Velvet and vengeance: stripped by the enemy のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 151 - チャプター 160

"Snow and Silence" (Past)Maraleona's POV The snow always fell while I was a child. It seemed never ending and everyday looked the same. The days typically overlapped and I often lost track of time, no sense of morning or night, with a terrible sleep schedule to accompany it. "Are you still awake?" My mother whispered as she peeked into my room, her voice soft and delicate. I was sat at the foot of my bed playing with my dolls. "It's the middle of the night." She frowned. She walked into the room to have a good look at me. "Huh? Really?" I looked out thw window and sure enough it was pitch dark. "That means I was asleep all day..." I whined, wearing placing the toys on the floor. "I'm sure you'll fall asleep soon enough, you need all the energy you can get for tomorrow." She smiled and clapped her hands together. "I'm sure Mr. Bianchi would definitely want to play, right?" She titled her head, a thing she did whenever she was trying to coax me into anything. She was referring to

“The Guilt and the Gun" (Present)Lucian's POV For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The house had once been a place of solace where I could rest from my troubles, but now it simply amplified the silence that followed me at every corner. It was quite late, the kind of late that made every shadow look like a ghost. I imagined Jace was still awake. Sleeping hadn't been in his priority lately and if ever I walked in on him sleeping, he had passed out in a position that was nothing to write home about. Then again, I wasn't any better. I'd walked into the room with my mind running a mile a minute. My fingers still ached from the strain and my body felt sore all over. "Still nothing?" I had asked when I noticed his strained noises. "It's like they wiped themselves off the face of the earth. I'm fucking tired." I, by then, had taken a seat next to him and reached my hand to squeeze his thigh. I didn't know what to say, which was unusual for me, but I had a lot in my

“Alliance of Shadows" (Present)Jace’s POV Lucian and I made our way back to the base. He'd looked solemn ever since the outburst, but still riddled with anxiety and pressure. I didn't have much to say. There was nothing to say. Maraleona was playing mind games and it wasn't our fault it was messing with our heads. But enough with the pity talk. Back to action. Lucian bad always run a good tight, professional operation, and when I joined in, it only strengthened there. We didn't do drama. We did efficiency and reliability. So, as I looked at the monitor with rage for the umpteenth time, I felt more than just alarmed, I felt insulted. I was already knee deep into trying to correct it when I realised this wasn't just a mistake, wasn't an error on my end, but rather a pressured ploy. The first sign was subtle, a little twitch in the system Dimitri and I had reinforced. I typically handled high level movement of funds, relying on a complex shell structure that used specific private c

"The False Resurrection" (Present)Jace’s POVThere was really truth to Anastasia's words. We had gone weeks without an attack and they had set up a security system that toppled over whatever I could have built myself. Lucian and I still stayed at the safe house, a precaution he had insisted we take, claiming he didn't trust Anastasia's group. "You have to admit that they work well, Lucian." I hummed as I stepped into the room where Lucian worked. His pride could be the death of him. Despite the already signed deal, he still refused to lean into a protection that wasn't his to provide. He didn't answer me and Silence enveloped the room. It had been like that for a long while. A constant silence that left me more irritation than calmness. I had stopped into another room. The silence was rudely interrupted by a high pitched ringing, an aggressive chime that usually alerted me of important news. I opened the feed and my eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Fuck, Lucian, you have to

"The Sleeping King" Third person's POVThe situation had now taken a tricky turn. The image of a power hungry lady had morphed into clouded by grief and anger. Her actions had shaken them, to a level they couldn't excuse, but Jace’s heart twinged. She was doing it for family. She was acting estranged and sick all for her family, just like he had done. They way forward now seemed unclear. ~Maraleona was no longer draped in her silken robes that clung to her pain. She instead, was dressed in a signature charcoal coloured suit that was tailored to her form. Siberia was always a winter wonderland, and the facility she hid at was no exception. Despite the heavy beat that exited from the medical equipment keeping Dimitri alive, the air still sent shivers up her spine. She sat in front of her screens. Monitoring the stabilisation of the market and underworld that her little lie had provided. The global economy, whether legitimate or not, was morphing to her taste. Changing in a way tha