Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 151 - Chapitre 160

Tamara’s POV “What the hell is wrong with you, Eric? You haven’t been replying to my texts or answering my calls. Didn’t we have a deal? Why’s she still walking around unhurt and healthy after paying you such an amount to bring her world down?” I ranted on and on after he answered the call. His reply came in words, like he didn’t care how I responded to his words. “Come alone. Bring the balance. No games.” No greeting. No apology. No explanation for why Zella was still walking around breathing as if nothing happened. And more importantly, No nudes. I stared at my phone longer than I should have, my nails digging into the screen protector. My driver, Kevin, caught the change in my face. He always behaved like some action movie badass that could sense danger from miles away. So I was used to his gestures and advice. This time around, something is at stake. I can’t afford to sit back and watch my life get stolen from before my eyes. “Miss Tamara,” he said, eyes still on the road,

TAMARA’S POV Everything felt different after my encounter with Eric and his little rats. It wasn’t just the shame that settled in my head and crawled on my skin occasionally sending me cold shivers. It was also the silence that followed. Before, my phone would have buzzed a hundred times with countless notifications and calls. But now it has become a cold dead brick just lying there. The only notifications I got were from unknown numbers. “Silence has its own rewards.” There it is…my leash… the pictures could be anywhere. On their phones, in the cloud, literally anywhere, ready to ruin my life at the first light of day it sees. I moved through the house like a ghost, everything made me jump. The sound of a plate being set down a little too hard, my own reflection on the windows, and the trigger of every camera flash or shutter sound. Amidst all these, if there’s something I didn’t feel, it’s regret. I didn’t feel the slightest regret. If I feel anything towards her now it’s even

Tamara's POV The silence in my father's study after my confession wasn't just due to our brainstorming; it was suffocating. A strong door had just shut on our future. My father, John Stirling, whose name opened doors and made markets shake, looked… helpless. The revelation about how much I'd just messed up had not given him a strategic edge. We were already on the edge of a cliff; the meeting with the Crowns was supposed to bring us to safety, but instead I ended up handing our enemy a rod to push us off. “You don’t understand, Tamara.” Mother said finally. “While it is true that we reached an agreement with the Crowns to keep this under wraps, it puts us indefinitely at their mercy. It’s impossible to not notice the grin on Lucy Crown’s face. With this information, they could bring us down at any time. Legally, politically, and ultimately in the business world, we’ll be ruined. Completely!” Father responded eventually. “If Dave chooses to, he can just go to the other families—

ZELLA'S POVThe exam hall was hot and tense from fear and anxiety. I sat quietly in my assigned seat, number 234, and stared at the blank answer sheet. A hundred questions. Four hours.The supervisor, Mr. Henderson, had a face like a bloodhound. He paced between the aisles, his eyes trying to catch everything. “This is a test of your futures,” he added, uselessly, like we didn’t already know. “Integrity is paramount. Any sign of collaboration, any wandering eyes, and you’re out. Your test will be canceled.”Ben, two rows over, kept giving me looks me a look that screamed ‘help’. Chloe was already sweating, her pencil shaking. They’d positioned themselves around me like satellites hoping to catch a signal.Tough luck, I thought. The signal’s going dark.The booklet landed on my desk softly and I opened it. The answers flashed in my eyes even clearer than the questions themselves, the problem was not answering correctly in this case for me, it was adjusting my instincts to go for only t

Zella's POV The school server had crashed twice because everyone was hitting refresh at the same time. I sat in the back of the library, with my phone in my hand. I already knew my score. I’d worked it out to the last point. Ben was sweating like he had just finished running a marathon. “Come on, come on, load you stupid piece of –” The page finally loaded and he went silent for a second. Then Ben suddenly screamed. “EIGHTY-SEVEN! I GOT EIGHTY-SEVEN OUT OF HUNDRED!” He jumped out of his chair. “YES! Suck it, calculus! Suck it forever!” Chloe, sitting next to him, screamed. “NINETY-TWO! OH MY GOD, NINETY-TWO!” She started hugging everyone nearby, which was just… Mia. “Mia, check yours!” Mia’s fingers trembled as she clicked. Her eyes popped suddenly, almost out of its socket. “Eighty… eighty-one? I got eighty-one? That’s… that’s a B+? I’ve never gotten a B+ in my life!” She looked like she might faint from happiness. The whole class was buzzing in cheers. Someone was crying in