Semua Bab Mated to her Enemy: Refusing his Rejection : Bab 261 - Bab 270

Eric exhaled slowly. “Maybe she thought you’d try to stop her. Maybe she was afraid.”“She didn’t need to hide it from me,” Ainsley snapped. “If she just wanted to find a donor, I’d have helped. But she planned this whole thing alone. Even when I was recovering from amnesia, she was plotting her next escape.”Ainsley fell silent, staring at the floor like it held answers he hadn’t found yet.“I’ve built empires with less effort than it took her to lie to me,” he said finally. “When she promised to return from Waikiki, she’d already decided to do this. If she couldn’t find a donor, she’d give Richard her own marrow. She was ready to die.”Eric leaned forward. “Ainsley… don’t blame yourself.”But Ainsley wasn’t listening. “Three years ago, she escaped me with careful planning. This time, she came back just to die. And the worst part? I didn’t even see it coming. I thought she was finally choosing me.”He gave a hollow laugh. “Do you know what she told me on her eighteenth birthday? That

Ainsley froze, like he’d just walked into the center of a storm. He turned slowly, and met Eloise’s eyes with a kind of heaviness in his chest that felt like it might crush him. Without speaking, he stepped close and reached out….one hand cradled her face, the other slid over her eyes as if shielding her from the world. His palm was rough and warm.Then he gently lifted her hand and pressed his lips to the back of it. The kiss lingered. It was possessive, quiet, and full of emotion he couldn’t voice. “You don’t see it, do you?” he said in a low murmur. “You’re everything I ever wanted. Everything I didn’t believe someone like me deserved. And yet here you are, right in front of me, real and impossible at the same time.”Eloise stood rigid beneath his touch, too stunned to pull away. Her pulse raced, her mind spun, but she couldn’t make herself move. Not when his voice dropped, hard and cold, like steel sliding into ice. “But don’t test me, Eloise,” he said, a threat veiled in velvet.

A second later, he saw it. Thin tendrils of gray smoke curling from under the locked door, slow and snaking, like a warning.Hank caught the scent. His nostrils flared. His head jerked toward the room. “Shit,” he whispered. “FUCK!”He turned, grabbed Mandy by the arm, and shoved her back hard. “Get away from the hallway….NOW!”“Hey! What’s going on?!”“MOVE!” Hank snarled, panic ripping through his chest. “Get back, damn it!”He stormed down the corridor, his boots pounding the floor. The smoke was real. It wasn’t a trick. Something was burning.His hand shook as he reached for the key clipped to his belt. It took him three tries to unclasp it. His fingers weren’t working. They trembled like leaves in a storm. “ELOISE!” he roared, his voice cracking. “Luna, can you hear me?!”No one answered.He cursed and dropped the key once, then scooped it up with a trembling hand and slammed it into the lock.The smoke was seeping faster now, curling around his legs, licking the walls.“Come on, c

“Don’t move. "I just want to look at you,” Ainsley whispered, his lips curled into a smirk. He stood very close, the scent of his cologne clinging to her skin like a bitter memory. Eloise didn’t flinch, but her stomach tightened. His tone wasn’t gentle. It was mocking, like he was savoring the final moments before a kill. She raised her eyes anyway. His gaze locked onto hers….black, hollow, pulling her in like a void. For a split second, something flickered….heat, longing, regret; but it vanished, swallowed by the cold.Then he pulled back with a scoff. “Oh! Moongoddess....look at you,” he muttered. “Still hoping there’s something left between us?”Eloise’s chest rose and fell, slow and steady. “You dragged me into this mess, remember?”Ainsley chuckled bitterly. “Dragged you in? You clung to me like a lifeline. Let’s not rewrite history, Eloise.”He reached into his coat pocket, produced a neatly folded sheet of paper, and thrust it into her hands. “You wanted to go. Here’s your way

“Eloise, you’re not being honest with yourself,” Rachael said firmly with her arms crossed on her chest, eyes sharp with frustration. I asked if you still loved him, and you froze. That hesitation? It says more than any answer you could’ve given.”Eloise stayed silent, her fingers curling tightly around her bag strap. She stared at the floor, as if it could swallow her whole.“You’ve been running ever since. Three years ago, you left without a trace. And now? "You’re still running, It’s like nothing has changed at all,” Rachael continued. Her voice was quieter now, but the words hit harder. “Do you really think hiding on some beach will make everything okay? Waikiki isn’t peace, Eloise. It’s just distance….distance from him….from yourself.”“Stop,” Eloise muttered, her voice trembling. “Please just stop talking.”But Rachael stepped closer. “No. You need to hear this.”Eloise turned away, but Rachael wasn’t done. “You think you’re calm? You’re not. You’re tired. You’ve been pretendin