Semua Bab Dear Billionaire Ex, I am more than an arranged marriage: Bab 41 - Bab 48

The loud, wild sound of the quantum reactor was gone. Now there was only the steady hum of their small transport vessel moving quietly across the Pacific Ocean. Inside the dark, quiet cabin, Eva, Lucian, Marcus, and the rest of the team sat close together. They were tired, bruised, and covered in dust but they were alive.Eva felt a wave of relief wash over her, cold and deep. But right after that came a heavy fear. They had escaped Aethelgard, but the island was still out there. The danger hadn’t ended. It had just gone quiet. Whatever was left behind was growing, changing, and far from safe.Lucian was clearly exhausted, his face pale and lined with stress. But he moved around the cabin with sharp focus. He checked on Marcus and made sure the others were treated for cuts and bruises. Every few seconds, his eyes found Eva. He didn’t say much, but she could feel the silent worry behind every glance.On a screen nearby, Eva watched the image of Aethelgard fading into the fog behind the

The strange signal Izzy had found, what she called the “stabilization signature” quickly became the center of their world. It wasn’t just a technical detail anymore; it felt like the one thread that could unravel Aethelgard’s threat. Eva and Lucian spent hours buried in Vance’s old diagrams and Finch’s scattered notes. They sat side by side, sometimes not speaking for long stretches, their minds locked in the same focused rhythm.Izzy, drifting like a ghost through layers of secure servers, finally broke through another wall of Vance’s old code. Her voice came alive in the comms, a little breathless.“It’s not just a signal,” she said. “It’s a resonance. A pattern. Vance called it ‘The Ghost in the Machine.’ It’s weird, guys… almost like it thinks for itself. He believed the quantum field didn’t just follow physical laws, it could respond to human consciousness. Emotional energy. Like, who we are could influence it at that level.”Eva sat up straighter, eyes wide. “Then it’s not about

The icy wind howled through the mountains, cutting through their coats and biting at their skin. It was a sharp change from the warm, sticky air they’d left behind on the Pacific coast. Lucian, Eva, and Marcus moved quickly and quietly across the snowy path, their breath rising in white clouds as they climbed higher into the Alps. Every step had been carefully planned. They knew Margaret’s surveillance reached far, so this mission had to be perfect.Their plane had touched down at a quiet, hidden airstrip hours earlier. From there, they had driven rough, all-terrain vehicles through narrow, frozen mountain roads. It was a long, tense journey. The weather was brutal. The paths were barely roads at all, it was just icy tracks hugging the side of cliffs. But the real danger wasn’t the cold or the steep drop-offs. It was the fear that someone might be watching.Lucian’s security team picked up small signs. Strange heat signatures from hidden cameras. Old footprints in places no hiker shou

Ari Thorne wasn’t just a little girl anymore. She was the key. The living key. This truth hit Lucian like a punch to the gut. The one thing that could unlock the full power of the quantum reactor. And suddenly, everything made sense and it made him sick.He sat in the secure conference room, but it no longer felt secure. It felt tight, like the walls were closing in. His chest was heavy. The kind of heavy that came from heartbreak, guilt, and fear, all at once.He buried his face in his hands. His strong shoulders trembled with the weight of it all. “Ari,” he whispered, his voice cracked and broken. “My God. All this time… I blamed Eva. I fought Derek. I was so focused on the past… and it was always this. My family’s twisted legacy. My grandfather’s obsession with genetics. I never saw it coming. I never realized… she was the target all along.”He lifted his face slowly. His eyes, usually sharp and in control, were now full of pain as he looked at Eva. “This is my fault. All of it.”E