Semua Bab Back in His Arms, Back in His Game... a Billionaire's Price: Bab 181 - Bab 190

Back in Atheria after the wedding, Sebastian, Alina, and the twins settled into the quiet hum of home. Morning light spilled through the kitchen windows, pooling over the table where Alina sat, still wrapped in the soft afterglow of the ceremony. The twins were already at it, squabbling over pancakes, their laughter and bickering weaving together in a familiar, chaotic melody that filled the room.“Charlotte,” Nathaniel warned, pointing with his fork, “if you eat pancakes like that every day, there will be consequences.”She paused. “Like what?”He shrugged. “Slow running. Sticky hugs. A lifetime of regret.”Charlotte frowned, genuinely considering it, then nodded once. “Okay,” she said solemnly, pouring just a little more. “But only today.”Nathaniel nodded. “All right. But if your teeth fall out, I’m telling everyone I warned you.”Alina smiled faintly, though nausea twisted her stomach in slow, uncertain waves. She paused mid-sip of her coffee, eyes narrowing. Did I drink too much

The phone buzzed again, faint, deliberate.Sebastian ignored it, letting John continue tracing from Vaughn Enterprises while Alina probed the network locally. Every vibration was a test, a digital chess move from someone unseen, someone skilled. Minutes stretched into a quiet battle of wits, the soft hum of the house grounding them in the present.John’s voice finally came through the speaker.“Sir... I caught the session for less than a second.”Sebastian leaned back, fingers steepled. “And?”“It routed through our corporate VoIP again,” John said. “Internal infrastructure. But the origin rotated mid-connection. Disposable tunnel. Session collapsed before I could lock it down. No extensions. No endpoint. Whoever this is knows exactly how to disappear.”Alina frowned at her laptop. “Same here. IP hopping, relay chaining, burner endpoints feeding into temporary virtual instances. He’s using Vaughn’s own network as camouflage. Careful. Precise.”Sebastian’s gaze sharpened, calm and meas

The house settled slowly after dinner.The twins drifted upstairs, their arguments dissolving into yawns, bedroom doors closing softly behind them. Alina stayed back to help Agnes, listening to Sebastian move through the living room while the muted murmur of the news filling the space while his attention remained elsewhere.He went to his study.She followed a few minutes later with two cups of tea.Sebastian was already at his desk, jacket off, sleeves rolled, tablet open beside his laptop. His posture was calm, but she could see it in the way his jaw held tight, in the way his eyes didn’t quite rest.She set the tea beside him.“Thank you,” he said quietly.Alina leaned against the doorway instead of leaving.“You’ve been carrying this all day.”He didn’t deny it.Before either of them could speak again, Sebastian’s secure line chimed.John.Sebastian answered immediately, projecting the call onto the wall screen.John appeared, serious, focused, a trace of fatigue beneath his compo

Power doesn’t announce itself. It moves quietly. Behind glass. Behind doors. Behind the minds of men who do not speak until they act.Sebastian didn’t wait. He stepped into his study and placed the call himself.Arthur answered on the second ring.“Sebastian. I heard about the instability. The board already knows something’s moving. Be careful.”“Elias,” he said. No greetings. No preambleThere was a pause.Arthur exhaled slowly. “Him? What did he do?”John had already briefed him, but Sebastian needed his father’s voice, needed confirmation.Arthur’s voice dropped. “Elias was my father, Augustus’ son. Conceived during an affair my father never acknowledged. Elias and his mother were pushed aside, denied recognition, denied inheritance. He tried to build something on his own and failed. When he went under, no one intervened when he collapsed.”Sebastian closed his eyes.“And his son,” Sebastian said quietly. “Vino.”Arthur hesitated. Then, slow, deliberate. “Elias had a son?”“He work

The morning sunlight spilled softly through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Vaughn mansion. Sebastian moved through the dining room with measured steps, taking in the calm. The crisis was over. Vino was contained, Marcus had been dealt with, and the machinery of law and order had done its work.Alina stood at the counter, preparing breakfast. She glanced up and caught his gaze. “Morning,” she said lightly, teasing. “You’re unusually quiet today.”“I’m enjoying it while it lasts,” Sebastian replied, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “No fires. No leaks. No digital ghosts.”Alina laughed softly. “Don’t tempt fate. You know it’ll find a way to ruin your peace.”Even the twins wandered through th