All Chapters of MARRIED UNTIL MONDAY: Chapter 141 - Chapter 149

KANEThe wind was a cold, hungry thing that night, howling through the headstones of the Callahan private cemetery. It carried the scent of wet earth and the metallic tang of approaching snow. I stumbled over a patch of uneven grass, the bottle of expensive bourbon in my hand sloshing dangerously. I hadn't slept in what felt like a lifetime. My head was a chaotic storm of architectural renderings, police reports, and the constant, mocking image of Aria dancing in that abandoned mill.I reached Rhea’s grave. The dirt was still fresh, the mound barely settled under the weight of the floral arrangements that had already begun to rot. Next to her was the space where Rohan would soon be laid—a secondary scar on the landscape of my life."Look at us," I slurred, gesturing with the bottle at the headstone. "The great Callahan dynasty. Reduced to a pile of dirt and a man who can’t even hold his own company together."I took a long pull of the bourbon, letting the liquid burn a trail of numbne

ARIAThe Bane estate was too quiet, the kind of silence that rings in your ears until you start hearing things that aren't there.I stood in the middle of the guest suite Ross had "graciously" provided, staring at my reflection in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors. I looked like a ghost in expensive silk. But under that silk, my skin was crawling.As long as Ross was breathing, he owned the story. He owned the board, he owned the police, and he owned the noose around Kane’s neck. I wasn't going to let him pull it.I knew how Ross worked. He thought I was a broken bird, someone who had finally submitted because the stakes were too high. He forgot where I came from. He forgot that before I was a Callahan, I was a weapon. You don't just turn that off. It sits in your blood, waiting for a reason to wake up.I waited until the house settled into that deep, midnight hush. The guards on the perimeter were predictable, rotating every two hours like clockwork. Ross was in his study, probably admiri

KANEThe boardroom was no longer a temple of commerce; it had become an arena of raw, jagged exposure. The air was thick with the copper tang of adrenaline and the stifling silence of a dozen people holding their collective breath. Zane stood frozen at the podium, his fingers still clawing at the empty air where the flash drive had been a moment ago. He looked like a man who had stepped off a cliff and was only just realizing there was no ground beneath him.Aria didn't falter. She stood in her white wedding dress, a figure of crystalline purity against the dark wood of the room. She reached into the manila envelope and pulled out a stack of notarized documents, sliding them across the table toward Marcus."These are the off-shore incorporation papers for 'Apex Global Holdings,'" Aria said, her voice steady enough to cut glass. "A shell company Zane created three months ago. You’ll find that the primary shareholders aren’t the Callahan Group, but Zane Callahan and a private trust owne

AUTHOR'S POVThe rain had turned into a relentless, icy deluge by the time the prisoner transport van pulled away from the precinct. The city lights blurred into long, distorted smears of neon against the black asphalt. Inside the reinforced steel cage of the vehicle, Zane Callahan sat huddled, his hands cuffed to a belly chain, his expensive suit now a wrinkled rag of defeat. But even in the dim, flickering light of the cabin, his eyes hadn't lost their feverish, manic edge. He was already rehearsing the names of the judges he could bribe and the high-priced fixers who could turn a double homicide into a mistrial."You think this is it?" Zane rasped, his voice bouncing off the metal walls. He looked at the two guards sitting in the front, their silhouettes dark against the windshield. "My brother is a coward. He doesn't have the stomach to finish this. He needs me alive so he can feel superior."The guards didn't answer. The one in the passenger seat didn't even turn his head."I'm a

KANEFive years is a long time for a man who measures his life in fiscal quarters. In the city, the name Callahan had become synonymous with a quiet, impenetrable power. I had rebuilt the empire from the ashes Zane left behind, turning Project Apex into a skyline-defining reality. I moved through boardrooms like a shadow, a man who commanded the tides of the market but never felt the warmth of the sun. I had the crown, the chairmanship, and a seat at every table of consequence.I was also the loneliest man in the world.The manor had become a museum of things I no longer touched. I kept Aria’s sunroom exactly as it was, the air there tasting of dust and the faint, lingering ghost of cedar. Every Monday morning, I sat at the head of the boardroom table, and every Monday, I looked at the empty space at my side. I had won the war, but the victory had been a hollow thing, a trophy made of cold, unyielding marble.Then came this Monday.I was sitting in the back of my car, the city blurrin