Lahat ng Kabanata ng RUTHLESS TEMPTATION : Kabanata 101 - Kabanata 110

Jace’s thumb hovered over the redial button again on his way home. His phone buzzed weakly in his trembling hand. He hit call. The number you’re trying to reach is switched off. Again. He pressed it again, desperate now. The number you’re trying to reach is switched off. “No,” Jace whispered, the word barely escaping his throat. His knees felt weak. The phone nearly slipped from his grip as the kitchen blurred around him. He staggered back against the counter, gripping it hard. His chest heaved. He could hear his own pulse pounding in his ears. No. No, no, no. He should have gone himself. He should not have trusted a new driver. He should not have sent Ben alone. His head spun. The floor seemed to tilt beneath him. He pressed a hand to his temple trying to breathe and trying to think, but all that echoed in his mind was Mila. He fumbled for the phone again, scrolling. His vision blurred over the contacts list until his thumb froze on one name: Elias. His heart twisted. Sh

S. pov Morning crawls in like an uninvited guest. Light slipping through the cracks of my broken blinds, cutting across the stained peeling paint and the dust hanging in the air. I squint and turn away, trying to cover my eyes with my blanket but it’s no use, the day has already found me. The ceiling above me groans, the sound of my neighbour’s feet dragging from one end to the other. Same routine.... Same thin walls..... Same everything. I exhale, long and tired, and push myself upright. My back aches from another night on the too-thin mattress. The clock on the wall ticks like it’s mocking me, each second, a reminder of what time used to mean. It’s crooked, the glass is cracked, but it still works. A cheap survivor.... like me. 6:15 a.m. Time to go. I swing my legs off the bed, rub my face, and stand. The floorboards creak under my weight. There is a chill in the air, the kind that made me wish I had not gotten out from under the blanket. In the bathroom, I twist the faucet.

Night slipped across the prison like a shadow. As the lights dimmed along the cell block, Victor Crane sat on the edge of his bed, hands clasped and eyes steady. This was the night. He had waited.... calculated....bargained for this moment. Every second since he had been locked up had been for this. A guard’s baton dragged against the bars. “Bath rotation! Move!” Victor stood, blending effortlessly into the line of inmates shuffling down the corridor. The air was thick with sweat and damp concrete. He barely heard the curses tossed between prisoners as they pushed toward the shower room. He was listening for something else. The first signal. Inside the shower room, steam rose in a dull haze. Water spat from rusted pipes in thin, miserable streams. Prisoners stripped, stepping beneath the spray. Victor walked toward the far corner where they could do it without cameras catching too much. As he passed, one of the gang members, a man with a snake tattoo curling up his neck, lift

Jace sat behind his desk, staring at nothing.The documents his secretary had dropped off rested untouched in front of him, the pen still lying where she had placed it. He had not even noticed her leave. His mind had been somewhere else entirely, somewhere darker, somewhere where he felt like his soul was screaming.What if he had lost Mila… the same way he lost Mason?The thought punched the air out of his chest.His fingers curled slowly against the desk as the memory flashed of Mason’s small hands, his large eyes, and the last time he saw him. Jace’s breath caught.Is Mason scared right now?Is he crying?Has Justin already—“No,” he whispered sharply, shaking his head as if the movement alone could erase the image. “No... No... He can’t be.”But the tears still rose. Burning and threatening. He pressed his palms to his eyes until he saw static behind his lids.When he finally lowered his hands, his heart kept pounding like a trapped animal.He forced himself upright in his chair.

Elias stepped out of his car and glanced up at the towering glass exterior of Crane Corp, the morning sun bouncing off it like a taunt. The building felt colder these days, too. It felt too bright and too empty. He had not slept. The nights had become a fog of alcohol and hollow silence, a silence loud enough to suffocate him. He pushed open the glass doors and walked into the lobby, ignoring every set of eyes that turned towards him. He looked like hell, and he knew it. Let them talk.... Let them whisper.... None of it mattered. Not when his son was missing and not when Jace would not even look at him anymore. By the time he reached his floor, his chest felt tight, his throat raw from holding everything in. He pushed open his office door. And froze. His secretary, the new one– Leon, stood by his desk holding a stack of files. Wearing something that definitely was not the dress code. A shirt unbuttoned one too many buttons. A belt cinched too tight. A smile too practised. Elias