Semua Bab His Forbidden Mate: The Billionaire stepbrother’s claim : Bab 11 - Bab 20

Westbridge Academy is everything Adrian promised. Clean. Quiet. Completely devoid of scandal.It's also two hours and seventeen minutes away from Lucian, and every mile feels like glass in my chest.I've been here three days. Three days of new uniforms, new teachers, new students who don't know about the viral videos or the stepsister scandal. Three days of trying to pretend I'm fine.I'm not fine.The mate bond is screaming. Constant, relentless, like a phantom limb that won't stop aching. I can feel Lucian's absence like a missing piece of myself. When I sleep, I dream of him. When I'm awake, I sense him, distant but present, a pull that never stops.My roommate, a girl named Sophie with kind eyes and too many questions, keeps asking if I'm sick."You look pale," she says on Wednesday morning. "And you barely eat.""I'm fine. Just adjusting.""You sure? Because you talk in your sleep. Say someone's name. Luke? Lucas?"My blood runs cold. "I don't know what you're talking about."She

The service entrance is dark, silent except for the hum of industrial refrigerators in the kitchen. I wait in the shadows, duffel bag clutched in my sweating palms, every nerve screaming that someone will catch us.Footsteps. Light, careful. Lucian appears from the east wing corridor, his own bag slung over his shoulder. Behind him, Brandon materializes like a ghost, laptop bag in hand."Car's two blocks north," Brandon whispers. "I disabled the gate sensors. You have a ten-minute window before the system runs its diagnostic cycle.""What about security?" I ask."Watching a loop I fed into their system. As far as they know, you're both asleep in your rooms." He hands Lucian a set of keys. "Black Honda Civic, license plate covered. It's registered to a shell company. Untraceable.""You're not coming?" Lucian asks."Someone needs to stay and manage the fallout. Feed false information. Make sure Adrian looks in the wrong places." Brandon's expression is grim. "Besides, I'm close to crack

The auditorium holds eight hundred students. Every single one of them has their phone out.We walk down the center aisle, and the silence is absolute. Broken only by the soft click of camera shutters, the whisper of fingers swiping to record.Tiffany stands on stage with the student council, her perfectly composed expression cracking as she sees our joined hands. The headmaster sits in the front row, looking like he wants to disappear."This is against protocol," Tiffany says into the microphone, but her voice wavers. "The accused wasn't supposed to be here.""The accused?" Lucian's voice carries without amplification. "Is that what we're calling this? A trial?"Murmurs ripple through the crowd. Phones angle to capture him better."Lucian, maybe you should sit…" the headmaster starts."No." Lucian pulls me onto the stage with him. The auditorium erupts in gasps, whispers, a few cheers. "If you're going to talk about us, we should get to tell our side."Tiffany's face flushes red. "Thi

Morning comes too soon.I wake wrapped in Lucian's arms, the mate bond humming contentedly between us. For one perfect moment, I forget about Adrian, about Mom, about the world burning down around us.Then my burner phone buzzes.Brandon: Professor Greene wants to meet. Says he has information about Adrian's past. Important.I show Lucian the text. He frowns. "Professor Greene? Your literature teacher?""Yeah. He's been weird since day one. Like he knows more than he should." I remember his cryptic comments about forbidden love, about families with secrets. "Should we trust him?""Do we have a choice?" Lucian sits up, already alert. "Anyone with information about my father is worth hearing out."We meet Professor Greene at a diner forty minutes outside the city. He's waiting in a back booth, looking nothing like the distinguished teacher from school. He's disheveled, nervous, constantly checking over his shoulder."Thank you for coming," he says as we slide into the booth across from

The ballroom descends into chaos.Security doesn't know who to protect…Adrian, who's being swarmed by reporters with questions he can't answer, or us, the ones who just detonated his carefully constructed life. Cameras flash from every direction. Microphones thrust forward. Everyone wants a piece of the story."Mr. Hayes, did you arrange your stepdaughter's marriage without her consent?""Is it true you had a relationship with your wife's sister?""Can you comment on the allegations of murder?"Adrian's face is a mask of barely controlled fury. He tries to push through the crowd, but they won't let him pass. For the first time in his life, money and power aren't enough to silence the truth.Viktor stands apart, watching with cold calculation. He approaches me while Lucian is giving a statement to reporters, his expression unreadable."You have rare genetics," he says quietly. "My family's research confirmed it. That's why your stepfather approached us.""I'm not interested in your fam