Lahat ng Kabanata ng HIS STOLEN PRIDE: Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

It had been three months since the fire.Spring had returned to Tuscany, soft and golden, painting the hills in color again. The world had moved on — at least on the surface. Newspapers ran stories about corruption and reform, about the fall of the council and the mysterious whistleblower who had changed everything. They didn’t know names. They didn’t need to.In a small town near Siena, Elena lived quietly in a stone cottage tucked between vineyards and olive trees. The air smelled of jasmine and rain. The walls were warm with sunlight, the days unhurried. She spent mornings tending the small garden, afternoons writing in her old leather journal, and evenings watching the sunset with Alessandro.Peace was strange — fragile, almost suspicious. Sometimes she caught herself waiting for it to vanish, for the world to crash in again. But it didn’t. Not yet.On this morning, she stood barefoot on the porch, a cup of coffee in her hand. The valley below shimmered, dotted with silver-green o

The ruins still smoked hours after the blast. The once-sacred chapel was now a scar — stone cracked, air thick with the bitter tang of ash and metal.Elena crouched among the rubble, her hands trembling as she lifted Matteo’s gun from the dirt. The steel was scorched, heavy, warm against her palm — like it had held a heartbeat only moments ago.Alessandro stood nearby, his face streaked with soot, eyes scanning the shattered roofline. “They took him,” he said quietly, his voice stripped of all emotion. “Right under us.”Lucia coughed, wiping blood from her lip. “Drones don’t move like that without ground support. Someone fed them our coordinates.”Elena looked up sharply. “You think we were followed?”Lucia met her gaze. “Or betrayed.”The words hit harder than the blast.Alessandro turned away, running a hand through his hair. “We need to move. If they found us here, they can find us anywhere.”Elena nodded, gripping the gun tighter. “Then we disappear.”They didn’t go back to the ho

The sea was black at night.Waves slapped quietly against the pier as the city slept behind them, its lights shimmering over the Bosphorus like ghosts. A cold wind carried the smell of salt, diesel, and rain.Elena crouched behind a rusted container, her eyes locked on the old naval warehouse ahead — the one Lucia had traced Matteo’s signal to.The building was massive, dark, but alive with hidden movement. Men in tactical gear patrolled the perimeter, their flashlights cutting through the mist.Lucia’s voice murmured through the earpiece, calm but sharp. “Two guards by the north entrance, another circling back every forty seconds. Cameras on the upper corners — older models, infrared, probably motion-triggered. Easy enough to loop.”Elena exhaled slowly. “You sound too calm.”Lucia smirked through the line. “I panic on the inside, trust me.”Beside Elena, Alessandro adjusted the strap on his holster. The faint glow from his wrist device reflected in his eyes. “We don’t shoot unless w

The night over Rome was cold, moonless, and whispering secrets.A light drizzle misted the cobblestones as the cargo plane descended into a private airstrip on the outskirts of the city. The lights from St. Peter’s Basilica glowed faintly in the distance — ancient, eternal, and watching.Elena stepped off first, the air heavy with memory. “Feels like we’re walking into judgment,” she murmured.Lucia zipped her jacket, glancing up at the looming skyline. “That’s the thing about holy places — they look peaceful until you notice the guards.”Alessandro finished checking their equipment — silenced pistols, EMP grenades, encrypted comms. “We move fast, no noise. Once we breach the Archives, Lucia handles the network. Elena and I cover.”Lucia smirked. “And if a few cardinals show up mid-raid?”Alessandro replied without missing a beat. “We ask for forgiveness.”Elena looked between them, managing a faint smile. “Let’s make sure there’s still something left to forgive.”The plan was madness

The plane cut through the dawn like a blade of silver, the sky ahead painted in soft hues of rose and amber.Elena sat by the window, staring out at the clouds as the hum of the engines filled the silence. Every mile they crossed felt like another heartbeat closer to the impossible — Matteo.Lucia glanced up from her tablet, yawning. “Signal’s holding steady. If this is a trap, it’s a patient one.”Alessandro, strapped across from them, studied a map projected on his wrist console. “Coordinates trace to the edge of the Black Sea. Old Soviet territory. Looks abandoned — perfect place to hide a ghost.”Elena’s eyes flicked toward him. “He’s alive. I can feel it.”Lucia gave a small sigh. “You want to feel it.”Elena turned sharply. “You think I don’t know the difference?”Lucia’s voice softened. “I think grief makes us see ghosts in the smoke.”Alessandro cut in gently. “Then we go find out which one this is.”They landed hours later in a place that looked forgotten by time. The coastli