جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 170

Claire CynthEveryone was already preparing for takeoff, moving with urgency as the atmosphere grew heavier by the second, and just as I was about to gather my things and join them, Boss Astley suddenly approached me, his presence alone enough to make me pause.“Claire, you will stay here,” he said firmly, his eyes locking onto mine in a way that immediately caught me off guard.For a moment, I couldn’t process what he had just said. “B-But I want to help…I can go in disguise,” I insisted, my voice slightly unsteady as a quiet sense of being left out crept into my chest, tightening with every second he remained unmoved.Instead of responding to my plea, he simply handed me something.“You have other tasks. It’s important for Ali,” he continued in the same firm tone, placing the phone Satana had given him earlier into my hands before adding, “Stay here and check that.”I opened my mouth, ready to argue, or at least ask for an explanation, but before I could even form the words, he had

Claire CynthI managed to gather only fragments of information about my past, pieces that never quite fit together, no matter how hard I tried to arrange them.Everyone was gone—wiped out without a trace—but somehow, the building we once lived in still stood, almost like a silent witness to everything that had happened. Even now, I can’t shake the feeling that parts of my memory are missing, torn away by something too painful for my mind to hold onto. I believe those gaps were caused by trauma, something so overwhelming that my own thoughts chose to forget rather than remember.But despite the emptiness, there was one thing—one major truth—I managed to uncover. I’m certain now that our family once stood as part of the right hand of the Crimson Organization. We weren’t just ordinary members. We were trained to blend in, to become anyone, to gather information that others couldn’t even begin to reach. Disguises, infiltration, intelligence—we were raised in it. It was second nature.

Alliyah Agustin“Yes, she’s the daughter of the founder of Crimson, and now that they’re gone, she’s the one leading everything,” Chloe said, her voice laced with an unmistakable smugness that only seemed to deepen with every word she spoke.So no one was actually pretending to be Crimson the whole time; instead, they deliberately kept their identity concealed by hiding behind the name “Smiths” and spreading misleading information, making it seem like Cole or Astley was responsible for certain actions when in reality that wasn’t the case.She let out a soft, almost amused chuckle before continuing, “I even tried to protect Alexander from her clutches, but right now, if he doesn’t take back what he said, you’re the one who’s going to suffer.”I stared at her, trying to fully process what she had just admitted so casually, as if threatening someone’s safety over unreturned feelings was the most natural thing in the world. The realization settled heavily in my chest—she was genuinely wi

Alexander Nicholas Astley“What else have you planned with her?” I asked, my voice measured and deliberate, cutting cleanly through the suffocating silence as I listened to the sound of his ragged breathing fill the room.Chester had been in custody for days now, yet instead of breaking him, the confinement seemed to have peeled him open, exposing every ounce of fear, desperation, and guilt he had been trying so hard to hide.It had been almost forty-eight hours since my wife was kidnapped, and every second since then had stretched unbearably, each minute sharpening the storm brewing inside me. Beyond these walls, the underground had already begun to stir, its whispers slithering through every corner of the city, growing louder and more dangerous by the hour, speaking of an inevitable war between the Crimson and the Astleys—a war that would leave nothing untouched once it began.And the worst part of it all was that I knew exactly who had set everything in motion.It was me.“I told

Claire CynthMalix and I had to take two separate flights before we finally arrived in the country called the Philippines. The journey itself felt longer than it should have been, not just because of the layovers and the hours spent in transit, but because my mind refused to rest the entire time. Every second felt heavy, like something was waiting for me here—something I couldn’t fully remember, yet somehow couldn’t ignore either.From what I heard, the boss and the rest of the group from Astley and Cole had already arrived a day earlier. Unlike us, they had chosen to travel by boat, probably to avoid attention. It made sense, considering everything that was going on, but it also meant they had a head start.The air felt different the moment we stepped outside the airport—warm, humid, almost suffocating—but I barely paid attention to it. My thoughts were somewhere else entirely.“So…what else do you remember from the past?” Malix asked as we walked side by side, his voice careful,