All Chapters of The Ultimatum Wife: Chapter 221 - Chapter 230

Jace felt it then, the shift in tone, the narrowing of focus. He opened his mouth to joke it away, but Marcus was already reaching out, fingers brushing Jace’s wrist, light and deliberate.The contact sent a small jolt through him.Marcus leaned in.Not rushed. Not aggressive. Just close enough that Jace could smell his cologne, could feel the warmth of him, could register the intention before it fully formed.For a split second, Jace thought Marcus was going to kiss him.The thought startled him more than it should have.Then Marcus stopped.Pulled back just as smoothly as he’d leaned in.His hand dropped. His expression shifted, something apologetic sliding neatly into place.“Sorry,” he said quickly. “That was, I shouldn’t have.”Jace blinked. “What?”“I crossed a line,” Marcus continued, rubbing the back of his neck like he was embarrassed. “You didn’t give me any indication that... I mean, I value what we have, and I don’t want to make things awkward.”The words tumbled out with

Marcus didn’t catch it at first. He took a sip of wine, still relaxed. “Yeah. She used to complain about places like this. Said the food was wasted on presentation.”Jace’s smile didn’t falter.Inside, something shifted.“You’ve met her before?” Jace asked casually.Marcus looked up.There it was.A flicker. Too fast for anyone else to notice. Not panic. Calculation.“I meant,” Marcus said smoothly, “from what you’ve told me.”Jace nodded slowly. “I don’t think I ever said that.”Marcus laughed softly. “You talk about her more than you realize.”“That’s not what I asked,” Jace said, still smiling.Marcus leaned back slightly, studying him now. “You okay?”“Yeah,” Jace replied. “Just curious.”The word hung there.Curiosity.The thing he’d let go of.Marcus reached for his hand again. “You’re overthinking.”Maybe.Jace would’ve accepted that answer yesterday.He took a bite of dessert, chewing slowly, letting the moment stretch.“And the way she takes her coffee?” Marcus added lightly.

The fire did not care what she’d planned or what she’d lost. It did not care about revenge, or grief, or justification. It consumed evenly, impartially, stripping her down to nothing but pain and the raw, animal need to survive.Her hands trembled as she tried to crawl, but the heat was everywhere now, biting into her skin, stealing strength, stealing time. Each movement cost more than she had left.Tears streamed down her face, evaporating almost as quickly as they fell.She thought of her children then.Not clearly. Not gently. Just flashes. Voices. A sense of something unfinished that would never be mended.The smoke grew thicker, heavier. The pain blurred, shifting from sharp to overwhelming, until even screaming felt like too much effort.Her body sagged against the floor, strength finally giving out.As consciousness slipped, the last thing Mrs. Harrow felt was not anger.It was the terrible clarity of it all. That vengeance, once set loose, does not stop to ask who is already b

Elena straightened slowly.“That’s where I start,” she said.Roman watched the screen as the data settled back into stillness, as if nothing had happened at all. No alarms. No flags. Just the faint residue of movement where movement shouldn’t exist.The room fell quiet except for the soft hum of the machines.Elena opened another window. Then another.Old financial shadows. Dormant channels that hadn’t moved in years. Systems that had been built to last, not to be noticed.“Most people vanish by erasing themselves,” she said. “He vanished by becoming boring.”Roman glanced at her. “Invisible through normalcy.”“Yes.”Her fingers moved faster now, confidence replacing caution.The cursor paused.Another flicker. Smaller this time. Almost shy.Elena smiled faintly.“There you are,” she murmured.Roman leaned closer. “You have him?”“No,” she said. “I have his shadow.”She sat back, letting the screens run, letting the system breathe without pressure.“He doesn’t know I’m looking yet,” E

The answer didn’t arrive like a revelation.It arrived like inevitability.Jace sat there long after he should have left, watching the cursor blink on a screen that no longer mattered.The connections had already formed in his head, clean and quiet, locking into place with a certainty that made his chest feel hollow.The systems.The timing.The anonymity.The emotional slip at Elena’s name.Marcus hadn’t just intersected with Elena’s past.He was part of it.Not adjacent.Not peripheral.Central.Jace finally stood.There was no rush now. No panic. Panic was for people who hadn’t reached clarity yet. What he felt instead was stillness. The kind that comes right before a decision hardens into resolve.By the time he returned to the hotel, the hallway was quiet again.Marcus’s door was closed.Jace stopped in front of it, hand hovering for a brief moment before he knocked.Once.The door opened almost immediately, like Marcus had been waiting.“Hey,” Marcus said, expression carefully n