All Chapters of The Scandalous Step Siblings: First Enemies, Then Lovers : Chapter 151 - Chapter 160

Anya’s POVLila’s shadow vanished from the plexiglass, leaving me with a cold, hollow ringing in my ears.He managed the father before he perfected it on the son.The words sat in my stomach like lead. I had spent years writing about Julian Rhodes’ "tragic heart failure" as if it were a beautiful, final chord in a symphony of excess. I had reviewed his death like a movie critic watching the credits roll. I never thought I was looking at a murder scene covered in gold leaf and expensive marketing.I was led back to my cell, but my mind was already three blocks away at the courthouse. I didn't sit on the bunk. I paced. Four steps to the sink, four steps back to the door.If Ethan killed Julian, the Rhodes Archive wasn't just a collection of unreleased hits. It was a confession. The second movement—the one Kai was trying to rebuild in his head—wasn't just music. It was the heart monitor data. It was the proof of the "cycling" Lila mentioned."Miller! Lawyer’s back. And she brought company

ANYA’S POVThe Denver University Hospital didn’t look like a place for healing anymore. It looked like a movie premiere for a disaster film that had gone way over budget.As Elena turned the corner onto High Street, the noise hit us first. It was a low, rhythmic thrumming of voices that I felt in the floorboards of the car before I actually heard it. Then came the lights. Blue and red strobes from the police line bounced off the glass buildings, mixed with the harsh white glare of news satellites and the flickering glow of a thousand smartphone screens."Well," I said, leaning my forehead against the cool window. "At least the turnout is good. If this were a concert, Ethan would be thrilled about the ticket sales.""It’s not a concert, Anya. It’s a powder keg," Elena muttered. Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel.The crowd was a solid wall of human anxiety pressing against the hospital's iron gates. It was a bizarre mix of people. I saw the "Save Kai" zealots still holding t

The hallway was a dizzying blur of beige walls and passing light fixtures that looked like falling stars destined to burn out. Kai’s head rolled to the side, his cheek pressed against the cold, clinical metal rail of the gurney that felt like the bars of a cage. The sound from downstairs was getting louder, a muffled, rhythmic chanting that seemed to pulse in time with the thudding in his veins, a heartbeat of a thousand people who thought they loved him but didn't even know his real name. They were screaming for the North Star, but they were shouting at a ghost. They were cheering for a hologram while the real man was being smuggled out the back door in a chemical coma designed to keep the brand alive.Then, through the fog of the sedatives and the roar of the fans, a sharp, clear note cut through the silence like a scalpel. It wasn't a musical note. It was a frequency. A voice that hit the very center of his being and pulled him back from the edge of the abyss by his collar."Stone!

Anya’s POVThe sirens outside weren't musical. They were jagged, discordant screams that tore through the sterile peace of the fourth floor. I looked down at Kai. He was a ghost of a man, his head lolling against the thin hospital pillow, his hand still twitching in mine like a dying bird. Marcus Stone had left the building, but he’d left a mess behind him.The gurney was a heavy, awkward beast. I tried to kick the brake release, but my foot slipped on the polished tile. Panic is a bad editor; it makes you rush the important lines. I forced myself to breathe. Four steps. Deep breath. Focus."Elena!" I shouted over the rising roar of the crowd downstairs. "We can't go out the front. They’ll tear him apart trying to get a photo of the 'breakdown.'"Elena was already at the nurse’s station, her hands flying across a keyboard. She looked like a woman who had spent her life navigating the fine print of disasters. "I’m overriding the freight elevator. It’s manual, old school. It bypass

Anya’s POVThe cabin was so quiet I could hear the snow sliding off the roof. It was a soft, heavy sound that made the world feel small. Just us. Just the blue light of the screen and the smell of old wood.Kai was still sitting next to me. His hand was warm, his fingers hooked through mine. It was a simple thing, but it felt like a miracle. After the hospitals and the cells and the screaming crowds, this was the only thing that felt real.“We have it all,” I said. My voice was low, almost a whisper. I looked at the files on the screen. It was a graveyard of secrets. “The medical logs. The recordings. Everything Ethan did to your father. Everything he did to you.”Kai looked at the screen, but his eyes were far away. “I spent ten years thinking I was the broken one. I thought I was the reason the music felt like a lie. He made me believe I was lucky to have him.”“You were a kid, Kai. He was a predator.”He turned to look at me. The light from the laptop made his eyes look like silver.