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Lahat ng Kabanata ng The CEO'S secretary : Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

101 Kabanata

Chapter 31

CHLOE’S POV The glow of my phone was the only light in the room. Three words. Three impossible words. Bring the key. My chest constricted as if the air itself had turned to ice. Whoever sent this knew. They knew I had it. They knew I hadn’t thrown it away. They knew me. I glanced at the closed door, heart pounding fast . Just beyond the room ,Elias and Gavin were somewhere down the hall, Elias steady as stone, Gavin unreadable as ever. If I went to them now, told them about the message, Elias would lock the phone away, crush it beneath his heel if he had to. He’d forbid me to even think about following coordinates from a stranger. But I couldn’t ignore it. Because what if she was right? What if the gaps in my memory weren’t just stress or fear? What if pieces of me really belonged to her? The thought was unbearable. I curled the phone against my chest, forcing myself to breathe, to steady the shaking in my hands. The key lay heavy on the blanket beside me, catching the faint

Chapter 32

CHLOE'S POV The shed smelled of damp earth and wood rot, but what caught my throat wasn’t the decayed smell,it was the laugh that came after my doubles. That low, gentle voice that could have been Elias’s if I didn’t already know he was supposed to be at home. My skin itched as I moved further inside, goosebumps covered my whole body, the beam of my flashlight cut across the walls lined with photographs. Dozens of them. My breath fastened as I stared at the photos. Most were of me, unposed photos I couldn’t remember being taken. Some were clearly from recent weeks: me in the office, stepping into the train, standing in the lobby. Others were… wrong. Elias and I were sitting close together in what looked like a café we’d never been to. Elias’s hand resting on mine as if we’d shared something in secret. Fabricated. But so close to reality. The laugh came again, this time nearer, pulling my gaze toward the far corner. And there he was. Elias or someone who wore his face. I was sh

Chapter 33

CHLOE'S POV “Don’t,” I whispered, my voice shaking. I wasn’t sure who I was speaking to. Don’t believe him. Don’t believe me. Don’t let this break whatever fragile thing had been building between us.Elias stepped forward, each step heavy enough that the boards creaked beneath his boots. His fake didn’t move, didn’t even flinch. His smile was steady, teasing, as if he’d been waiting for this exact moment.I pressed myself against the wall, trapped between them, the photographs crumpling at my back. My pulse was like a drumbeat in my throat.When Elias reached us, he stopped just short of colliding with him….of colliding with himself. Two versions of the same face, separated by a breath, by everything.And for the first time, I saw it. The difference.Not in their features but in the way Elias held himself…restrained, rigid, every ounce of desire and fury buried under iron discipline. The fake, meanwhile, was satisfaction made flesh. No chains. No hesitation. Just hunger.“You don’t g

Chapter 34

CHLOE'S POV And before I could blink, she was moving…fast, too fast…closing the space between us. Elias shoved me back, spinning just in time to block her with the full weight of his body. The sound of impact cracked through the shed, his grunt mixing with her laugh as they collided.I stumbled, nearly falling into the wall of photographs. Images of me scattered on the ground, the corners crumpling under my boots. Dozens of pictures of me. Dozens of versions I didn’t recognize.My double’s hand slid across Elias’s chest, too close to mine. She wasn’t trying to hurt him…she was playing games with him. Taunting us. Her lips curved inches from his jaw as she whispered, “You can’t keep her from me.”I couldn’t stand it.“Stop it!” I shouted, the sound tearing out of me before I could think.Her gaze snapped to mine, triumphant. “See? She feels it. The pull. The hunger for the truth.”“No,” Elias growled, slamming her back against the wall with a force that rattled the boards. His body tr

Chapter 35

CHLOE'S POV it was Blood.I yanked my hand back with a strange sound, stumbling against Elias’s chest. His arms locked tighter, as if my panic threatened to dissolve me into the dark.“Talk to me,” he ordered, rough, desperate. “What happened?”“There’s…” My throat refused the word. “Blood. I touched…”“Gavin?” His voice broke on the name.A groan answered from the floor. Not hers. Not a laugh. A human sound….low, pained, Gavin’s.Relief rushed with fear. “He’s alive,” I gasped, my knees threatening to give way.The laugh came again, curling around the edges of the dark. “Alive… for now.”Elias’s body shifted, trying to move us toward Gavin, but the boards creaked beneath us like they wanted to give away. He cursed under his breath, his forehead pressing to mine for half a second. “Stay with me. No matter what you hear, no matter what she says, stay with me.”His closeness was unbearable…his breath, the heat from his body, the pounding of his heart. It was the only thing that felt r

Chapter 36

CHLOE'S POV The flashlight sputtered once,twice….And went out.It was dark again.Her laugh filled the silence, closer than breath.The dark swallowed everything.The sputtering beam from Gavin’s phone died, and the black slammed back into place, thick and suffocating.“Elias…” My voice cracked, swallowed by the walls.“I’ve got you,” he wrapped his hand around mine. The raw anger in his tone should have steadied me. Instead, it made my chest tighten. Because beneath the rage, I heard something else. Fear.A sound shifted in the dark. Not Gavin. Not Elias. Her.“Don’t worry,” she cooed, her voice curling around us, the mirror of mine. “I don’t need the light to find you. I am you.”Something brushed my arm. Too soft. Too real.I flinched back, colliding with Elias’s chest. His arm clamped around me instantly, pulling me flush against him. “Stay still.” His whisper burned hot against my ear.“But Gavin….”“I’ll protect him. But you first.”My breath shuddered. His grip, his heat, his

Chapter 37

ELIAS’S POVHer whisper cut through me.Behind Chloe.“Wrong choice.”I didn’t think. I lunged.The shed was absolutely dark, but I didn’t need light to know where she was..I heard Chloe Inhale sharply, the trembling sound in her throat, felt the way her body went stiff against the wall.“Get away from her!” My fist swung, catching air, then flesh. The force jarred up my arm, her body jerking back, her hiss cutting the silence like a blade.“Elias!” Chloe’s cry broke, half in relief, half in fear.I shoved forward, bracing my body against hers, shielding her with everything I had. My hand found her face, hot with tears, she was trembling under my palm. She clung to me like I was the only solid thing left, and God help me, I clung back.“She’s not touching you. Not while I breathe.”But the dark laughed again, the sound moving….circling. Always circling.“You can’t protect her,” the double purred. “You never could. You only kept her waiting, starving her, feeding me instead.”The word

Chapter 38

ELIAS’S POVHer laugh came again, low and splintering, circling the dark shed.Chloe’s fingers dug into me, her body trembling against my back. Every quiver of her frame drove my fury deeper into bone. I’d kill this thing, whatever it was, even if I had to tear my own hands apart to do it.“Elias…” she whispered, small, breaking.I covered her hands with mine, steady, and strong. “I’m not letting her near you.”A hiss curled from the dark. “You can’t protect her forever. Not from you.”My jaw snapped tight. The truth in her voice wasn’t hers…it was mine. Every regret, every silence, thrown back at me like a knife. And still I couldn’t let it cut.Then Gavin’s voice cut sharp, raw, from the shadows. “She’s feeding on the cracks. That’s how Isabelle built her…off memory, weakness, want. Don’t give her more to use.”Blood slicked his words; he was barely upright, but still fighting.“She’s not real,” I growled back at the dark, more for Chloe than myself. “She’s a parasite. And I’ll end

Chapter 39

ELIAS’S POV The silence was too loud.Every creak, every whisper of breath carried weight. I kept my body angled in front of Chloe’s, one arm locked around her hand, the other flexing, ready to strike at nothing but dark.“Stay low,” I told her, forcing calm into my voice. She needed steady, not the storm inside me.Her nod brushed against my shoulder. She didn’t let go. She never let go.Gavin shifted against the wall, coughing hard, the sound thick. He’d lost too much blood. The weak light from his phone guttered, shadows gnawing the edges until it sputtered out again.“She hates the light,” he rasped, dragging air into his lungs. “It burns her. That’s why… why did she killed the power.”It clicked. The replication, the shadows, the way she thrived in the black. Isabelle had bred this thing out of Chloe’s image but built it out of hunger. Of absence.Light could starve her.But Chloe’s double wasn’t gone. She was listening.She laughed out loud from the ceiling beams. “Light won’t

Chapter 40

ELIAS' POV The light cut a sharp-thin line across the floor, hope spilling from the office door. But before Chloe could reach it, her double was on her.The impact made her cry out, the shadow of her body pinning Chloe against the wall. Same face. Same hair. The same trembling mouth twisted into something cruel.The moment her body launched from the dark, instinct pulled me forward faster than thought. My grip on Chloe tore free as I twisted, slamming into the shadow wearing her face.The impact rattled through bone, wood cracking beneath us as I drove her back. But she was stronger than she should’ve been…far stronger. Her arms lashed out, her nails catching my shoulder, dragging heat and pain down my skin.Behind me, Chloe screamed my name. It ripped through me sharper than claws ever could.“Run!” I barked, shoving at the double’s weight.But Chloe didn’t move. I heard the frantic scrape of her hands against the wall, refusing to leave.Her voice cut like glass. “I won’t leave you

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