the stone.I reached in.My fin
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The key card sat on the library table like it belonged there.It didn’t.Gabriel laid it down with two fingers, careful, as if the plastic could bite. “Estate-level access,” he said. “Not a hotel card. Not a visitor badge.”Renaud didn’t pick it up. He didn’t need to. His eyes were already doing the work...cataloging, narrowing, stripping the room down to the ugly truth.“Who has these?” I asked.Gabriel’s mouth tightened. “Staff. Security. A few contractors, but those are tracked. This one wasn’t.”I watched Renaud’s hand curl once against his thigh, then relax. He never raised his voice, but the air changed anyway.“List,” he said to Gabriel. “Everyone. No exceptions.”Gabriel nodded and left without another word. His boots were quiet on the polished floor. That was the thing about him…you didn’t hear him m
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The handle turned again.Slow. Careful. Like whoever held it had time.I stepped back from the wall of photos and timelines, my palm still warm from the paper I’d just touched. The lights in the war room stayed bright, almost cheerful, like this place didn’t understand s
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