All Chapters of Before love Lies: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

We left the parking garage shortly after that, the echo of the tires against concrete following us like a warning we couldn’t shake. The city lights blurred past as we pulled into the lot of a small hotel on the edge of town, the kind of place no one looked at twice. I parked near the back, away from the lights. Every shadow felt heavier than it should have, every passing car a possible threat. Inside, I booked a room under a false name, my voice steady even though my hands trembled slightly as I signed. Survival had taught me how to sound calm while everything inside me was breaking.The room smelled faintly of stale air and detergent. I locked the door, double-checked it, then checked it again. Only when I was certain did I finally sit down. Exhaustion hit me all at once, crushing and unavoidable. I don’t remember laying down, only the feeling of darkness pulling me under. I slept for about an hour before Michelle gently shook me awake.“I gotta go grab some snacks,” she whispered.

The engine rumbled to life, low and steady, like it already knew what came next.I pulled away from the depot without headlights, cutting through side streets and industrial lanes until the building disappeared behind us. Dawn crept higher in the sky, pale and indifferent. The world was waking up. Mine had narrowed to the road ahead and the woman breathing in the back seat.Tiffany Stonewall sat hunched forward, wrists bound, ankles locked, her confidence finally stripped down to silence. I could see her reflection in the rearview mirror—eyes sharp, calculating, still trying to measure angles even now. Even captured, she was dangerous.Michelle sat beside me, wrapped in my jacket, quiet but present. Every few seconds I glanced at her, needing to see her chest rise and fall, needing proof this wasn’t just another loss I’d failed to prevent.“You okay?” I asked softly.She nodded. “I will be.”That was enough—for now.I drove without pattern, looping through neighborhoods, doubling back

The open air left me speechless.State after state slipped beneath the wings, borders reduced to invisible lines that meant nothing at this altitude. The sky felt endless, the horizon stretching farther than it should have, like time itself had begun to thin. We stopped only long enough to refuel—small airstrips, forgotten runways, places where questions weren’t asked and faces weren’t remembered. Each stop blurred into the next.Somewhere over the Midwest, exhaustion crept in quietly. Not the kind that slowed your hands, but the kind that made minutes dissolve into hours. I started building a backup fuel system on the fly—rerouting, reinforcing, planning for failure before it could happen. If this turned into a chase, we couldn’t afford to be dependent on perfect conditions.By the time the coastline finally appeared and we touched down in California, it felt like we’d stepped outside of time altogether.Sam’s voice cut through the cockpit again, sharper than before. “Multiple transm

Jasmine was suddenly there.She didn’t speak—she didn’t have to. Her hand closed firmly around my arm, grip strong despite her slight frame, and she pulled me toward a narrow side door hidden between two walls that looked solid moments before. The panel slid open, and cold night air rushed in.“Come,” she said quietly. Not a request. A command.We moved fast.The door sealed behind us as we crossed into a private garage carved deep beneath the mansion. The lights snapped on automatically, revealing a single vehicle waiting in the center—sleek, black, immaculate.The Rolls-Royce came to life almost the moment we reached it, the engine purring low and smooth, like it had been listening the whole time.Jasmine opened the passenger door and pushed me inside before circling to the driver’s seat. The garage door began to rise as soon as she turned the key.No hesitation. No wasted motion.We were already leaving.As the car rolled forward and the night swallowed us, my thoughts finally caug

Marco Wang’s POVI sat alone in my office, the city of Shenzhen glowing beneath the floor-to-ceiling windows, thinking about the same problem that had kept me awake for months—how to pull my family’s business out of the gravity well of China and into the true global mainstream.We were powerful, yes. Wealthy beyond measure. But power that never leaves home eventually rots. The world was changing faster than the elders were willing to admit, and if we stayed insular, we would be outpaced by families who understood overseas logistics, international trust, and quiet influence.Then my phone rang.Jasmine.Her voice was calm but carried an edge of urgency. She didn’t waste time. “Marco, I need you to prepare. The CEO and owner of Edison Shipping is coming to see you. In person. He’s bringing very good news.”For a moment, I couldn’t speak.John Edison.A name spoken carefully in boardrooms across continents. A man whose logistics network touched ports most governments pretended they contr