Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 41 - Chapitre 50

Amelia didn’t scream.The message sat in her hand, glowing, cruel, deliberate.Choose wisely, Mrs. Reynolds.Donald’s voice cut through the ringing in her ears. “We’re locking this place down. Now.”“Where is he?” Amelia asked, her tone frighteningly calm.Donald swallowed. “We don’t know yet.”“That’s a lie,” she said, lifting her gaze to him. “You always know something.”He hesitated for half a second too long.Her heart hardened.“Donald.”He exhaled. “Maxwell wasn’t abducted the way the message wants you to believe.”Amelia stood up slowly. “Explain. Carefully.”“The police picked him up,” Donald said. “Protective custody. The DA panicked after the board meeting. Someone leaked your conversation with Elliot—”Amelia’s jaw clenched. “Anita.”Donald nodded. “She rerouted internal security feeds and tipped them off. Claimed Maxwell was a flight risk.”Amelia laughed once, sharp and hollow. “So instead of bullets, they’re using badges.”Donald met her eyes. “And fear.”Amelia turned t

“AMELIA—RUN!”Donald’s voice tore through the house, raw with panic.Amelia didn’t think. She moved.Her chair scraped violently as she pushed back, heart slamming against her ribs while boots thundered on the stairs below. The house—her house—was no longer safe. Every breath tasted like fear and steel.“Maxwell!” she shouted into the phone as she bolted toward the side corridor.“I’m on my way,” his voice came through, strained, distant—too distant. “Lock yourself in—”The line cut dead.“No—no—no,” she whispered, shoving the phone into her pocket as the first masked man appeared at the top of the stairs.“Mrs. Reynolds,” he said calmly, gun raised. “Please don’t make this difficult.”She turned and ran.The corridor stretched endlessly, her feet pounding against marble as alarms screamed through the estate. Doors slammed. Glass shattered somewhere behind her.She reached the private elevator—slammed the button.Nothing.“Move away from the door!” a voice barked.Amelia spun.Two men

Hands dragged Amelia through the darkness.Rough. Unhesitating.Her scream tore from her throat as her body slammed against a wall, then another, her bare feet scraping across cold tile. Somewhere behind her, Maxwell shouted her name—his voice breaking, furious, helpless.“MAXWELL!”A hand clamped over her mouth.“Quiet,” a woman hissed into her ear. “If you want him alive.”Amelia froze.That voice wasn’t Margaret’s.It was younger. Sharper.Calculated.They pushed her through a door and down a narrow corridor that smelled of antiseptic and metal. Emergency lights flickered red, bathing the hall in warning.Her captors finally stopped.The hand released her mouth.Amelia spun—And stared straight into Anita’s face.“You,” Amelia breathed.Anita adjusted her coat calmly, as if they weren’t standing in the middle of a collapsing power grab. “Me.”“Margaret sent you,” Amelia said.Anita’s lips curved slightly. “Margaret doesn’t send me. She assumes I obey.”Amelia’s heart pounded violen

“Her blood pressure is dropping.”The words sliced through the room like a blade.Amelia’s fingers clenched the sheets as another wave of pain tore through her body. It wasn’t the slow, building ache she’d been warned about. This was sharp. Sudden. Violent. Her breath came out in a broken gasp as she turned her head toward Maxwell.“Something’s wrong,” she whispered again, weaker now.Maxwell was already at her side, his face pale, eyes frantic as doctors rushed around them. He reached for her hand, gripping it like it was the only thing anchoring him to reality.“Stay with me,” he said, voice shaking despite the steel in his eyes. “Look at me. Just look at me.”Monitors beeped faster.A nurse called out numbers.Another doctor snapped orders.Margaret Reynolds stood several steps back, hands folded neatly in front of her, posture relaxed—too relaxed for a woman watching a pregnant girl spiral into early labor.Anita noticed.She always noticed.“This wasn’t spontaneous,” Anita said s

The flatline screamed.A long, merciless sound that cut through the room and split Lawson Reynolds open from the inside.For the first time since Amelia had been sold to him, since her body had been signed over like property, since her tears had stopped meaning anything—fear cracked through his control.“Fix it,” Lawson said sharply.Doctors moved fast, voices overlapping, hands pressing down, paddles charged.Margaret didn’t move.She watched the scene with clinical interest, as though observing a malfunctioning machine rather than a human being dying in front of her.“Clear.”Amelia’s body jerked violently.Nothing.Lawson stepped forward without thinking. “Do it again.”The doctor hesitated. “Her heart is weak. Another shock could—”“DO IT,” Lawson barked.Margaret turned slowly. “Lawson.”He didn’t look at her.“Do not interfere,” Margaret said calmly.Lawson’s jaw clenched. “She dies, you lose control.”Margaret’s eyes narrowed. “She lives, you lose authority.”The doctor swallow