Semua Bab The Mistress: Bab 41 - Bab 50

“You really thought I was the only one with secrets in this house, didn’t you, Daniel?”The whisper died against the heavy velvet curtains of the study before it could reach the hallway. I wasn’t talking to him—he was currently three floors up, lulled into a false sense of omnipotence by the warmth of my body and the lies I had fed him in the dark. I was talking to his chair, to his desk, to the empty air that smelled of his arrogance.The transition from the master bedroom to this cold, silent sanctuary felt like shedding a skin. Upstairs, I was the pliable wife, the woman whose spirit had been crushed under the weight of a Blackwood ring. Down here, in the blue light of the monitors, I was the Vermon heir. And the air was finally starting to clear.My fingers didn’t tremble as I entered the final bypass code Sophie had whispered to me through the comms. I had spent years being told that my brain was a broken machine, that my memories were faulty, and my logic was a casualty of my “co

“You look stressed, Avalain. All that pretend-fainting must be exhausting for the baby.”I leaned against the doorframe of the sunroom, watching her clutch a cup of herbal tea as if it were a holy relic. My voice was syrupy, laced with the kind of faux-sisterly concern that only another woman in this house would recognize as a threat. Avalain looked up, her eyes narrowing as she tried to gauge if the “Madwoman of Sy-Blackwood” was having another episode or if the predator had finally come out to play.“I’m fine, Victoria,” she snapped, though her hand trembled slightly. “Daniel says I need bed rest. The pregnancy is… delicate.”“Nonsense,” I said, stepping into the room with a sharp, chilling smile. “What you need is a distraction. I’ve booked the private suite at the Solaris Spa for this afternoon. Just the two of us. A prenatal massage, a facial, and some peace away from the men. You wouldn’t want to turn down a gift from the lady of the house, would you?”She hesitated, her ambition

“Did you lose something, Daniel? You seem a bit… frantic.”I stood in the doorway of his private gym, my voice a soft, melodic chime that cut through the heavy scent of sweat and expensive rubber. Daniel was hunched over his leather duffel bag, his face a mask of sweating, jagged frustration. He didn’t look up, his hands tearing through the compartments with a violent urgency.“Not now, Victoria,” he snapped, his voice tight. “I can’t find my ledger. I thought I put it in here after the workout.”“Oh, I saw a few papers sticking out of the side pocket earlier,” I said, stepping into the room with a deliberate, graceful slowness. I gestured toward the floor, where a series of high-resolution photographs had “spilled” out onto the dark mats. “I thought they were just business documents. Are these what you’re looking for?”I watched his eyes track the movement of my hand. He reached down, snatching the first glossy print from the floor. I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe. I just watched the

The air in the “Shadow Office” didn’t just turn cold; it vanished. One moment, Zander and I were anchored by the staggering truth of our son’s paternity, and the next, we were staring into the abyss of Michael Blackwood’s endgame. The beep of the countdown from the monitor was a rhythmic pulse of pure terror, a sound that should have shattered me. But as I looked at the man who had ordered my mother’s death and was now threatening my son, the “madwoman” didn’t return. The predator did.“I wouldn’t press that if I were you, Michael. Unless you want the Blackwood name to end tonight.”My voice didn’t shake. I stepped in front of Zander, my hand flat against his chest to keep him from charging into a death trap. Michael’s thumb hovered over the detonator, his eyes twin pits of icy resolve.“The boy is a Vermon, Victoria,” Michael sneered. “His death is a tragedy I am willing to bear to secure the merger.”“He’s not just a Vermon,” I said, pulling the infertility report from the desk and h

“Does it look familiar, Daniel? Or did you think if you ignored the biology, it would simply cease to exist?”The words didn’t come from the speakers. They came from me, a low, cold murmur that sliced through the static of his sudden, frantic breathing. We were standing center stage, the epicenter of a collapsing universe. The heavy velvet curtains were pulled back, the spotlight a blinding, accusing eye that pinned us both under the gaze of the world’s most dangerous men and women.Daniel didn’t answer. He couldn’t. His hand, still clutching the gold-plated remote, was trembling so violently that the metal clattered against his wedding ring—a sound like a death rattle. He was staring at the massive screen behind us, his mouth slightly agape, his eyes wide and vacant as if his soul had already fled the room and left a hollow, terrified shell behind.“This is a mistake,” he finally managed to wheeze, his voice a pathetic ghost of the roar he had used to command me only hours ago. “It’s