All Chapters of TIME TO FALL IN LOVE: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

[The Fever of Deception]The limestone walls didn't crumble; they dissolved. The terrifying blue glow of the bio-tracker, which had felt like a brand of fire against her skin, flickered once and then vanished into a void of velvet blackness. The sound of the gunshot—that final, deafening crack of a cave-in—stretched and warped until it became the rhythmic, steady ticking of a grandfather clock.Panni’s eyes snapped open.She wasn't in a damp cavern. She wasn't bleeding. Her shoulder, which she had dreamt was shattered by a bullet, was perfectly intact, though she was drenched in a cold, clinging sweat. Above her, the dim light of a crystal chandelier cast long, elegant shadows across a ceiling painted with gold leaf."Panni? Panni, stay with me!"The voice was like a bucket of ice water poured over her racing heart. It wasn't the distorted, mocking lilt of the woman from her nightmare. It was deep, resonant, and laced with a frantic edge that didn't belong to the cold, untouchable CEO

The morning light in the Lu mansion didn't arrive with the warmth of a new day; it pierced through the heavy velvet curtains like a cold, clinical interrogation. Panni sat at the edge of the sprawling silk-covered bed, her thumb hovering over the glowing screen of her phone. The anonymous message felt like a physical weight in the room, more suffocating than the high-thread-count sheets or the scent of expensive lilies on the nightstand.I saw you at the gala, Panni. Meet me at the fountain tomorrow, or Jinyan Lu gets a copy of your real birth certificate.Her heart performed a slow, sickening roll in her chest. For weeks, she had walked this tightrope, mimicking her sister Annie’s effortless grace, her sharp tongue, and her penchant for vintage Chanel. She had studied Annie’s handwriting until her own fingers cramped and memorized the names of people she had never met. But a birth certificate—that was a piece of reality she couldn't forge or hide with a clever retort.A sharp rap on

[The Mirror's Edge]The dawn was a jagged line of grey and violet against the horizon, cold enough to make the moisture on the white marble of the south garden fountain shimmer like crushed diamonds. Panni pulled her wool coat tighter around her chest, the fabric doing little to stop the tremors that started deep in her marrow. She wasn't sure if it was the lingering chill of the fever or the sheer, paralyzing terror of what she was about to do.She stood by the fountain, the sound of the cascading water echoing through the silent gardens. This was the moment of the "Mirror’s Edge"—the sharp, narrow point where her two lives were colliding. In her pocket, her phone felt like a hot coal."You’re early. I suppose the fear of being unmasked is a better alarm clock than any butler could provide."Panni spun around. Chen Lu wasn't dressed in his usual sharp corporate attire. He wore a heavy black overcoat, his hands shoved deep into his pockets, and his eyes—dark and predatory—were fixed o

[The Anatomy of a Fall]The silence in the conservatory was no longer the intimate, orchid-scented hush of a private dinner; it had become the pressurized, suffocating stillness that precedes a structural collapse. The photograph on Jinyan’s screen seemed to glow with a malevolent light, the two identical faces—one polished and elite, the other desperate and frayed—mocking the very foundation of the last month of Panni’s life.Jinyan didn't move. He stood with the moonlight catching the sharp bridge of his nose and the tense line of his jaw. He looked like a marble statue of a god who had just discovered his temple was built on sand."Jinyan, please," Panni whispered, her voice trembling so violently she had to catch the edge of the obsidian table to stay upright. "I wanted to tell you. I was going to tell you tonight. Before the phone rang, I was—""Tonight?" Jinyan’s laugh was a short, brutal sound that sliced through her sentence. He finally looked at her, and the warmth she had se

The interior of Madam Lu’s Bentley smelled of aged cedar and the cold, sharp scent of iron-willed resolve. Outside, the city of Lu-Sheng blurred into streaks of neon and rain, but inside the car, the atmosphere was as still as a tomb.Panni sat stiffly, the leather-bound ledger clutched against her chest like a shield. Beside her, the matriarch of the Lu family looked straight ahead, her jeweled fingers resting atop a silver-headed cane."You took the ledger," Madam Lu said, her voice a dry rasp that cut through the silence. It wasn't a question."I didn't take it for Chen," Panni said, her voice surprisingly steady despite the chaos of the night. "I took it because Jinyan was too hurt to see that he was leaving his throat exposed. Annie and Chen... they’re going to tear him apart at nine A.M."Madam Lu turned her head slowly, her gaze raking over Panni’s rain-soaked hair and trembling hands. "My grandson is a brilliant man, Panni, but he has one fatal flaw. He believes that honesty i