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CHAPTER TEN: THE DISTANCE BETWEEN BREATHS

LATER THAT NIGHTEvelyn’s new room is quite close to his, close enough that she hears the faint click of his door. It is so close enough that the hallway lights spill under her doorway like molten gold and close enough that she feels him.She lies in bed, staring at the ceiling, sheets pulled up to her chest and then…Footsteps, slow, measured and unhurried. They stop outside her door. Her pulse trips. He’s there. He’s right there. He was not entering, not knocking, just… existing on the other side of the door like a storm waiting for a reason.Minutes pass. Then more. He stays.EVELYNMy breath is shallow. Why is he there?Was he watching her or trying to guide her? Was he deciding on whether to kill her tonight or another day?Does he know she’s awake? closes her eyes. Her chest rises and falls with nervous, careful breaths.Another moment passes. The air shifts.And then…A soft sound, barely a whisper of fabric. A slow exhale through the door.He’s still there.What was stopping h

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE STRANGE ENVOY

The day Makoto Yori arrived, the mansion felt wrong, not louder and not quiet. Just calm, like the house itself sensed a shift in its balance, bracing for impact.Evelyn felt it at first.She stood in the new wing’s sitting room, fingertips grazing the cool glass of the window, pretending the morning sunlight eased the remnants of last night. It didn’t. Her skin still burned from Lucien’s near touch. Her pulse still jittered from his voice—low, lethal, close enough to taste.Quiet footsteps echoed down the corridor, not Lucien’s and not Damien’s. It was quiet and precise. A sound she hadn’t heard in years.Evelyn stiffened, turning just as Damien appeared in the doorway. His expression was the same carved-stone neutrality he always wore, but something in his posture was sharper than usual. Like every muscle in his body was waiting.“Lucien has a guest,” Damien said.“Another arms dealer?” she asked, trying for lightness. It fell flat.“No.” A pause. “A representative.”He didn’t n

CHAPTER TWELVE: MATTEO

She woke to warmth. Softness and shadows. Kali blinked, the haze slowly lifting. This wasn’t her room. This wasn’t the wing he had confined her to. This was a darker space, massive and masculine. A room that hummed with authority. Her eyes swept the room and it fell on the huge portrait. Lucien. It registered slowly in her head. Lucien’s bedroom. Her heart skipped a bit. The portrait was beautiful, she couldn’t see it clearly because it was a bit far from the bedside but she knew he looked really handsome in it. It looked like he had just stepped out of a shower, the visible shape of water drops falling on his face from his wet hair. The look in his eyes that terrified her but made her stomach turn at the same time. She bit her lower lip, it should be a crime to look that good and be cruel at the same time. She tore her gaze from it.The sheets under her were black silk, cool and expensive. A low fire crackled in the hearth across the room. Soft lamplight pooled golden across th

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Evelyn woke with her heart pounding. Not from a nightmare…not exactly. But from a whisper she could’ve sworn was real. “Nana…” A voice she had buried with her childhood. A voice she had mourned until the grief swallowed whole pieces of her. Her eyes opened to the soft spill of moonlight, her breath catching in her throat. The room was empty. Still, she pushed herself upright slowly, scanning the shadows as if memory itself might step forward and become a man. Impossible. It was impossible. He was dead. He had to be. Her fingers trembled as she touched her throat—cold, damp with sweat. I must have been dreaming, it can’t be real. I’m losing my mind. That’s all. The mansion was silent around her, the kind of silence that didn’t feel restful— it felt watched. Then she heard it. A soft footfall outside her door. Measured, slow and heavy. Lucien. She knew it instantly. He had a way of moving that made her nerve endings stand on edge even through walls. He paused directly outside h

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Evelyn woke with her heart pounding. Not from a nightmare…not exactly. But from a whisper she could’ve sworn was real. “Nana…” A voice she had buried with her childhood. A voice she had mourned until the grief swallowed whole pieces of her. Her eyes opened to the soft spill of moonlight, her breath catching in her throat. The room was empty. Still, she pushed herself upright slowly, scanning the shadows as if memory itself might step forward and become a man. Impossible. It was impossible. He was dead. He had to be. Her fingers trembled as she touched her throat—cold, damp with sweat. I must have been dreaming, it can’t be real. I’m losing my mind. That’s all. The mansion was silent around her, the kind of silence that didn’t feel restful— it felt watched. Then she heard it. A soft footfall outside her door. Measured, slow and heavy. Lucien. She knew it instantly. He had a way of moving that made her nerve endings stand on edge even through walls. He paused directly outside

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Lucien didn’t sleep. He dismissed the house, silenced the corridors, and stood by the tall windows of his private wing like a carved statue — hands behind his back, jaw clenched so tight the muscle throbbed. The lights of the estate threw sharp patterns on the marble, slicing across him in cold, restless stripes. He replayed every second of the envoy’s intrusion. The way Matteo had looked at her. The way she had looked back. And the memory burned more than he cared to admit.Nana. He hated how easily the new name rolled in his mind. Hated how naturally it fit her when he spoke it aloud. He hated even more that someone else—another man—had spoken it first. He checked his watch. 2:11 a.m. He should leave her alone. He didn’t. Lucien moved through the dark halls with silent steps, passing guards who straightened instantly and vanished from sight. He stopped in front of her door—the place he kept finding himself drawn to in the dead hours of the night. And because he despised weakness

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Lucien moved like a storm that had grown legs.Damien followed at a distance — smart enough not to speak, smarter not to breathe too loudly. Every guard they passed flattened against the wall, terrified of being noticed in the wrong way. The mansion felt different now, tense, cold, and like unseen eyes were watching every movement. This was because the devil was hunting. Anytime Lucien hunted, someone always bled.“Four seconds,” he repeated, voice deceptively quiet. “That’s all the alarm recorded?”“Yes, sir.”“Find the technician responsible for that blind spot.”Damien swallowed. “And do what with him?”Lucien’s eyes glinted. “Hold the funeral tomorrow.”Damien said nothing.They reached the west corridor — the wing nearest Kali’s new room. The place still wore the ghost of her scent. Lucien inhaled once, involuntarily.He hated himself for it, but what he hated more was the truth: Matteo had been in this wing tonight. He had been near her, breathing her air and close enough to tou

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

He stood in the interrogation room beneath the east wing — a space designed for truth, not comfort. The walls were soundproofed stone. The table was bare. The chair opposite him was already occupied.The tech engineer was sweating.“You understand why you’re here,” Lucien said calmly.The man nodded too fast.“You built the security grid.”“Yes, sir.”“You reviewed the blind spots.”“Yes.”Lucien leaned back slightly. “Then explain how a man walked through my estate, reached my inner wing, and left without triggering a full alarm.”“I…I don’t know…”Lucien raised a finger.The room went still.“I don’t accept ignorance,” he said. “Only intent or incompetence.”The man’s breathing broke.“I swear…no one accessed the system remotely. The breach came from inside the pattern itself.”Lucien’s eyes narrowed. “Meaning?”“Meaning whoever planned this knew your routines. Not the layout, you.”Silence thickened.Lucien rose slowly.“Remove him,” he said to Damien. “He lives. For now.”The tech

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The message arrived just before dusk. Lucien read it once. Then again.Then he crushed the phone in his hand. Damien watched the shards fall to the marble floor and did not flinch.“They’re demanding proof,” Damien said carefully. “Not cooperation. Proof.”Lucien’s voice was cold enough to frost steel. “They want a spectacle.”“Yes.”“And they chose the envoy to deliver it because they know he’s compromised.”Damien hesitated. “Or because they believe you are.”Lucien turned slowly.The room seemed to shrink around them.“Devils,” Lucien said quietly, “are allowed many sins. Mercy is not one of them.”Damien nodded once. “Then you’ll refuse.”Lucien’s gaze drifted to the window — toward the wing where Kali stood unknowingly at the center of a war she never asked to ignite. Something in him had shifted and he had begun to feel something for her, feelings he should never have.“No,” he said. “I’ll counter.”EVELYNShe waited until the house settled. Until the guards rotated and the ligh

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Lucien had returned from a meeting with his close allies and was walking inside when he spotted Kali walking towards him. He had dismissed his guards and was walking alone. He stopped and waited for her.The gunshot came from nowhere; he didn't hear it, only felt the pain. One sharp crack, too close, too fast - shattering the stillness of the Manor. Lucien reacted on instinct, turning just as the second shot rang out and hit him in the hand. Pain shot along the side of his shoulder, almost grazing his neck as his vision blurred. He staggered once, not enough to fall but enough to surprise him. He could hear Kali screaming as he fell to the floor, heavy thuds on the floor as his bodyguards scattered everywhere – to save him and to catch that bloody shooter. Lucien looked up at Kali who had rushed to his side, one hand by his shoulder and the other at his stomach, his teeth clenched, breath controlled. He looked down at his side, where dark red was already soaking through his shirt, h

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