Lahat ng Kabanata ng Possessed by the Devil: Kabanata 111 - Kabanata 113

LeonThe video started and I saw them before the sound caught up. Tamara on her knees, hands tied behind her, dress ripped at the shoulder, face wet with tears. Jasper slumped in a cheap chair, his lip split, bruises swelling. Thiago stood behind them with a gun like he’d posed it in for effect.He spoke to the camera like he was reading terms. “Bring the ledger, Leon. Bring it alone. Midnight. You bring it, you take her. You don’t, you watch them die.”Then he held his phone to show Tamara and the video cut.I set the phone face down on the desk and walked to the safe. I didn’t want to think. My hands did the work. The ledger had been in the safe because that’s where I kept the paper that mattered. It wasn’t a diary or receipts. It was everything — names, dates, amounts, shell companies, wire references, code names, phone numbers tied to accounts. There were full ledgers for every major move I’d ever tracked, and for every family that trusted the book more than a man. It handed power

TamaraI didn’t expect the room to smell like antiseptic and old coffee. Leon’s private ward was quiet in the way a place is when it knows it’s supposed to be safe. Two days had crawled by and now I sat on the little vinyl chair by Jasper’s bed, my face probably a mess from crying, and Jasper was awake and staring at me with those stupid puppy eyes he always used when he wanted forgiveness.He looked small. God, he looked small. His face was still puffy, a bruise on his cheek, but his voice was softer than I’d heard it in months.“Tam,” he said, and I could tell he was trying to sound steady. “I’m— I’m sorry. For everything. For that night, for bringing you into his world. For being an idiot.”I blinked at him hard. “Jasper, stop. Don’t—”“No,” he insisted. “I almost lost you. I nearly got you killed. I don’t— I can’t keep doing this. Please forgive me.”My throat felt heavy. Forgiveness is a weird thing. It crawls slowly. But he was my brother. He had that stupid look that made me wa