Semua Bab Under the Weight of Deception: Bab 11 - Bab 20

Chapter 12 The next morning, after the day’s work at Ambercrest, the lights of Seoul seemed less cold. Victoria walked a step ahead, as if the city itself obeyed her. Benjamin followed silently, the tension from the recent reports still beneath his skin, though increasingly less rigid. Lucas brought up the rear, alert like a director watching his actors try a new scene. The workday was officially over. But Victoria knew the real conversations rarely happened in meeting rooms. Still, approaching at first was difficult. After that last gesture with the tteokbokki and Benjamin’s ambiguous reaction, a thin layer of distance lingered between them. Not rejection, but that uncomfortable edge of the unspoken. It didn’t last long. As they left the financial district behind, Benjamin began walking closer—not because he wanted to say anything, but because he no longer needed space. Or perhaps because the silence between them had ceased to be a barrier and had become a possibility. “Where

Chapter 14The Walker house was still big.Too big for what they needed now, but not for what they once were. There were tall, white columns—solid, dignified—like timekeepers at the gates. Wide windows that let sunlight cascade in amber sheets, and high ceilings that echoed with laughter no longer there. Though some laughs—the best ones—had returned.The scent of fresh-baked bread, lavender, and old polished wood lingered in the air. The oriental rugs were worn at the corners, the large gilt-framed paintings still hung with a touch of old pride. Beauty endured, even if it was no longer new. And the house, despite the years, kept that quiet elegance of places that once knew power… and lost it without collapsing entirely.Anne was home.Seated in one of the armchairs in the grand living room, cradling a warm cup of tea, she watched her family scattered across the space: laughter from the kitchen, voices rising from the old piano, hurried footsteps crossing the central hallway. The echo

Chapter 16Anne arrived at her apartment carrying a blend of exhaustion and an unease she couldn’t shake off. She closed the door behind her, leaving behind the warmth and the tangled emotions shared with her family, and stepped into the cold, orderly, lifeless space she had come to call a refuge—her life as Emma.As she undressed, a shiver ran down her spine. A fleeting jolt, sharp enough to make her pause. It felt as though a shadow, a familiar presence, had brushed against her as she crossed the street. For a moment, she thought she’d seen Benjamín’s reflection in a nearby window—his face barely discernible in the twilight.Her heart skipped a beat. For a split second, the fear of being discovered—of her double life collapsing—froze her in place. But it was only a flash, a passing sensation.She shook her head, refusing to give it weight.She dismissed it as a trick of the mind, accumulated fatigue, or maybe just a distorted reflection. Pressing her lips together, she carried on wi

Chapter 18 The subtle click of the phone still echoed in Emma’s mind, though the conversation had ended minutes ago. She hadn’t understood a single word—only registered the stiffness in Benjamín’s posture. His back straight. His hand clenched around the receiver. That heavy silence that held more than just words: it held decisions. She tried to focus on the Tokyo report. Pretended to go over numbers, compare dates, send an email. But she couldn’t stop thinking about that "uncle." Matthew Carter. The name had flashed on the screen like a silent warning. From her desk, she could still see Benjamín’s silhouette behind the frosted glass partition. He hadn’t moved since the call ended, as if something inside him had been violently rearranged. He didn’t rub his face. Didn’t sigh. Didn’t allow himself to show anything. But Emma—who had once loved him, who still remembered how he blinked when he lied, how he pressed his lips together when unsure—caught the faintest twitch in his left eyeb

Chapter 20Benjamin Carter hadn’t been sleeping well. Not for weeks.It wasn’t just the pressure from the Ambercrest project, nor the international negotiations that demanded every moment of his attention. It wasn’t even the crushing bureaucracy of the board, or the endless stream of emails marked “High Priority” arriving at impossible hours. All of that was expected. What he hadn’t expected was the persistent—unseen yet relentless—sense that the ground beneath his feet was shifting.Victoria.She had arrived some time ago with a proposal that changed everything: “I’m not here to offer an alliance. I’m here to offer expansion.” Her voice still echoed in his memory—clear and confident—promising that Ambercrest could become the launchpad for the leap he had always dreamed of. That together, they could leap five years ahead of the competition.Benjamin had accepted—not out of full trust, but because he knew that in business, hesitation rarely gets a second chance.But the alliance he had