LOVE and RUSE のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 11 - チャプター 17

PRESENT DAY...The Miller's family cemetery is nestled amongst towering oak trees and fragrant blooms. Groups of mourners in black gathered around the freshly dug grave that is meant to be the final resting place for Maurice Miller, Evelyn's grandfather. Mournful clouds hung low in the sky, casting a dark veil over the cemetery.As the priest delivered the final prayer, a big knot of emotion formed in her throat with a suffocating intensity. Tears welled in her eyes, clouding her vision as she stood solemnly beside the freshly dug grave. She clenched her jaw tightly, fighting the tears that threatened to fall while she struggle to maintain her composure.'Its okay to be sad and emotional, but it becomes a sin and weakness when you let it show.' Growing up, those were the words her grandfather would say to her whenever something made her cry.People started coming forward to say something about the deceased. Everyone has something to say as they placed colourful flowers on the casket an

Evelyn's fingers hovered momentarily over the laptop's power button, a sharp breath escaping her as she contemplated the stillness of the night. The digital glow of the clock read just past midnight, adding a haunting luminescence to the room that should have been dark, conducive to sleep. Reluctantly, she pressed the button, the screen flickering to life and casting a pale light across her face. Work was the only antidote for her restlessness—a potion she'd brew for herself on nights like this, when the ghosts of her past refused to stay buried. As she logged into her office email, the mundane list of senders and subjects scrolled past until one name arrested her scrolling finger—a name tied to a history she had meticulously archived in the recesses of her mind. The technology and construction firm, ‘SynTech Construction Innovations,' belong to her ex-husband, Alexander, and it seemed to taunt her from the inbox. A ghost from her past that refused to be exorcised. A wave of emotions,

Three black cars, sleek and gleaming like panthers under the midday sun, pulled up in front of the Miller Consortium Group office building. The Rolls-Royce Phantoms, each worth over half a million dollars lined up in ceremonious precision. The building itself pierced the sky, a monolithic glass spire that stood as the tallest edifice in France after the Eiffel Tower, its mirrored surfaces reflecting the ambition and might of the empire it housed.Evelyn Miller was seated in the middle car, her presence even more commanding than the luxurious vehicle that enclosed her. As her bodyguards, clad in tailored suits that did little to conceal their readiness to protect, stepped out of the vehicles in front and behind her, the air seemed to hum with anticipation. One of them, his movements both swift and respectful, rushed to open the car door for her.She stepped out slowly, as though allowing the world a moment to prepare itself for her. The bodycon Stony black Louis Vuitton dress clung to