All Chapters of His Untold Lies: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

AresForty-eight hours had crawled by since I walked out of our apartment. Forty-eight hours of isolating myself at my parents' estate, yet my mind hadn't left Kianna for a single second. 'How did she react when she woke up to an empty home? Is she furious? Is she hurt? Is she actively looking for me?''Boom! Bang! Pop!'The initial blast made my shoulders lock up. Even though I thought I had braced myself for the noise, the sheer vibration of a live pistol firing through the massive viewing glass walls was deafening.It was a gloomy Monday afternoon, but the lanes at the OC Indoor Shooting Range in Batangas were packed with a strange mix of families, couples, and friends all taking turns at paper targets. I had never stepped foot inside a firing range before today. A close friend of mine had suggested the trip, insisting that burning through a few magazines was the only way to forcibly shock my brain into forgetting my personal disasters for an afternoon.The door to the lobby chimed,

Ares'Should I keep hiding it?'Even if Kianna could somehow look past the fact that I was born into unimaginable wealth, how could she handle the blood and politics of my family? Especially when our corporate empire is built on contracts with the most dangerous criminal syndicate in the country.I set the seasoned meatloaf into the preheated oven and turned back to the stove to start the gravy. An hour bled by in agonizing slow motion. When the timer dinged, I pulled the meatloaf out and checked the potatoes, finding them perfectly soft. I threw in a thick slab of butter, a splash of milk, and a heavy tablespoon of yogurt, mashing them into a smooth, creamy peak. Finally, I grabbed a handful of fresh parsley from the fridge, laid the sprigs on the cutting board, and began mincing them with rhythmic, rapid strokes of the knife."Hon, dinner is almost ready," I called out toward the living room, trying to keep my voice casual. "Go ahead and wash up."Kianna walked into the kitchen a mom

AresThe ride home was heavy with a thick, unyielding silence. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Kianna shifting in the passenger seat, her lips parting slightly as if to speak, only to close them and turn back to the window. The unspoken friction between us hung like smog in the car. The moment I pulled into the garage, I cut the engine, headed straight through the front door, and bypassed the living room entirely to get to the kitchen counter."Hon," I called out, opening the refrigerator door. "What do you want for dinner?""Can we do steak tonight?" her voice trailed in from the hallway.I scanned the shelves. Fortunately, a raw two-pack of ribeyes sat right on the center rack. "You're in luck," I said, pulling the package out. "Steak it is."Through the kitchen pass-through, I caught the sudden, genuine flash of a smile on her face as she clapped her hands together once."It needs to rest on the counter for a bit first," I said, setting the meat down on a cutting board. "We

AresMy fingers tapped rhythmically against the mahogany conference table, my eyes darting to the wall clock for the fourth time in ten minutes. 12:54 AM. Three hours had vanished since Kianna’s last text. She had dropped me a pin of the location, along with a blurred group photo of a crowded room, but the sheer scale of the gathering in the background didn't align with the quiet three-person study session she had described.A hand waved directly through my line of sight, shattering my focus."Boss," Kyles said, pulling his laptop shut. "That's everything on the Q3 projections. The meeting is adjourned.""Excellent work today," I said, sliding my chair back and grabbing my overcoat from the rack before he could even gather his files. "I'll see you tomorrow."I was down the executive elevator and behind the wheel of my sedan within minutes. Hooking my phone into the dashboard mount, I traced the coordinates she had sent. The route stretched far into the upscale hills, well outside our u

KiannaThe weight of the day settled deep into our bones as the light died over the horizon. My arms felt entirely hollow, aching from hours of fighting the water, and my thighs shook like jelly every time I tried to shift my weight. The sunburn across my shoulders and neck was a deep, blistering crimson, radiating a steady, sharp heat that made the fabric of my clothes feel like sandpaper against raw meat. My face throbbed in sync with my pulse. We had pushed past our limit; it was time to pull the plug and get off the road. But within minutes of making the call, the sky broke open, releasing a torrential downpour that turned the asphalt into a slick, black mirror and wiped out Ares's visibility.The world outside the glass became dark and freezing. Heavy, fat drops of rain slammed into the metal frame of the car, washing over the plains in gray sheets. The tail-lights of the trucks ahead and the distant yellow streetlights smeared into blurry, wet streaks across my side window. We we