Semua Bab Sinful Arrangement: Bab 61 - Bab 68

Amelia woke to the warmth of Frederick’s body pressed against hers, his arm draped across her waist as though even in sleep he was afraid to let her go. For a moment she didn’t move, afraid that shifting might break the spell of quiet that had settled over them. The night before still lived on her skin — his hands, his mouth, the way he had held her as though the world might disappear if he didn’t. She closed her eyes again and let herself feel it, not rushing the memory away, not hiding from the way her body still trembled with echoes of it.The morning light filtered through the curtains, soft and golden, washing the room in a glow that felt far too gentle for the storm that had passed between them hours ago. Her cheek rested against the pillow, and when she tilted her head just slightly she could see the sharp line of his jaw, the shadows of his lashes resting against his skin. He looked younger in sleep, stripped of the sharp edges and relentless control he carried through the day

The knock at his door barely registered. It came again, firmer this time, and Luke’s voice followed.“Frederick. We need to talk.”Frederick closed the folder slowly, his jaw set. His reflection stared back at him in the glass, sharp and unreadable. The pieces were shifting, and for the first time in a long while, he felt the fragile edges of control slipping through his hands.He didn’t answer immediately. The silence stretched, filled with the faint hum of the city outside and the measured beat of his own heart. When he finally said, “Come in,” his voice was quieter than usual, almost too calm, as if the storm had already begun inside him.Luke stepped through, shutting the door behind him. He looked as though he’d aged in the last hour—eyes sharp but tired, shoulders heavy with whatever truth he carried. He hesitated only for a second before placing a flash drive on the desk between them.“You’re going to want to see this.”Frederick’s fingers tapped the wood, deliberate, steady. H

Amelia’s breath refused to steady. She sat on the floor of her clinic, glass scattered like sharp stars around her, the note still trembling in her hand. Patients whispered, some cried, nurses tried to calm them, but all the noise blurred into the background. The only thing clear was the paper between her fingers, the threat carved into it with jagged strokes.He will never be yours.The words seared her like an open flame, and for a moment, she thought she might choke on the weight of them. She’d known from the start that being tied to Frederick painted a target on her back, but seeing it written so bluntly, so personally, cut deeper than anything else. This wasn’t just about him. Whoever had sent this wanted her gone. Wanted her broken.The phone still lay where it had fallen, Frederick’s voice spilling out in fragments. “Amelia? … answer me. Amelia.” His tone carried a sharpness that made her chest tighten, as if he were here already, pulling her up, shielding her with that unshaka

The screen went black.The last flicker of that familiar hair burned into Amelia’s mind, lodging itself behind her eyes like a splinter she couldn’t pry free. The silence that followed was worse than the ping of alarms, worse than the static hum of the machines. It was heavy. Crushing.Frederick didn’t move at first. He stood there, muscles locked, jaw clenched, one hand braced against the console as if the weight of the entire Empire rested on that single point of contact.She wanted to reach for him, to close the gap, but she knew him well enough now to recognize the stillness. It wasn’t calm. It was storm.When he finally spoke, his voice was a low scrape of gravel. “They want me to believe it’s you.”Her throat tightened. She took one step closer, her bare feet whispering against the polished floor. “And do you?”The question hung between them.Slowly, painfully, Frederick turned his head. His eyes found hers, dark and raw, threaded with a kind of fear she had never seen in him be