All Chapters of under his control : Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

The next morning, I woke up with my face buried against Liam’s chest. His arms were wrapped so tightly around me, as if his whole body was afraid I might slip away in my sleep. For a long time, I didn’t move. I listened to the rhythm of his heart and thought about how strange life was that I could feel safe in the arms of the man who also carried the blood of those who destroyed my father. The world was cruel in that way, never simple, never clean.When I finally sat up, the sunlight poured through the wide windows, flooding the room with gold. It should have felt warm, but instead it felt sharp, like a spotlight exposing all the secrets we still carried. Liam stirred awake, his eyes finding mine at once. He smiled faintly, but it was tired, heavy. He had not rested any better than I had.“You’re leaving me today, aren’t you?” he asked quietly, almost as if he didn’t want to hear the answer.I shook my head. “No. I’m not leaving. Not yet.” The words were honest. I couldn’t walk away f

The documents came in a plain brown envelope. No return address, no seal, nothing to hint at where they’d come from. But the moment I found it on the penthouse doorstep, I knew. My fingers trembled as I bent to pick it up, a deep unease rising in my chest. Gregory. It had to be him.I stood there for a long time, staring at it. Liam was still in his study, on a late call with the board, his voice sharp and commanding through the half-closed door. The temptation to hide the envelope, to burn it before either of us could see what it contained, pulsed in me like a heartbeat. But another voice, quieter but stronger, whispered: You can’t run from this anymore.I carried it into the kitchen, the envelope heavy as if it carried not just paper but the weight of generations. I opened it carefully, tearing along the edge. Inside were photocopies of old contracts, typed memos, and letters in faded ink. And at the very bottom, a photograph.My breath caught.It was my father. Younger, standing pr

The paper I hid in my pocket burned against my thigh all night. Liam’s chest rose and fell beneath my cheek, steady, protective, and unbearably heavy. He slept like a man who had given everything, but I could not close my eyes. My father’s words were there, in his handwriting, rough and jagged, like a voice from the grave: If I fall, protect her.Protect me.I pressed the paper harder against my leg as though it could become part of me, a second skin. Liam stirred in his sleep, one arm pulling me closer, his lips brushing my hair like he was afraid I’d vanish. I didn’t move. I didn’t dare. Because if he woke up and saw the tears on my face, if he asked what I was thinking, I wouldn’t be able to lie.The dawn came slowly. Pale light spilled through the windows of the penthouse, painting the walls in gray. Liam woke before me, or maybe he hadn’t slept at all. He shifted out of bed, his body all muscle and tension, and walked to the window, staring down at the city like he carried its si

The phone lay cracked on the nightstand, its screen bleeding white lines through the shattered glass. I stared at it, then at Liam. His eyes were not the calm gray I had grown used to in rare soft moments. They were iron. Cold, hard, unforgiving.“An emergency board meeting,” he said again, his voice low, steady, like he was forcing control over something that wanted to rip out of him. “And they want you there.”My throat closed. I clutched the sheets against my chest, my hands trembling. “Why me? What do I have to do with their games?”Liam came closer, sitting at the edge of the bed. His hand reached for mine, large, steady, grounding. “Because you’re not just in this anymore, Ava. You’ve become the center. Gregory knows it. The others know it. They want to use you.”“Use me?” My voice cracked.“Yes.” His thumb brushed the back of my hand. “They’ll call it transparency. They’ll dress it up as loyalty to the company. But what they really want is to see if you can be broken. If they c

The photo burned into my mind. Ava’s face was caught in the window of her apartment last night. Her body half-turned, unaware. The grain of glass between her and whoever was watching gave the picture a sick intimacy. It felt like a violation, more cruel than any knife. The words beneath it glared at me: You don’t know who’s watching.My hands clenched around the phone until my knuckles turned white. Rage stirred in me like fire. Ava stood beside me, silent, her breath uneven. She was trembling, not from cold, but from fear. My fear turned into something sharper an oath forming in my chest that no one would ever touch her again.But I couldn’t let her see me break. I tucked the phone away and pulled her against me. “They want us afraid,” I said, forcing calm into my voice. “But fear is their mistake. Because I don’t run, Ava. I hunt.”She looked up at me, her eyes wide, wet with unshed tears. “Liam… What if they’re inside your world already? What if they’re closer than we think?”Her w