Semua Bab He Chose my Cousin, so I Chose Revenge : Bab 1 - Bab 8

After the events of the day, I knew I had to move fast. But I also knew I couldn’t afford chaos. My exit couldn’t be loud at least not yet.I had to let everything unfold naturally. This was not about immediate vengeance. This was about clarity. I needed distance. I needed to ascertain control. I had no where else to go so I chose to stay in an hotel. The hotel I chose to stay was quiet, mid-range, and unremarkable. That was the point. I didn’t want luxury. I didn’t want familiarity. I wanted to disappear into stillness, to become another shadow in a room that smelled of someone else’s story. The walls of the room I was were pale beige. The furniture was stiff and square. The window overlooked a street with no name I recognized.I sat by that window, knees folded, my mind unwinding without tears. I hadn’t a single drop a tear. Not on the drive, not when I shut the door behind me, not when I sat alone in that room and heard my own breath for the first time in hours. I was proud of myse

I woke before sunrise the next morning, as if my body remembered a time when every day began with purpose. The city beyond the window was still mostly dark, but the horizon carried a sliver of pink light that promised morning. I dressed quickly in clothes that shimmed between comfort and determination: black trousers that moved silently, a crisp white blouse that showed no hint of logos, and flats that made no sound when I stepped across the floor.I drank coffee from a simple mug while Julian prepared breakfast at the small island kitchen. He did not offer idle conversation, but his presence felt supportive. I chose to count that as a kind of alliance. So much in the world was falling apart, but here there was a space that felt quietly solid.While I ate, I opened my encrypted laptop and reviewed the overnight updates from Mara. She was already on the front lines. One of the boutique clients I had counted on had flagged a TV segment in which Alessia appeared. Alessia had said I had a

The city felt different in the morning light. I stepped onto the studio rooftop terrace and looked across the skyline, breathing deeply into the calm air. It was quieter than the chaos that had driven me away and that was exactly how I wanted it. I could feel the contrast in my chest. A feeling that the world still shattered below but here I was building something steady.I opened my laptop at the small outdoor workstation I had created earlier in the week. The browser was already logged into my secure dashboard. Notifications had built up. A stream of light alerts: boutique feature reached three thousand views already, a handful of saves, and one strong comment from a respected magazine editor. They wrote elegant with silent strength, fresh, refined, worthy of attention.I closed the laptop and let the moment sink in. What started as whispers last night had rippled into praise this morning. The design world was starting to notice and crucially without names or headlines. Just subst

I awoke before dawn, sunlight yet to touch the studio windows. My eyes opened to the muted glow of early morning, and for a moment I paused, savoring the silence before the world stirred. I rose from the bed, my body moving almost on instinct, guided by months of routine, purpose, and resolve. The city outside remained still and peaceful. It was a world that believed my absence was voluntary, a reprieve, a quiet intermission between seasons. But I knew better. I understood the storm gathering beyond these walls and the way it would break against the structure I had carefully erected from silence and strategy.In the kitchen I poured myself a glass of water, the cool liquid grounding me as I thought about the day ahead. I held the tall mug in my hand for a moment, feeling its weight and the steady pulse of hot water against its smooth ceramic. In contrast, my mind ran like a well-oiled machine, calibrating each move before the first light of dawn. I considered the leak I had sent la