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Chapter 78: After the Water
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2026-05-18 17:37:25The river did not welcome.
It took.
That was the first truth of it.
The second was that training, pride, family history, and expensive suits all become equally useless in water that cold unless someone reaches you fast enough to argue with death before it finishes speaking.
When I surfaced, I did not breathe properly. I clawed at air and got ice spray and the taste of iron-cold water instead. One arm struck broken shelf of ice. It shattered beneath my hand and spun
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We did not go home immediately.Of course we didn’t.Families like ours do not return quietly from riverbanks with police lights in their eyes and truth half-spoken in the air. First there are statements trimmed into safer shapes. Then medics. Then the calculations. Then the cars.I ended up in the back of Gabriel’s vehicle because it was the only place that felt like a decision instead of an argument. Renaud sat beside me. Not touching. Close enough that warmth moved between us under the blankets and wet wool. Gabriel drove. Marc followed with one of his men. Hector’s car stayed behind us for two turns, then peeled away toward the city road instead of the estate.That told me plenty.He was not going home.He was going to move something.The estate gates opened under floodlights that made the whole house look too awake. Colette was waiting in the front hall with two towels, one doctor, and the expression of a woman pr
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The police lights made everything look false.Blue on snow. Blue on stone. Blue on wet clothes, clinging to skin and exposing every shiver people were trying to pass off as anger. The river kept moving under the broken ice in its own dark rhythm, as if none of us deserved the drama we were giving it.The first officer down the slope had a face built for procedure and a body language already tired of rich people before introductions.“What happened here?”No one answered at once.That was the problem with the truth that night. It had too many hands on it.Sabine sat half-upright against the retaining wall, soaked through, hair unpinned, one glove missing, her usual polish stripped away by water and cold. And still, even shivering hard enough that her teeth clicked, she was watching. Counting. Calculating. I had never hated anyone more for surviving elegantly.Gabriel stood a few feet away, breathing evenly despite the river
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 78: After the Water
The river did not welcome.It took.That was the first truth of it.The second was that training, pride, family history, and expensive suits all become equally useless in water that cold unless someone reaches you fast enough to argue with death before it finishes speaking.When I surfaced, I did not breathe properly. I clawed at air and got ice spray and the taste of iron-cold water instead. One arm struck broken shelf of ice. It shattered beneath my hand and spun away.Sabine surfaced three feet from me with a strangled sound I had never imagined coming from her. Not elegant. Not arranged. Human in the worst possible way.Above us, the night exploded into commands.“Left side!”“Rope!”“Hold the wall!”Renaud was already down on the broken edge.I saw him only in pieces at first. Dark coat, one knee in the snow, one arm stretched so far over the black water it should have t
VOWS IN THE WAR ROOM Chapter 77: The Struggle
The headlights came too fast across the upper service road.Not because the vehicle was out of control. Because the driver wanted the light to land before the body did. Light first. Shock second. Recognition third.That was my father’s style.Hector’s car cut across the ridge above the retaining wall and stopped hard enough to throw powdery snow over the stone edge. One rear door opened almost at once. Not a regular driver. Not one of his ordinary route men either. A broader silhouette, dark coat, moving with the dull purpose of hired loyalty.Gabriel’s voice snapped through my earpiece.“Now.”Everything happened at once after that.Renaud moved toward me.Sabine moved back.The man from the car started down the slope.And my father stepped into the wash of his own headlights with his coat buttoned high and his expression already arranged into concern.“Yselle!”T
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