บททั้งหมดของ The War Between Us: บทที่ 91 - บทที่ 100

Milena DragovicI looked at him, stunned into temporary silence. In the time I’d known Alexander Li, I’d seen him command a room, a fight, but never apologize. Not for his actions, not for the aftermath, not even for the violence that seemed stitched into his DNA.I waited to see if he would take it back or clarify, but he didn’t. He just fixed the bandage with a slow, deliberate motion, his fingers as careful as they were precise.“You apologize now?”He shrugged, barely a gesture. “For pain I cause,” he said. “Not for necessary things.”He held my gaze long enough for the full implication to settle: that this pain, in this moment, was both his fault and his responsibility. That I was his responsibility, even if just for tonight.I tried to laugh, but it was more of a breathless huff. “Good to know,” I said. “Thank you.”He pressed the gauze a little tighter, checking for excess blood, then smoothed the tape down with his thumb.He finished quickly and efficiently, and when he steppe

Alexander Li ChenI walked into the kitchen and found her looking around, at the high ceiling, the large windows,…“Not what you expected?” I asked.She shrugged, barely a movement. “You like silence.”“I like control.”She nodded, as if that made sense. Maybe it did.She moved ahead of me, scanning the open kitchen and the wall of glass that looked out over the bluff. The night was so black it turned the windows into a perfect mirror, our shadows reflected back at us. She touched the edge of the island. Walnut, imported, the grain matched along the seam, like she was grounding herself.Rayven appeared at the door, silent as always, and leaned in. “Perimeter clear. No tails. No signals pinged in a two-mile radius.”“Copy,” I said.He hesitated, eyes flicking to her, then back to me. “You want me to stay?”I gave him a nod. He didn’t look relieved, but he did relax a fraction. He closed the door behind him, posted up just inside, arms crossed. An immovable object, wearing a suit that c

Milena DragovicThe house was too quiet after the casing, every surface holding a residual charge I couldn’t shake. Silence always feels heavier after something metallic cuts through it… like the air itself is waiting for permission to resume. Alexander remained by the security panel, arms folded, face set like poured concrete. Not pacing. Not restless. Just present in a way that made the chaos reorganize itself around him. Rayven, meanwhile, had already faded into the background, his voice a low murmur in another room as he coordinated with people I’d never meet, reinforcing the boundary between what could touch us and what never would.I needed distance from both of them. Or maybe just a vantage point that wasn’t so saturated with their intent. I drifted upstairs, the house somehow larger and emptier than before, footsteps echoing off hard floors and the occasional pulse in my ears. I ended up in the guest room at the east corner, the one with a full wall of glass overlooking the la

Alexander Li ChenThey opened the door without hesitation.Both Mr. Zhou and Director Chen entered, their movements so synchronized I momentarily wondered if they’d timed it. They paused at the threshold and swept the room, their gazes eventually clicking past Rayven and Milena before locking on me. Mr. Zhou gave me a curt nod. I saw in the cut of their jaws and the unblemished skin at the base of their necks that both men were armed, though the weapons were likely chosen for concealment as much as lethality.“Your father is waiting,” Mr. Zhou said, his voice calibrated to transmit urgency without anxiety.I turned towards Milena. There was something about her refusal to shrink back that filled me with a kind of existential dread and a primitive pride. I didn’t want her to see the next part. I didn’t want her to see him, or what I might become in his presence.“You should rest,” I told her.“That’s not happening,” she shot back, voice stripped of every trace of uncertainty.“Then stay

Alexander Li Chen“She’ll know soon,” I said quietly, unable to muster the old detachment.He nodded, a movement so slight it could have been a tic, but I knew it for what it was: acceptance, or maybe resignation.Rayven gripped my shoulder just for a moment longer, a gesture that was both a warning and a benediction. “Don’t give them the excuse,” he muttered. “Not for your sake. For hers.”His hand fell away. The door closed. He walked out.I knew how my father’s corrections worked. They were not designed for the spectacle of violence, but for its efficiency. Remove hesitation. Remove variable. Remove obstacle. The logic was as bloodless as the aftermath.I pressed my fists to my knees, grounding myself in the moment. My mind ran a silent tally of what needed to happen in the next days, and where the moments of control had already slipped. Milena, involved, unprotected. The engagement, already a weapon. The board, waiting for the tiniest tremor to justify intervention.Milena was in