جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 140

Henry's POV I stared at her, my jaw tight.“How… how do you even know I went to see Aaliyah?” The disbelief cracked through my voice before I could steady it. “Don’t tell me you’ve been following me, Aurora. Is that it? Have you seriously stooped that low?”She walked even closer toward me with a slow lift of her chin, looking at me with those cool eyes and not even flinching at the accusation. The light above us hit her cheekbones in such a way that made her look even colder, as if she was carved out of glass. “Following you?” Her lips curved in something between amusement and disdain. “No. I don’t need to. That’s beneath me. But you should know something, Henry—” her voice dropped, almost taunting, almost like she was savoring the way it shook me— “you’re being watched from now on.”My fingers curled into fists before loosening again, palms damp with sweat. “Watched?” I spat the word out, a small chuckle slipping through even though nothing was funny. “If this is one of your

ORRIN The air was filled with jet fuel as Orrin walked with a calm but hurried stride toward his jet, his mind already replaying the tense moments he’d left behind. “I need you to be as fast as you can,” he said to the pilot upon hopping in. The low hum of the engines filled his ears, but his thoughts were louder. His hand brushed against the cold feel of the headsets as he picked one up. The moment he buckled his seatbelt, movement caught his eye. Someone was running toward him, fast, eager to catch up on time. One of his men quickly appeared in the doorway, breathing hard, holding out a phone. “Mr. Hayes—it’s Roger—he says it’s urgent.” Orrin’s eyes narrowed. He took the phone without hesitation, pressed it to his ear. “Roger.” On the other end, Roger’s voice carried a rush of breath, tight and strained. “Orrin, you got it all wrong. Damn it, this place is gone!” “What do you mean?” “Just minutes after you left, the building—” His words caught for a mom

Aaliyah’s POV Lisa’s words about divorce kept ringing in my ears. They wouldn’t stop, repeating over and over. It was like the pieces of a puzzle were finally falling into place, but the picture it formed was one I refused to see.My chest tightened. Was it really the truth?I shook my head hard, as if I could rattle the thought out of existence. “No…” The word slipped from my lips, a trembling whisper, as if that single sound could undo reality.“Your silence confirms it, Aaliyah. You’ve finally accepted the truth. Splendid. That’s the first step. Now… I’ll just go ahead and brief you.”My lips trembled and my body shook. But something inside me flared, a spark of anger, of defiance, of sheer desperation.I leaned forward as much as the rope allowed, my voice was raw but I forced it out.“No.”My throat burned as I spoke louder.“No. I don’t want to hear what you have to say. Whatever it is, I don’t want it from you. Not from you.”For a moment, there was nothing.The silence pres

Lisa’s POVMy heart dropped so hard I thought it would tear straight through my chest.Aaliyah’s voice shook as she clutched my arm, her whole body trembling. “Lisa… Elias is still in there.”For a second, I couldn’t even process her words. The roar of the fire was deafening, the smell of smoke already choking my lungs, and half of the building was crumbling before our eyes. But when I looked into her terrified face, I knew she wasn’t joking.My eyes darted back to the house. The fire was alive, eating everything in sight, climbing up walls, devouring wood and glass as if it had been waiting for this moment. Part of the roof gave way with a loud crack, sparks flying into the sky like angry stars.I grabbed Aaliyah by the shoulders, forcing her to look at me. “Listen to me. Snap out of it. If we just stand here, he’s gone. Do you understand? He’s gone. And you're too weak to go in there.”Her lips quivered, and tears rolled down her cheeks, cutting through the soot on her skin. “No…

Henry’s POVAurora was gone.I stood there in the middle of her empty room, staring at the stripped walk-in closet, the bare drawers, the cold emptiness of the space that once smelled like her perfume and vanity creams. It was all gone.Something smelt wrong. Very wrong.The divorce wasn’t even finalized yet, so why the hell would she run now? Why disappear so suddenly, like a thief in the night? My gut twisted.I darted toward the drawer where I’d found those documents before. My hand yanked it open, my eyes sweeping frantically through. Empty. Nothing. I crouched down, pulled open the lower ones, shoved my hands around the inside as if something might magically appear but there was nothing.My throat tightened. “What the fuck is happening…”This wasn’t just Aurora being impulsive. This wasn’t just her taking her clothes and her jewelry and running away. My guts told me she was scrubbing away evidence, pulling strings I couldn’t see yet. My instincts screamed it.I pulled my phone f