Lahat ng Kabanata ng Sweet Unhappy Heart: Kabanata 171 - Kabanata 180

Avery's POVI stood at my apartment window watching Mateo's car disappear into Mexico City traffic. The black SUV blended into the chaos of honking horns and street vendors and people rushing to wherever people rushed to in this city that never seemed to sleep. My hand rested on my belly where the baby was doing somersaults. Eight months and counting. Every day felt like borrowed time.He had dropped me off and wanted to take me out on the weekend. Dinner, he said. Somewhere nice. His treat. The way he said it made it sound casual, friendly, but there was something underneath that I couldn't quite name. An intensity in his eyes when he looked at me that made my stomach flip in ways that had nothing to do with pregnancy.It had been months since the incident that brought me down here. Months since I fled the States with my tail between my legs, pregnant with my ex fiancee's father's baby, running from a scandal that would have destroyed what little remained of my reputation. Months of

Third Person's POVThe office of Jefferson occupied the tenth floor of a building that had seen better days but still maintained an air of respectability through sheer stubbornness. Jackson and Liam walked through the glass doors into a reception area that smelled like old books and expensive coffee. The receptionist, a woman in her sixties who looked like she had been there since the building was new, barely glanced up before waving them toward the corner office."Mr. Jefferson is expecting you. Go right in."Jackson felt his stomach tighten as they walked down the hallway. Jefferson had been one of the few board members who had supported him when everything fell apart. When Richard Maddox was removed as CEO and the board had scrambled to distance themselves from the scandal, Jefferson had been the one to advocate for Jackson taking over. Had argued that the son should not pay for the father's sins.Now Jackson was about to find out if that support was still held.The office door wa

Third Person's POVLiam woke up slowly, awareness returning in pieces. Warmth. Softness. The faint smell of Jackson's cologne mixed with sweat. He opened his eyes and found they were both still naked, tangled together in sheets that had been kicked halfway off the bed during the night.The memories came flooding back. The stress of the day. The news about Avery. The way they had fallen into bed desperately needing to forget for just a little while. To feel something good amid all the terrible. To remind themselves they were still alive, still together, still fighting.Liam carefully extracted himself from Jackson's sleeping form and padded across the bedroom to the bathroom. He switched on the shower and stepped under the spray, letting the hot water wash over him. It felt like absolution. Like maybe if he stood there long enough, the water would wash away more than just the physical evidence of the night before. Maybe it would wash away the fear and the guilt and the crushing weight

Third Person's POV Mexico City Police Precinct Eve Dove sat in the cramped conference room surrounded by maps, surveillance photos, and the distinctive smell of too many people working too many hours without sleep. Kingsley was to her left, his laptop open with multiple screens running facial recognition software and traffic camera feeds. Kane sat to her right, arms crossed, jaw tight with frustration. Commissioner Martinez stood at the head of the table, her presence commanding despite the exhaustion written across her face. "Okay, we do not know the damn truth right now. All we know is that Avery was abducted after getting out of that cafe." Eve leaned forward, her hands flat on the table. "We lost visuals on the van. We lost the trail. And we are no closer to finding her than we were six hours ago." "Okay, I think we should all adopt some theory here." Officer Maria Gonzalez spoke up from the far end of the table. She was young, maybe late twenties, with the kind of nervous ene

Third Person's POV Eve Dove stood in front of the tactical board, red marker in hand, drawing connections between names and locations with the methodical precision of someone who had built cases that brought down entire criminal networks. The command center hummed with activity around her, analysts pulling financial records, surveillance teams reviewing footage, communications officers coordinating with federal police. But Eve's focus remained absolute, trained on the web of information spreading across the whiteboard like a spider's architecture.Kingsley sat at the main terminal, his fingers dancing across three keyboards simultaneously while multiple screens displayed everything from satellite imagery to encrypted communications intercepts. Kane leaned against the wall near the coffee station, fourth cup in hand, studying the timeline Eve had constructed with the critical eye of someone who had survived two decades in organized crime investigation by never accepting the obvious an