All Chapters of Married To My Enemy's Son: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Chapter Twelve: Echoes of the PastThe sun cast long shadows over the ancient city of Prague, its golden hues dancing upon the cobblestone streets. The city's timeless beauty stood in stark contrast to the turmoil brewing within me. Adrian's absence was a void that no amount of sunlight could fill.Wren sat across from me in the dimly lit café, her fingers tracing the rim of her coffee cup. Her eyes, usually sharp and observant, were clouded with concern."We need to find him, Elena," she said softly.I nodded, the weight of responsibility pressing heavily on my shoulders. Adrian had risked everything, and now it was our turn to bring him back.Luca entered the café, a laptop tucked under his arm. He slid into the seat beside Wren, opening the device and turning it towards us."I've been analyzing the data from the bunker," he began. "There's a pattern in Vaughn's movements. He frequents a location in the Swiss Alps—a secluded estate registered under a shell corporation."Wren l

The days following Katya's exposé unfolded like a storm sweeping through glass. One by one, countries began investigations, arrests were made, assets frozen. But for every domino that fell, another predator reared its head, desperate to claw back power. We had thrown a match into a nest of gasoline-soaked secrets.Adrian paced the length of the safehouse's narrow hallway, the wood creaking beneath his boots. I sat at the kitchen table with Wren and Luca, eyes glued to the flurry of newsfeeds and encrypted messages flooding in. Each headline was a confirmation: we had cracked open something bigger than any of us had imagined."Interpol has launched a probe into Vaughn's shell companies," Luca reported, tapping on his tablet. "There’s panic across Brussels, Geneva, even Washington. They're calling it the Pandora Leak."Wren scoffed. "As if the world didn't already know its puppeteers. They're just mad someone cut the strings."Adrian stopped pacing. "What's Vaughn doing?"Luca’s brow fu

The scent of salt lingered in the air as the waves crashed gently against the rocks beneath our balcony in Amalfi. The Italian coast had become our quiet refuge, far from the noise of espionage, blood-soaked secrets, and whispered betrayal. But silence has its own voice, and it began to speak to me in ways I wasn’t prepared for.I stood by the balcony railing, watching the sea glisten beneath the morning sun. Adrian moved behind me, his arms sliding around my waist. He pressed a kiss to my shoulder, but I could feel the tension in his grip."You didn’t sleep again," I said quietly."Neither did you."We had both been having nightmares.The ghost of Vaughn Cavendish didn’t rest easy. Not in our minds, not in the world. Even in death, his reach lingered like oil in water. The media spun their stories, calling us heroes, martyrs, vigilantes. But they didn’t know the cost. They didn’t hear the gunshots echoing through our dreams or feel the chill of his voice crawling under our skin."Do

The air in Geneva was electric with tension. Eliza’s blood still lingered in Adrian’s mind, a phantom stain he couldn’t scrub off. We had lost our enemy—and with her, a key to understanding the deeper evil looming ahead. Her final words haunted us.“They’re coming… worse than me.”But who were they?Back in our temporary safe house, hidden deep in the Swiss Alps, Adrian paced the room like a caged animal. He hadn’t spoken much since the chapel. I gave him space—he wasn’t just grieving Eliza’s death; he was unraveling decades of buried pain.“She trained my mother,” he said finally, voice low. “All this time, I thought I knew who she was.”“You’re not your mother,” I said softly. “And you’re not Eliza’s puppet.”He nodded but didn’t meet my eyes.We didn’t get to mourn long. Less than 48 hours later, Wren showed up with a satchel of encrypted files and a bruised lip. “We have a bigger problem,” she said without preamble.Adrian took the tablet from her and scrolled through the data. Hi

The room was silent, the kind of silence that doesn’t just fill a space but crawls under your skin. The signal from space was still echoing on our monitors—an endless loop of encrypted pulses. We stared at it, not sure if we were hearing the future or our doom knocking.“They’re not human,” Eve had said.And after everything we’d seen, no one doubted her.Adrian leaned forward, studying the frequency. “This isn’t random. It’s patterned. Structured.”“Like language?” Wren asked.“Like mathematics,” Lena replied. “Which means it’s intelligent.”My heart pounded. “Are we talking aliens now?”Eve’s voice was calm. “They’re not from here. But they were invited.”Wren blinked. “Invited by who?”“Kael,” Eve whispered. “He’s not just building weapons. He’s building beacons.”The next 48 hours were a blur. Lena decoded parts of the signal. It wasn’t a message. It was a countdown.“Seventeen days,” she announced. “Seventeen days until… something arrives.”“From where?” Adrian asked.Lena pointe