Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 101 - Chapitre 110

Lila’s POV“I NEEDED some air,” I said, keeping my tone even, my breathing steady.Adrian’s eyes flicked past me briefly. Down the hallway t hen back to me.“You left without saying anything.”“It was loud in there.”“That’s not an answer.”“It is if you listen.”The smallest pause. Adrian studied me longer this time. Too long. Like he was looking for something. Something off. Something out of place.I forced myself to stay still.  His gaze dropped slightly. Not far. Just enough that I felt the shift. He’s taking in details. My posture, my hands, my face.I resisted the urge to touch my hair, to adjust my dress or to do anything that would look like I was fixing something.  Because that wo

Lila’s POV“WHO TRIGGERED it?” someone shouted down the hall.The alarm cut through everything.It wasn’t just loud. It was invasive. A sharp, relentless sound that seemed to vibrate through the walls, through the floor, through my chest until it drowned out everything else. Conversations died instantly. Footsteps picked up. Doors opened. Voices overlapped in confusion and urgency.For a second, I couldn’t move. My body locked in place as the reality of it hit. This wasn’t planned. This wasn’t part of anything we had prepared for.Something had gone wrong.Jacob’s hand closed around my wrist again, firm and immediate, pulling me slightly behind him as his body shifted into something sharper, more alert.“Stay close,” he said, his voice low but steady, cutting through the chaos like a line I could hold onto.

Lila’s POV“NOTHING’S MISSING,” Adrian said slowly. The words came after a long, deliberate silence. Long enough for every second to stretch thin, for my heartbeat to grow louder in my ears, and for me to feel every inch of the room before I even stepped fully inside it.I crossed the threshold carefully. Not hesitant or even rushed, but just measured. Like every movement mattered.The air inside my father’s office felt exactly the same. That was the first thing that hit me. No disturbance. No sign of struggle. No overturned furniture or broken glass.The desk sat exactly where it always had, papers aligned in neat, precise stacks. The chair was pushed in just enough to look untouched. The shelves along the far wall remained lined with books and old records, the same worn edges and familiar arrangement I had memorized over the past weeks.Too perfect and that was the problem. Like someone had come in and made sure it looked untouched. Or like nothing had ever happened here at all.I

Lila’s POV“SAY GOODBYE now,” Jacob said. The words didn’t sound like him, they were too steady and too final. Like he had already walked through something in his head and come back with an answer he didn’t want to say out loud.I stared at him.We were still on the balcony, the night air cool against my skin, the silence of the estate stretching around us like something waiting to break. The lights below glowed faintly across the grounds, distant, almost unreal compared to the way everything felt up here.Close, tight, and too real.“I’m not doing that,” I said.My voice came out sharper than I intended, but I didn’t soften it.I couldn’t.Because the second I even entertained the idea of saying goodbye, it meant I was accepting that tomorrow could take him away from me.Or me away from him.And I refused.Jacob didn’t move right away.He leaned against the railing, one hand gripping the metal bar just enough that I could see the tension in his knuckles. His gaze stayed on me, stead

Lila’s POV“DON’T LOOK nervous,” Jacob murmured behind me.I didn’t turn. I couldn’t.Because if I did, if I let myself lean into the sound of his voice, into the steadiness of him, I knew it would show. It would soften something in my face that I could not afford to soften right now. Not with everything tightening around us. Not with the air inside the estate feeling like it had shifted into something sharper, something that watched and listened even when no one was speaking.“I’m not nervous,” I said quietly.The lie sat too easily on my tongue.I stood in the dim corridor just outside the study, my hand curled loosely around the small object hidden beneath the fold of my sleeve. The drive pressed against my skin like a pulse I couldn’t ignore. Every second I held it, I became more aware of it. Of what it carried. Of what it could destroy.Jacob stepped closer behind me, just enough that I felt the heat of him at my back, not touching but close enough that my body registered it anyw