Semua Bab Will you marry me, Mr. Mayor: Bab 61 - Bab 70

Althea’s POVBy the time Kuya Adam entered the room, I had already accepted that there was no point pretending I was not in Alexander’s arms. My face was warm, my heart was still beating too fast from the kiss, and Alexander, instead of helping me look innocent, kept one arm around my waist as if he had no intention of saving me from my brother’s judgment.Kuya Adam stared at us with the tired expression of a man who had aged five years in one evening. “You know,” he said slowly, “when I said I wanted you to be happy, I didn’t mean right in front of me.”I tried to step away from Alexander, but he did not fully let me go. His hand only loosened enough to give me a choice, which somehow made it harder to move.“We were talking,” I said, trying to sound dignified.Shaun, standing behind my brother, looked at the floor. “That may be technically true, Madame.”I narrowed my eyes. “Shaun.”“However, the timing of the silence was suspicious.”Kuya Adam pointed at him. “See? Even Shaun agree

Alexander’s POVFor a moment after Adamson spoke, the balcony felt colder than it should have.Althea’s hand tightened around mine before I could even react, and that small pressure, warm and immediate, was the only thing that kept the old anger from rising too quickly. The assistant who vanished after my father’s death had been one of the first loose threads I had ever tried to pull when I was old enough to understand that grief and suspicion were not the same thing, and now, after years of silence, his name had appeared again through Northline Meridian.Of course it was Northline.Everything rotten seemed to lead back there.“Who was the assistant?” Althea asked quietly.I looked toward the dark garden before answering. “Emilio Vargas.”Adamson nodded. “Celeste said his official travel record showed he left the country two days after your father died, but the passport used for the departure was not issued under his name. It was issued under an identity connected to Northline Meridia

Althea’s POVThe alarm sliced through the study so violently that for one second, even the people who had survived fires, gunshots, betrayals, and old ghosts stood frozen around the table.Then everything moved at once.Shaun pressed a hand against his earpiece, his face turning hard as he listened to the report from security, while Kuya Adam immediately stepped toward me as if his first instinct was still to place himself between me and every door in the world. My father took my mother’s arm, pulling her away from the windows, and Director Reyes moved toward the hall with the calm speed of someone who had spent most of his life walking toward danger instead of away from it.Alexander’s hand found mine.Not roughly.Not desperately.But with the kind of certainty that made me realize he had reached for me before he had reached for the letter, the key, or the gun one of the officers offered him from the doorway.“Thea,” he said, his voice low. “Stay with me.”I looked at him, at the le

Althea’s POVFor a moment after Cassandra spoke, the room seemed to lose all sound.Even the guards stopped moving.Alexander’s hand tightened around mine, but his face had gone perfectly still, and I hated that stillness more than anger. Anger would have been easier to understand. Anger would have meant the name meant nothing except betrayal. But the look in his eyes was worse than rage, because it carried recognition, disbelief, and a kind of pain too old to have been born tonight.“Marina Winston?” he asked, his voice low.Cassandra closed her eyes briefly, as if hearing the name from her son’s mouth hurt more than saying it herself. “Your father’s younger sister.”I looked at Alexander, then at Cassandra. “Your aunt?”He did not answer.He didn’t have to.The silence around him answered for him.Kuya Adam stepped forward, his face hard. “You’re telling us a Winston has been helping the Dales?”Cassandra opened her eyes. “I’m saying the voice sounded like Marina’s. I am not saying

Althea’s POVThe Alcantara Grand Hotel stood in the center of the province like it had been built to remind people that power did not always need to shout. Its glass walls reflected the wet streets, the golden lights in its lobby spilling outward like nothing terrible could possibly be waiting inside. But as our convoy slowed near the entrance, I felt Alexander’s hand tighten around mine, and I knew the elegance of the place meant nothing.Danger could wear marble floors and chandeliers too.Shaun stepped out first, speaking quietly into his earpiece while scanning the entrance. Two Bailey security men moved ahead, followed by one of Alexander’s plainclothes officers. In the car behind us, Cassandra Winston remained still, her face pale but composed, like a woman preparing to meet a ghost wearing her husband’s blood on its hands.Alexander opened the door for me himself. Before I stepped out, he leaned closer and spoke in a low voice meant only for me.“Stay beside me.”I looked at hi