Semua Bab Dear Billionaire Ex, I am more than an arranged marriage: Bab 71 - Bab 76

The lab went dead silent the second Lucian disappeared.The humming of the quantum inter-locator cut off, leaving only the faint crackle of ozone in the air. The vortex snapped shut like a door slamming in their faces. Izzy stood frozen, her chest heaving, her hands trembling at her sides. Dr. Thorne braced himself on the console, his white hair damp with sweat. Both of them were staring at the empty space where Lucian had been just seconds earlier.“He’s gone,” Izzy whispered, her voice almost too small to hear.Dr. Thorne didn’t answer right away. His sharp eyes scanned the screens as if there might be some trace left of Lucian, some echo that could be pulled back. But the monitors showed only static and wild data spikes from the Aethelgard anomaly.“No signal,” he muttered, his tone heavy. “No tether, no feedback. He’s cut off.”Izzy swallowed hard. “So he’s really… alone?”“Yes,” Dr. Thorne said quietly. “Completely.”The words hit her harder than she expected. Lucian had stepped

Julian never thought life would land him here. He had been the carefree Thorne, the one who drank too much at galas, who flirted shamelessly, who laughed when others worried about numbers and deals. Responsibility had always rolled off him like rain on glass. But now… now every headline, every panicked phone call, every desperate glance from Ari reminded him that the world no longer allowed him that luxury.Lucian was gone. And with his brother’s absence came the weight of an empire, a family, and perhaps even the survival of nations.Julian wore confidence like a mask. He answered investors with a steady voice, calmed government officials with smooth reassurances, and stood before cameras looking every bit the steady leader. But when the lights were off, and the city outside fell into its uneasy silence, the mask slipped. He often sat alone, shoulders hunched, chest tight, fighting the feeling that he was drowning in someone else’s life.And then there was Ari.Most nights he found h

The Ghost Cell in Lagos had finally tracked their mission to an old factory on the city’s outskirts. The building looked abandoned from a distance with high walls, rusted gates, razor wire curling across the top but the air around it buzzed faintly, as though it carried a secret. From inside, a steady hum of energy leaked out, quiet yet heavy enough to make the skin prickle.That night, the sky above Lagos was in chaos. A quantum storm tore through the clouds, lightning flashing green instead of white. Each strike sent tremors through the city’s weak power grid, plunging neighborhoods into darkness before sparking back to life. It was no accident; Aethelgard had done this deliberately, twisting the storm as a shield.Inside the factory, the Ghost Cell found the source: the emitter. It was no ordinary machine. Its tall frame of glowing pipes and veins of crystal pulsed like a living thing. The light around it bent and warped as though the air itself were cracking. The power coming from