Lahat ng Kabanata ng Stripper by Night, Doctor by Deception : Kabanata 101 - Kabanata 110

RYANI sat down, staring at the document in front of me, and sighed.I don’t know why I hesitated. The truth was already written in black and white, staring me in the face like it had been there all along, just waiting for me to stop running from it. But now that it was here… right here… I wasn’t sure I wanted to face it.Did I really want to do this?Ricardo hadn’t exactly been good to me. Most of the time, I felt like an object he could move around however he pleased… a weapon when he needed one, a distraction when he didn’t. But it hadn’t always been like that.But now, none of that mattered. This wasn’t about what we were, or what we pretended to be. This was about something bigger. About the one thing that’s haunted me since the day it happened.My mother.She didn’t deserve to die the way she did. And for so long, I didn’t know who was behind it… who gave the order, who pulled the strings, who decided her life didn’t matter enough to keep.There was a time he made me feel like I

RICARDOI woke up to the rhythmic beep of machines and the faint sting of something in my arm.My eyelids were heavy, stuck like glue, but I forced them apart.The ceiling above me was white and a soft light buzzed faintly in the corner. I turned my head slowly, my muscles stiff like I hadn’t moved in days.I was in a room. Not a hospital, but it had that same quiet, antiseptic chill.A single chair sat by the wall. A toilet at the far corner. No windows. Just a bed. This bed.Tubes ran into my veins. IV drip. Monitors. My chest felt like someone had slammed it with a baseball bat. No… a bullet.I sat up with a groan. My hand flew to my chest with bandages, sticky with blood at the edges.What the hell happened?My fingers clawed at the tubing, yanking it off. The IV pulled free, warm blood trailing down my arm. I didn’t care. I needed answers.I stumbled off the bed and my legs buckled. I caught the wall, gasping.How long have I been out?There was no clock. No calendar. Nothing. Ju

BELLAI stood there, my back pressed against the cold hallway wall, arms wrapped so tightly around myself it felt like I was trying to hold my soul in place.My heart was a riot in my chest.I couldn’t keep doing this. Not one more second.Now that Ricardo was out of the picture… missing, maybe even dead, the guilt was screaming louder than ever. The truth was eating me alive. And if I didn’t tell Ryan soon… I was going to lose what little was left of myself.But not here. Not in this hallway. Not with Rafael ten feet away, probably listening through the door.I had to get Ryan alone.And then I had to say it.All of it.I glanced at the door. The shower had been running for a couple minutes now. What the hell was I doing?I wasn’t supposed to be here. I wasn’t supposed to have tracked him, or shown up without warning, or be risking everything just to tell him the truth. But I had to. I had to. I owed him that much.God, my hands wouldn’t stop shaking.I pressed my palms flat against

RAFAELI woke up expecting to hear the low hum of the TV or Ryan rummaging in the kitchen like he always did at ungodly hours, but there was nothing. Just silence.Too much silence.I sat up, blinked the sleep from my eyes, and glanced around the room. Empty.No signs of movement.Weird.“Ryan?” I called out, dragging myself to my feet. No answer.I stepped into the hallway and headed straight for the parlour. Maybe he’d fallen asleep on the couch again, TV remote in one hand, phone in the other. But when I walked in, the place was spotless. No signs of him. No rumpled blanket. No empty coffee cup. Nothing.My stomach twisted.Okay… maybe he stepped out?I checked the kitchen. Bathroom. Backyard.Still nothing.No note. No message. No damn clue.Where the hell did he go?I grabbed my phone and opened my call log. Maybe he’d called. Maybe I slept through it. But there were no missed calls. No texts.My chest tightened.What the fuck?I quickly scrolled to his name and hit call.Ring.R

RYANWe stood in the hallway.Me. Rafael. My father.And his men.Dozens of them, filling the grand hall. All eyes were on me, even though no one said it. I wasn’t just the outsider anymore, I was his son. And in this world, that meant something.Every man here had blood on his hands and a weapon tucked somewhere beneath his coat. They didn’t flinch. They didn’t smile. They just waited.For orders.My father stood between me and them, propped up on a cane, breathing harder than he should’ve been, but still holding that strange spark in his eyes. “This is my son,” he said, hisvvoice hoarse but steady. “Ryan.”No one said a word.He gestured toward the center table where a massive map of the city was spread out. Marked with circles, red lines, and names I didn’t recognize, but one name stood out in bold black ink:LUCAS.My fists clenched just seeing it.“We’ve tracked Lucas down to a secured estate on the west side,” one of the men said, pointing to the map. “Walled compound, private