Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 311 - Chapitre 320

"We cloned her SIM card." Marcus confessed loudly, completely breaking under the terrifying threat of another bullet tearing through his body. "We sent treasonous messages from a remote server to make it look like she was communicating with a corporate spy. The server passcodes. I pulled them directly from Damian’s physical safe when he was out of the office. I had all the override codes. I planted the digital breadcrumbs in the system, and I brought him the file." The sheer, devastating magnitude of the betrayal hung heavily in the bloody, metallic air. Sebastian stood perfectly still. His finger rested lightly on the trigger guard. He thought of Damian, sitting in the absolute dark of his ruined penthouse, bleeding from his knuckles and drinking himself to death over a woman who was entirely innocent. He thought of Aria Hale, falling to her knees in scattered broken glass, desperately begging the man she loved to believe her. "Who paid you," Sebastian asked, his voice dropping int

Damian’s large hands clamped forcefully onto the hard edge of the marble desk. His knuckles instantly turned bone white under the pressure. The blood roaring in his ears suddenly grew deafening."And the encrypted phone." Sebastian interrogated."We cloned her SIM card." Marcus sobbed pitifully on the recording. "We sent the messages from a remote server to make it look exactly like she was communicating with a corporate spy. The server passcodes. I pulled them directly from your physical safe when you were out of the building. I planted the digital breadcrumbs in the system, and I brought you the file.""Who paid you?""Cassandra." Marcus screamed in pure terror. "His ex wife. She was the one who actually provided the massive amounts of untraceable cash to hire my digital contractors. She hates Aria. She wanted her destroyed."Sebastian reached out and tapped the screen, pausing the video instantly. With a quick, practiced swipe of his thumb, he pulled up the secondary files. Pages a

The afternoon sun filtered softly through the large, spotless windows of the bookstore café, casting a warm, golden glow over the polished wooden tables. Aria wiped down the counter with a clean rag, her movements steady and practiced. The air smelled of freshly ground espresso beans, old paper, and cinnamon pastries. It was quiet, peaceful, and worlds away from the greasy, chaotic diner in the slums. She had been incredibly lucky. Three weeks ago, she had noticed a small "Help Wanted" sign taped to the window of this independent bookstore located in a much nicer, safer neighborhood across the city. The pay was only slightly better than the diner, but it offered her the afternoon shift, allowing her to work two jobs. She worked at the bookstore from one to six, then immediately took the bus to the diner to work from seven until midnight. She was exhausted, but she was finally eating three solid meals a day. The dark, hollow shadows under her eyes had slightly faded, replaced by a so

Cassandra let out a jagged, broken laugh, bowing her head. "After you divorced me, I left New York. I tried to contact my father for help, but he cut me off completely. I was entirely alone. Then I found out I was pregnant. The man I cheated on you with abandoned me the second he realized I didn't have access to the Cross fortune anymore. I had nothing. But I kept the baby. A little girl."She looked back up at Damian, her eyes completely hollowed out by grief."When I held her for the first time, I finally understood what love was. I finally realized how incredibly cruel I had been to Aria my entire life. I was living quietly in Boston. I wanted to meet Aria, to tell her she was an aunt. But I knew my presence would only poison her perfect life, so I stayed away. My baby was in the care of a private nanny. I thought she was safe. But a year ago, they found her. They broke into the house and took my baby straight from her crib.""Who?" Sebastian demanded sharply, stepping fully into t

The heavy steel doors shrieked along their rusty iron tracks. They slammed shut with a definitive boom that echoed across the empty shipping yard, instantly cutting off the sound of Cassandra weeping inside the warehouse.Damian stopped on the loose gravel. The freezing winter wind blowing off the harbor cut straight through the torn fabric of his dress shirt, but he did not shiver. He stood entirely still. His hands hung at his sides. The dried blood on his knuckles flaked off into the cold air. He stared out into the pitch-black expanse of the industrial lot, his chest rising and falling in shallow, jagged physical increments.The crunch of heavy boots sounded to his left. Sebastian stepped out of the shadows cast by the warehouse roof. His face was an unreadable mask in the dim, yellow security lighting.Sebastian did not ask if Damian was alright. He did not offer any useless words of comfort. The underworld boss assessed the blank, hollow look on his best friend and immediately t