All Chapters of Her mother's lover : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

75 Chapters

Chapter 11: The Morning After

SCARLETT The lighthouse feels smaller now that it’s full of police. Radios crackle, boots scrape against the wet floorboards, and the salty wind whips through the broken panes, scattering every word into fragments.My mother stands a few feet away, a blanket draped around her shoulders by a paramedic. Her face is pale but steady, like a storm has passed through and left only silence.Damien leans against the cold brick wall, wrists cuffed in front of him, a dark smear of someone else’s blood drying across his sleeve. His eyes meet mine for an instant steady, and unreadable.A detective with a square jaw approaches, his badge catching the lantern light. “Scarlett Hayes?”“Yes,” I manage. My voice was thin, almost lost in the wind.“I’m Detective Reilly. We need your statement. Everything you saw tonight. Everything you know.”I glance at Damien, at my mother. There’s too much too many secrets stacked like dominoes, ready to crash if I push the first one.Reilly seems to read my hesita

Last Updated : 2025-09-21

Chapter 12: After The Storm

SCARLETT The house still smells faintly of sea salt and rain, as if the storm followed us home. Morning light streams across the kitchen table, gilding the half-empty coffee cups that Mom and I forgot to clear last night.I stood at the window, watching the neighborhood wake. For the first time in months, maybe years, the quiet feels like peace instead of a warning.Mom appears behind me, her robe cinched tight. “You didn’t sleep,” she says gently.“I tried.” I rub the stiffness from my neck. “Too many thoughts.”She rests a hand on my shoulder. “I know. It takes time to let the fear drain out.”Her touch is tentative but warm. There was a time I would have shrugged it off. Now I leaned into it, just a little.A soft knock interrupts us. Through the glass of the front door, a familiar silhouette waited broad shoulders, rain jacket it was Damien.Mom exchanges a wary glance with me but doesn’t object when I open the door.He offers a faint smile. “Morning. I didn’t want to call this e

Last Updated : 2025-09-22

Chapter 13: The New Threat

SCARLETT The morning air tastes of metal, like the memory of a storm. I wake before dawn, unsettled by a dream I can’t remember, only a single echo: Not over.I roll out of bed and stretch by the window. The street below is damp and quiet, but something feels… off. A car idles two houses down, headlights off. My pulse quickens.By the time I shower and dress, the car is gone, yet the unease clings to me like static.Mom is already in the kitchen, coaxing life into the old coffeemaker. She’s wearing one of Dad’s worn flannel shirts, sleeves rolled past her elbows.“Up early again?” she asks.“Couldn’t sleep,” I admit, taking a seat at the table.She studies me with a mother’s radar. “Nightmare?”“Maybe. Just a bad feeling.”Her brow furrows. “About the case?”“Or something else. I don’t know.”She pours coffee and sits across from me. “We’re safe, Scarlett. Reilly promised.”I nod, but the knot in my stomach disagrees.On my way to the university library, the city feels sharper. Pedes

Last Updated : 2025-09-23

Chapter 14: Shadows at Dawn

SCARLETT'S POVThe morning sky is a sheet of cold pewter when I finally force myself out of bed. For a long time, I simply sit at the edge of the mattress, listening to the low purr of the patrol car outside and the drip of rain sliding from the eaves.Sleep never came. Every creak of the house felt like a threat; every gust of wind whispered still not over.Mom knocks softly. “Scarlett? Coffee’s ready.”I pull on a sweatshirt and open the door. Her eyes are ringed with exhaustion, but her voice is steady. She’s in survival mode something I’ve only seen once before, the week of my father’s funeral.Downstairs, the kitchen smells of strong brew and damp earth. A uniformed officer stands near the window, nodding politely as I enter. His presence should be comforting. Instead, it’s a reminder that someone is out there, close enough to photograph me.“Detective Reilly will be here soon,” Mom says, sliding a mug toward me. “He wants to talk about last night.”I wrap my hands around the cup

Last Updated : 2025-09-24

Chapter 15: The Rooftop Warning

SCARLETT The city lights look like a field of shattered stars. From thirty stories up, every rooftop and alley glows with its own secret pulse, and I can’t stop scanning for the flicker of movement that will tell me where he’s hiding.My phone is still in my hand, the single text burning against the screen: Nice view.Damien leans over my shoulder. “When did it come through?”“Thirty seconds ago.” My voice is thinner than I want it to be.He grabs his own phone, thumbs flying across the screen. “I’ll get Reilly on the line. Don’t move away from the window.”“Why not?”“Because if he’s watching, I want him to think we’re not scared.”The problem is, I am scared so much that my hands tremble. I clench them into fists until the shaking stops.Mom emerges from the bedroom, hair mussed from sleep. “What happened?”I show her the text. Her face drains of color.Damien covers the phone’s mouthpiece. “Reilly’s dispatching units to every rooftop within three blocks. We need to stay put.”Mom

Last Updated : 2025-09-25

Chapter 16: The Edge of the Net

SCARLETT The city was still asleep when Damien shook my shoulder. “Time to move.”I blinked into the dim blue of pre-dawn, heart leaping before memory caught up. The photo. The text. The voice through the intercom.Mom was already at the door, coat zipped, eyes hollow from a night without rest.“Reilly’s car is in the alley,” Damien whispered. “We go now, no lights.”The stairwell smelled of damp concrete and old paint. Every creak of the steps made me flinch. Outside, fog blurred the streetlamps into halos. A black sedan idled at the curb, its engine purring like something alive.Detective Reilly leaned across the front seat and popped the rear door. “Move fast.”The city slid by in streaks of gray and sodium yellow. We didn’t speak. I watched the side mirrors instead, searching for a tail, my father’s journal pressed against my chest like a second heartbeat.Reilly’s “safehouse” turned out to be an old records room on the second floor of an unused precinct. Dust filmed the windows.

Last Updated : 2025-09-26

Chapter 17– The missing piece

Scarlett’s POV The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead like a swarm of angry bees. I sat in a steel chair, the walls of the federal safehouse pressing in on all sides. The hum of computers and murmurs of agents created a constant background, but it felt hollow somehow. Empty. Because one thing was missing. The USB. I kept turning it over in my mind. The last time I held it, it had been tucked safely into my jacket. Then, in a blur of adrenaline and fear, it disappeared. Gone. And with it, the key to Dad’s secrets the evidence that could bring down Kade, or at least track him. Damien crouched beside me, elbows on his knees, jaw tight. “We’ll get it back.” His voice had the force of certainty I desperately wanted to believe. I swallowed hard. “How? He’s already inside. Someone else could be working for him… inside this building.” Damien’s eyes darkened. “Then we need to assume that. Every agent, every system, everyone he’s watching for a mistake. And he’ll take advantage of it.”

Last Updated : 2025-09-27

Chapter 18 – “The Silent Threat”

Scarlett’s POVThe air in the safehouse was thick with the smell of disinfectant and fear. I sat on the edge of a steel cot, the USB clutched so tightly my knuckles were white. My father’s journal lay open on the table, pages marked with dates and coordinates, but my eyes kept drifting to Damien.He was standing near the window, one arm resting against the frame, jaw tight, eyes scanning the street below. I couldn’t stop looking at him either not the way I should, not the way anyone else would, but I couldn’t help it. His presence pulled me in, like a current I couldn’t fight. And after what happened with Kade, that pull felt both comforting and dangerous.I swallowed hard. “We can’t stay here forever.”Damien didn’t respond immediately. He just turned, gaze locking on mine. “We stay until we know where he is. Until we know he won’t touch anyone else.”I nodded, but the tension in my chest didn’t ease. Kade had the USB now, he had the information, and I knew he would use it. I couldn’

Last Updated : 2025-09-28

Chapter 19 – Crossing the Line

SCARLETT The night wrapped around the safehouse like a velvet shroud, but I couldn’t feel its comfort. My heart still raced from the docks, from Kade’s words echoing in my ears. You can’t run forever. He wasn’t wrong. He had resources, eyes everywhere, and a determination I’d never seen matched.But I wasn’t just scared anymore. I was hungry. Hungry to take control, to reclaim what was mine. My father’s legacy, the journal, the USB… and, yes, Damien, my mother's lover.I caught his gaze across the room. He was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, muscles tense even in the dim light. The way the shadows played across his chest made my stomach flutter. I knew it was wrong and dangerous. But I couldn’t stop looking.“Scarlett,” he said, voice low, pulling me out of my thoughts. “We need a plan.”I nodded, swallowing hard. My pulse betrayed me, quickening at the sound of his voice. “I know. First, we need to figure out Kade’s next move. Then… we take it to him.”Damien’s eyes softened

Last Updated : 2025-09-29

Chapter 20 – “A Dangerous Bargain”

Scarlett’s POVSleep refused to come. The safehouse was silent, but my mind was in chaos. Kade's smirk still burned into my memory, Damien’s protective gaze seared into my skin. And between the two of them, I was unraveling.I sat at the edge of the bed, the journal open in my lap. My father’s handwriting curved across the pages like a map I couldn’t stop tracing. Every note, every coordinate, was another piece of the puzzle. But it wasn’t just the answers I wanted anymore.It was control.I was tired of waiting for Kade to strike. Tired of reacting. If I wanted this to end, I had to end it myself.I closed the journal, took a steadying breath, and whispered to the shadows, “It’s my turn.”Damien caught me the next morning, already dressed, checking his gun. His eyes narrowed when he saw me. “You didn’t sleep.”I shrugged, pretending to be casual. “Neither did you.”His jaw flexed. “Because I was watching. Making sure Kade didn’t come for you.”I should’ve felt comforted, but instead,

Last Updated : 2025-09-30

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