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Accueil / Mafia / Divorce Clause: Heir Included / Chapitre 71 - Chapitre 80

Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 71 - Chapitre 80

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71

The heavy oak doors of the corner suite didn’t creak, but the air in the room shifted the second Nathan stepped inside.Marcus and Lucas fanned out behind him, two pillars of silent, lethal muscle. Ethan Cole didn’t even flinch. He sat behind a desk carved from a single slab of obsidian, his polished loafers propped up on the edge. A half-eaten takeout container sat in his lap. Nathan hadn't looked at the man in years. The doctor had aged into his sins; silver threaded his dark hair, and the lines carved around his mouth suggested a man who spent his nights staring at things that wouldn't stay buried."Don Wright," Cole greeted, his voice as smooth as aged bourbon. He didn't look up from his noodles. "To what do I owe the interruption?"Nathan didn't move. He’d always considered himself a modern Don—no forced bows, no kissing the ring. But there was a difference between comfort and a lack of survival instinct. Cole was acting like a man who had forgotten whose name was on the building

72

The nursery was silent, save for the rhythmic clicking of Leo’s wooden blocks. Zack sat on the edge of the rocker, his damp hair clinging to his neck, watching his son with a gaze that didn’t quite focus. Across the room, Nathan leaned against the doorframe, a dark silhouette against the hallway light."Because I wasn't as careful as I should have been," Zack murmured.Caleb, the restless voice in the back of his mind, snarled in jagged protest. Zack didn't flinch. He met Nathan’s heavy, silver stare with a defiant tilt of his chin. He saw the way Nathan’s hand flexed against the doorframe, the knuckles turning white.Zack was glad the nanny was gone. It bought them a few hours of suffocating silence while Leo played, but it also meant he had to sit there, dripping and cold, stewing in the absolute certainty of what was coming once the bedroom door clicked shut.By the time the moon rose over Havenfall, Zack’s bravado had frayed into raw nerves. Every time Nathan’s boots scuffed the f

73

"Doesn't mean anything," Zack whispered, his face crimson."Don't worry," Nathan teased, his hand moving to the back of Zack’s head, pulling him in for a bruising kiss. "You’ll have all night to keep trying. Because I’m nowhere near done with you."Tuesday morning arrived with a vengeance. Zack woke up to a dull ache in his lower back and a stomach that felt like it was full of rusted nails. He barely made it to the ensuite, retching until there was nothing left, wishing Nathan was there to hold his hair back.But the bed was empty. Nathan had slipped out early to take Leo to the park before the workday started.Zack dragged himself into the kitchen, the floor cold under his feet. He put the kettle on, wondering if using the power always came with a hangover, or if this was just the price of almost turning into a human anchor the day before.By the time the front door clicked open, Zack felt almost human again. He couldn't afford to be bedridden. Not today. He’d promised Leo a trip to

74

Nathan stood in the shadows of the office doorway, his tailored charcoal suit a dark smudge against the mahogany frame. He didn’t say a word, just watched Zack with a clinical, detached focus.Zack didn't look up from the floor-to-length mirror. His own reflection felt like a lie. He was draped in a silk-lined tux that cost more than the house he’d grown up in, his dark hair slicked back with obsessive precision. He looked like a prince of the Havenfall underworld, but the skin beneath the fabric felt raw."It’s time," Nathan said. His voice was like a low-frequency hum, vibrating in the small space.Zack adjusted his cufflinks, the silver clicking against his wrists like shackles. He hated the way everyone in the Cocolink estate looked at him now—like he was some fragile, exotic bird Nathan had captured and caged in gold."You don't have to do this," Zack murmured to the glass. "You could have taken someone who actually fits the part. Someone like Julian."Julian Wright. The name was

75

Nathan’s voice wouldn't stop echoing.“Much more of this, and I’m going to regret coming back at all.”The words were a jagged blade, scraping against the inside of my skull every time I tried to focus on the ledgers. I hadn't looked at Zack since that conversation. When I’d finally hauled myself back to the Havenfall penthouse last night, he was a still shape under the covers, and this morning he was out the door with Leo before the sun had even cleared the skyline. He was icing me out. Usually, I’d break the silence with a heavy hand, but the hits on our supply lines were coming too fast. I was drowning in a war on two fronts: my marriage and the streets.Tonight, the Eclipse Festival would force us into the same tuxedo-clad cage. I wasn't going to let him drift. We’d stay in it until the air cleared. I couldn't let him slip back into that shell. Not again.Lately, the press had shifted. The city was starting to look at Zack not as a victim of the Logan era, but as the consort of a

76

Marcus stood in the doorway of the study, his face a map of grey, weathered lines. He looked like a man who had seen his own funeral. Nathan was up before the door even clicked shut."Marcus, talk to me. Is it Zack? Leo?""Neither," Marcus managed, his voice a dry rasp. He leaned against the desk, his hands trembling slightly. "Nathan... I saw her. I saw Madeline."The air in the room turned to lead. Nathan's pulse thrummed behind his ears. "What did you just say?""At the plaza. Near the fountain. It was quick, but I’d know that walk anywhere. She was in all black. Mourning clothes." Marcus wiped a bead of sweat from his temple. "The exile was supposed to be permanent, Nathan. She has no right to be within a hundred miles of Havenfall."Nathan didn't answer. His mind was a high-speed reel of old blood and older grudges. Madeline had been the architect behind his uncle’s failed coup years ago. She was the one who had whispered the poison into the ears of the men who tried to gut the C

77

Nathan was already awake when Zack’s eyes fluttered open. Propped on a muscular elbow, the Don was tracing slow, possessive circles across Zack’s flat stomach, a rare, boyish grin softening his usually lethal features. The cool morning air bit at Zack’s skin where the duvet had been unceremoniously tugged away."Nathan, it's freezing. Give them back," Zack muttered, his voice thick with sleep as he tried to roll toward his husband."Sorry, tiger," Nathan chuckled, the low rumble of his chest vibrating against the mattress as he pulled Zack flush against his heat. "I couldn't help it. You're a masterpiece when you're dead to the world.""It’s creepy," Zack grumbled, tucking his face into the hollow of Nathan’s neck. "Watching people sleep is for serial killers.""I'm the head of the Cocolink family. I can be as creepy as I want," Nathan countered, his tone smug.Zack inhaled the sharp, familiar scent of cedar and expensive tobacco, but the comfort didn't last. A sudden, violent lurch i

78

The low-voltage lights in the walk-in closet hummed, casting long, jagged shadows against the rows of tailored suits. Zack stood before the full-length mirror, his fingers trembling as he reached into the empty air, trying to grasp the void. He’d spent every morning since the news trying to summon that cold, kinetic snap of power—the ability to shatter glass or throw a man across a room without lifting a finger.He wanted to master the tricks he’d seen in Marcus’s old ledgers. Nathan had encouraged the practice at first, but now, the shadows remained dead, clinging stubbornly to the corners of the room.Zack hissed a curse through his teeth. He tried to steady his breathing, but a pair of heavy, warm arms cinched around his waist before he could reset. Nathan’s chin dropped onto his shoulder, his presence a wall of solid muscle and expensive cologne."What’s the struggle today?" Nathan asked, his voice a low vibration against Zack’s spine."The shadows aren't moving. It’s like I’m rea

79

Nathan leaned against the doorframe of Leo’s bedroom, the heavy silence of the penthouse broken only by the rhythmic murmur of Zack’s voice. Zack was perched on the edge of the small bed, spinning a gritty street-smart fable to coax their son into sleep. Outside, the Havenfall skyline was a jagged mess of cold neon and encroaching autumn shadows.Nathan watched the curve of Zack’s neck, the way his fingers combed through Leo’s dark hair. A visceral ache tightened in Nathan’s chest. Every time he thought his obsession with this man had peaked, Zack found a new way to dismantle him. The news of the second child had only deepened the stakes. This wasn't just about territory anymore; it was about the bloodline.The risk he was about to take felt like a lead weight in his gut, but the sight of them—safe, warm, breathing—was the only fuel he had. He needed to burn this image into his retinas. He’d need it where he was going.Zack caught his eye, a tired but lethal smirk touching his lips. H

80

The sky over the Havenfall harbor doesn't just break; it detonates. A jagged spear of lightning rips through the charcoal clouds, the subsequent thunder rattling the glass in the high-rise balconies. Zack doesn’t stop. He hits the pavement of the industrial district at a dead sprint, his boots skidding over oil-slicked asphalt. Behind him, the low, rhythmic thrum of a high-end engine echoes through the narrow alleys—Nathan, hunting him in that blacked-out SUV.Then the rain hits. It’s not a drizzle; it’s a heavy, vertical deluge that turns the city’s grit into a slick, dangerous slurry.Zack’s chest burns. Every lungful of damp air feels like swallowing broken glass. He knows the rain is a double-edged sword. It washes away his scent, sure, but the mud and grime of the construction zones he’s weaving through leave a perfect topographical map of his flight. Nathan is a predator by trade; he’ll read those tracks like a ledger.The worst part of the venom Nathan spat back at the cliffs w

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