All Chapters of Rival's Marriage Agreement : Chapter 181 - Chapter 189

189 Chapters

181

Cameron POVThe lights went out.For a moment, I could not see anything.I could hear everyone breathing around me, the scrape of shoes against the floor, and somewhere in the darkness, the sharp sound of someone cocking a gun.“Everybody stay where you are!” Daniel shouted.My heart slammed against my ribs.Then I heard Brandon.“Cameron!”“I’m here!”I reached out blindly, desperate to find him.My fingers caught his hand.He pulled me toward him immediately, and I grabbed his shirt with both hands as if letting go would make him disappear again.“I’ve got you,” he whispered.“I know.”But I did not know.Nothing made sense anymore.My memories were not mine.My father had built Project Heir.Victor had erased memories.Adrian had been forced to help.And somehow, I had spent years believing things that might never have happened.Then a gunshot exploded in the darkness.I screamed.Brandon pulled me down.Another shot followed.Someone shouted.“Move!”Footsteps rushed across the ro

182

Cameron POVFor several seconds, I could not move.I could barely breathe.The man standing across from me had my face.My eyes.My mouth.Even the small scar above my eyebrow.It felt like I was staring into a mirror that had somehow stepped out of the wall and learned how to breathe.Brandon moved in front of me.“Stay behind me.”The stranger laughed softly.“You still do that.”Brandon froze.“What?”“You always protect him.”The way he said it made my stomach twist.He knew Brandon.Not from stories.Not from photographs.He knew him.I stepped around Brandon.“Who are you?”The stranger looked at me.“You already know.”“No.”“Yes, you do.”He pointed toward my head.“You just haven’t reached the memory yet.”My father walked into the room behind him.“Enough.”I turned toward him.“You created him.”My father smiled.“I created many things.”“You created another me.”“No.”He looked at the stranger.“He created himself.”The stranger’s expression hardened.“That is not what you

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Cameron POVMy father’s laughter followed me through the corridor.It was the kind of laugh that made my skin crawl because there was no happiness in it.There was only certainty.As if everything happening around us had been planned long before any of us realized we were trapped inside his game.“The person I loved?” I repeated.Evan nodded.Brandon looked at me.I could see the same question in his eyes.“What does that mean?” I asked.Evan glanced toward my father.“It means the final archive wasn’t protected by a password.”I frowned.“Then what was it protected by?”“A choice.”My heart sank.“What choice?”Evan looked directly at Brandon.“You had to choose him.”I stared at Brandon.“I don’t understand.”“You weren’t supposed to access the archive by remembering a password,” Evan explained. “You were supposed to access it by remembering why you created it.”My father’s laughter stopped.“Enough.”Victor raised his gun.“Everyone move.”We hurried down the corridor.I could hear

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Cameron POVThe footsteps became louder.They were coming from both sides of the corridor.I looked around the archive room.There were too many of them.“We need another way out,” Daniel said.Evan was already moving toward the shelves.“There is one.”My father stared at him.“You won’t find it.”Evan looked back.“You’re forgetting who taught me how to escape this place.”My father’s expression hardened.“Cameron did.”“Yes.”Evan pulled a file from a shelf and threw it onto the floor.Behind it was a narrow opening in the wall.Amelia stared.“That was there the whole time?”Evan nodded.“This facility was built with emergency passages.”Adrian hurried toward it.“Where does it lead?”“Outside.”Everyone started moving.Everyone except me.I was still staring at the screen.The final sentence remained there.THE HUNT STARTS NOW.My younger self had known this would happen.He had planned for it.But there was something else.A small blinking icon had appeared in the corner of the

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Cameron POVThe sound of the door being forced open made my entire body freeze.For one second, I forgot how to breathe.Brandon was still in my arms, his head resting against my chest, his fingers weakly gripping the front of my shirt as if letting go would make him disappear again.“Brandon?”His eyes were closed.“Brandon, please.”I shook his shoulder gently.Nothing.My heart slammed against my ribs.“No. No, no, no.”I could hear footsteps coming closer.Fast.Heavy.I looked toward the doorway, but the darkness made it impossible to see who was there.“Who is that?” I shouted.No answer.The footsteps stopped.Then someone spoke.“Cameron.”My blood turned cold.I knew that voice.I knew it too well.“Dad?”Brandon suddenly moved in my arms.His eyes opened.“Cameron…”His voice was barely audible.I looked down at him.“What?”He stared past me toward the doorway, and all the color drained from his face.“Don’t let him take me.”My stomach dropped.“What?”“Don’t…”His fingers

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gunsh.Cameron POVIt o never cameI remembered that first.My finger had been on the trigger.My father had been standing in front of me.I had looked directly into his eyes.And then—Nothing.No gunshot.No blood.No scream.Just silence.I gasped.My hand flew to my mouth as the memory broke apart inside my head.“Cameron?”Brandon’s voice sounded distant.I couldn’t answer him.I was back there.Back in that room.Back on that night.My father was standing across from me, wearing the same dark suit he always wore when he wanted to look untouchable.There had been blood on his collar.Not his blood.Someone else’s.My hands were shaking around the gun.“You don’t have to do this,” my father had said.I remembered laughing.Not because I was amused.Because I was terrified.“You’ve been telling me what I have to do my entire life.”His expression hardened.“You don’t understand what you’re involved in.”“I understand enough.”“You think you can destroy everything I’ve built?”“No.”

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The gun being cocked made everyone freeze.I could barely breathe in the darkness.Brandon’s fingers immediately tightened around mine.“Stay with me,” he whispered.“I am.”My voice shook despite my attempt to sound calm.Another click came from somewhere ahead.“Drop the weapon,” Daniel ordered.Nobody answered.Then a gunshot exploded through the darkness.Someone screamed.I felt Brandon pull me down.Another shot followed.“Everybody stay down!”Daniel’s voice echoed through the corridor.I pressed myself against the floor, my heart pounding painfully.“Brandon?”“I’m here.”“Are you hurt?”“No.”I reached for him anyway.My fingers found his shoulder.He was shaking.So was I.Then the emergency lights flickered back on.I looked around immediately.My father was standing near the wall.Victor was beside him.Daniel had his gun raised.Adrian was crouched behind a desk.But someone was missing.“Where is Amelia?”Nobody answered.My stomach dropped.“Where is Amelia?”Daniel loo

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The Cameron POv photograph stayed on my screen.I couldn’t stop staring at it.My mother’s face was impossible to mistake.She looked exactly as I remembered her, except I had spent years believing those memories were incomplete.She was smiling.Actually smiling.And beside her stood Brandon’s mother.Alive.Together.Standing inside a room that looked strangely familiar.“Cameron,” Brandon whispered.“I see it.”His hand slowly tightened around mine.“My mother.”I nodded.“She isn’t dead.”Neither of us spoke after that.For years, Brandon and I had carried the same kind of pain.We had both believed someone we loved had disappeared forever.We had both blamed ourselves in different ways.And now someone was telling us that the truth had been hidden.My father walked closer.“Give me the phone.”I immediately stepped backward.“No.”“Cameron.”“You don’t get to tell me anything anymore.”His expression tightened.“You don’t understand what that photograph means.”“Then explain it.

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Cameron POvThe photograph stayed on my screen.I couldn’t stop staring at it.My mother’s face was impossible to mistake.She looked exactly how I remembered her, except the memory of her had always felt strangely incomplete, like someone had taken pieces of my childhood and carefully hidden them somewhere I could never reach.But there she was.Alive.Smiling.Standing beside Brandon’s mother.And suddenly, every painful memory I had carried for years felt like a lie.“Cameron,” Brandon whispered.I didn’t answer.My fingers were trembling around the phone.“My mother,” he said again.I finally looked at him.“She isn’t dead.”His eyes were already filling with tears.“I know.”For a few seconds, neither of us moved.We had spent years believing the people we loved were gone.We had blamed ourselves.We had mourned them.We had built our entire lives around that grief.And now someone had sent us a photograph that destroyed everything we thought we knew.My father stepped forward.“

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