All Chapters of Owned By The Enemy : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The atmosphere at dinner was unbearable.Nobody mentioned the burner phone.Nobody mentioned the conference room.Nobody mentioned the archived footage.Which somehow made everything worse.Jaxon spent most of the meal staring at his tablet.Lucien answered emails between bites.Rafael looked suspiciously amused by the entire situation.And Sebastian—Sebastian acted as though nothing had happened.Ivy wanted to throw something at him."Are we all pretending now?" she asked suddenly.Four pairs of eyes lifted.Jaxon sighed immediately."Please don't.""Don't what?""Whatever you're about to do."Rafael hid a smile behind his glass.Lucien looked ready to leave.Sebastian continued eating.That irritated her most of all."What if I have a question?"Jaxon pointed at his plate."I'd rather discuss carbohydrates.""What if it's important?""It's not.""It is.""It's really not."Ivy looked directly at Sebastian."Who altered Emily's records?"The room went silent.Rafael slowly lowered h

Ava stayed through the night. Morning came, she remained.Unfortunately.Maybe it helped her breathe, thinking that stepping into the room where the stranger perched on the countertop, juice smearing her chin, popping berries like they meant nothing.Beyond the counter, that is where it stands.On it.Just like someone causing trouble on purpose."You know chairs exist, right?" Ivy asked.Ava took a bite of a red berry, juice smudging her lower lip. The sweet taste spread across her tongue without warning."I've heard rumors."Out came the coffee pot as Ivy gave a slow eye roll."You're very comfortable for someone who doesn't live here.""That's because I know where all the bodies are buried."Coffee caught in Ivy’s throat, almost stuck.Ava burst out laughing."Relax. It was a joke."Out of the corner of his mouth, Lucien said, "Could that really be true?"Out of nowhere, a strawberry flew toward his face. Ava had flicked it without warning.A ball flew toward him, yet his hand snap

On her desk through the dark hours, the photo stayed put. It didn’t move once while shadows crept across the room.She barely slept.Each time her eyelids shut, the image returned. Stillness brought it back, clear as light. There it stayed, fixed behind the dark. Not a dream just there. Always waiting when she looked inward.Sebastian.The black SUV.A small mark sits by the edge. It shows when it happened.Just before everything happened to Emily. That moment when time still moved slow.Not after.Before.It gnawed at her, that bit of it. The one detail refusing to fade.Fog lifted, still no clarity came.Only questions.Fog lifted by morning, yet her temper showed clear at the table.It went unnoticed by everyone.Not even Ava.Which was unusual.Especially Ava.Quiet sat the table, not its usual self.Jaxon was reading something on his tablet.Fog lifted from Lucien's thoughts as steam curled off the cup. A new round of caffeine stirred motion through his limbs.Rafael sat there, e

Ivy didn't sleep.She did it without fear holding her back.Each reply she uncovered just led to a new puzzle instead.Until dawn broke, the document remained visible on her screen.The photograph.The note.The date.Everything about it bothered her.A shadow lingered close, long before she stepped into Sebastian’s life. The eyes were already there, fixed, waiting in silence. Not a chance encounter - something older moved behind the scene. Her path was mapped by quiet observation. Moments before meeting him, she’d already been seen.Before the penthouse.Before the accident.Before everything.Here it gets worse.A voice spoke her name before she turned. That moment hung too long in the air. Not a guess. A recognition sharp as glass. Whoever stood there saw more than just her face.Morning light touched the pages when Sebastian saw her among the books.His feet froze mid-step upon spotting the glow of the laptop display.He didn’t open it knowing what waited inside.He understood her

Nobody spoke.A stillness held the letters glowing up front.Emily Harper.A name showing up where it had no reason to be.A Name That Made No Sense.Her eyes stayed fixed on the page, words smudging into shapes. Then nothing made sense anymore."No."Out of nowhere, the word slipped into the air. Quietly it showed up, barely noticed.Then louder."No."Jaxon looked uncomfortable."Ivy....I""No."Her head moved from side to side, slow at first, then faster."That's not possible."After a pause, Sebastian stayed quiet.That bothered her.Not a single person seemed to understand it. That silence said everything.Sebastian appeared deep in thought.Calculating.It gnawed at her, not knowing what it truly meant now."Explain."her eyes stayed on jaxon."How did her name appear?"A window flickered into view under Jaxon’s fingers."Someone accessed the system using Emily's credentials.""But she doesn't have access.""Exactly."A chill settled when he spoke. The air tightened without a so