Semua Bab The Godfather’s Favorite: Bab 61 - Bab 70

Ava’s PerspectiveI barely had time to step through the gates before Lady Morgan appeared in front of me.The moment she saw me, she rushed forward and grabbed my wrist so tightly it almost hurt.“You’ve caused a huge disaster for me!”Her voice was sharp, strained in a way I had never heard before. Not controlled anger, not calculated pressure, but something closer to panic.I looked at her hand gripping mine, then back at her face.“What disaster?” I asked, my tone steady.I searched my memory quickly, going over everything I had done recently. Training grounds. Internal restructuring. My position within Alexander’s side. Nothing crossed into reckless territory. Nothing that would reach back and affect the Morgan family so directly.Lady Morgan’s grip tightened further. “Don’t play dumb with me. The announcement. The newspaper.”The words clicked into place.I tilted my head slightly. “The severing of our relationship?”“Yes!”Her reaction only deepened my confusion.I tried to pull

Ava’s PerspectiveI never expected the past to step out of the shadows and stand breathing in front of me.Yet there Benjamin was.For one suspended second, I could not breathe. My fingers curled at my sides, my pulse roaring in my ears, because this was Benjamin Retman, my childhood friend, my former fiancé, the man who had once held my hand beneath golden chandeliers and promised me that no matter what storm came for our families, he would never let me face it alone.I had imagined this meeting a thousand times. In every version, I was colder. Stronger. Untouched. But the moment our eyes met, all I felt was grievance and a dull, aching sorrow that had never truly left me. It rose from the ruins of the Kane Family like smoke from a house that still remembered the fire.Before everything fell apart, Benjamin had known exactly how to make me believe in forever.I remembered the night of my eighteenth birthday, when he slipped a ring of white diamonds onto my finger in the private garde

Ava’s PerspectiveI had not expected Benjamin to grab me like that.One moment, I was still forcing myself to stand there and face him, and the next, his arms were around me so tightly that my breath caught. Pain shot through me at once. A sharp sting burned across my palms and the backs of my heels, and my body stiffened before I could even think to fight him off.The injuries were still fresh from training with the women’s guard unit.Three days ago, one of the newer girls had slipped while climbing the gravel wall in the rear courtyard. She would have fallen straight down onto the metal stakes stacked beneath it if I had not lunged forward and dragged her back by the belt. We both went down hard. My hands had scraped badly against the rough stone, and when I hit the ground, the skin on my feet tore against the broken edge of a training frame. But I still limped through the rest of the drill. As the instructor, I could not afford to show weakness.By nightfall, both my palms and my

Ava’s PerspectiveThe question hit me so suddenly that my smile froze.For a moment, I only stared at Alexander. Then I forced myself to recover and let out a small laugh.“I used to,” I said lightly. “A long time ago. I don’t anymore.”I tilted my head and looked at him with deliberate innocence. “What is this? Are you jealous?”Then Alexander’s expression changed.The ease left his face. When he looked at me this time, there was nothing lazy in his gaze. He was serious in a way that made my spine straighten.“My family and the Retman family are not on good terms,” he said. “You should know that.”I blinked, the last trace of teasing fading from me.“A few years ago, there was a conflict over oil resources,” he continued evenly. “Both sides wanted the same route, the same ports, the same rights. The dispute did not end cleanly.”His voice remained calm, but there was something cold beneath it, something that reminded me exactly who he was. Alexander was not just a man I could flirt wi

Alexander’s PerspectiveThe day’s meetings had only just ended when I stepped out of the conference room.Men were still filing out behind me, their voices low, their expressions cautious, the air around them carrying that familiar stiffness that always followed long hours of decisions no one dared take lightly. I loosened my cuff once and kept walking.My deputy approached at once.In front of everyone, he leaned in close enough that only I could hear him.“Boss,” he said quietly, “Miss Ava has left.”My steps did not pause.“When?” I asked.He glanced down at the time on his phone before answering. “A short while ago. Our people checked. She went to meet Retman.”The corridor seemed to grow quieter.He stayed half a step behind me as we moved. Then he asked, in the same low voice, “Do you want someone to follow her?”I said nothing.He continued carefully, “If Miss Ava says anything she shouldn’t—anything about the family, about our side, about the mafia—” He lifted one hand in a sma