Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Second Wife's Revenge : Kabanata 91 - Kabanata 100

Santos made more calls. Frantic. Urgent. Verifying the threat.I watched the screens. Tactical teams regrouping. Treating wounded. The compound sat dark. Silent. Waiting.My phone buzzed again. Another message from Catherine.More photos. Closer shots this time. The bombs. Clear. Detailed. Professional placement.Then a video. Thirty seconds. Inside one of the safe houses.Women huddled together. Terrified. Children crying. A red light blinking on the device mounted to the wall. Timer counting down.Audio played. Catherine's voice. Calm. Pleasant. Deadly."Hello ladies. Don't be alarmed. This is just a message for Aria Winters. Your director. Your protector. Your hero. She has a choice to make. Come trade herself for you. Or watch you all die. She has thirty minutes. Starting now."The timer on screen showed: 29:47. Counting down.The video ended.Santos hung up. Face ashen. "It's real. All of it. Three safe houses. Chicago. Boston. Philadelphia. Forty-seven women and children total.

Catherine sat back down. Picked up her wine glass. Sipped slowly. Like we had all the time in the world."You think this is about money," she said. "Or power. Or revenge. It's not.""Then what is it about?""Recognition. Legacy. Truth." She set down the glass. "Julian built The Covenant. That's what history will say. What everyone believes. But it's a lie. I built it. Me. Julian was the face. The leader. The one who took credit. But I was the mind. The strategy. The ruthlessness. Everything that made us successful. That was me.""Then why let him take credit?""Because I didn't care. Not then. Power was enough. Control was enough. I didn't need recognition. Didn't need my name on anything. I was content being invisible. Being The Wolf. The shadow behind the throne.""But now you do care.""Now I'm dying. And when I die, history will remember Julian Cross. The man who built a criminal empire. Who destroyed families. Who controlled millions. Julian will be remembered. I'll be forgotten.

Catherine's thumb pressed down.Red light flashing on the detonator. Signal sent.I held my breath. Waiting for the explosion. For the screams. For the deaths of forty-seven people.Three seconds.Five seconds.Ten seconds.Nothing.Catherine looked at the detonator. Pressed again. Harder.Still nothing."What..." Her voice faltered. Confused. "What did you do?"Santos lowered his weapon slightly. "The operative you sent to our wedding. The one we captured. He gave us the locations. Every safe house. Every bomb. Exact coordinates.""No. He wouldn't. He's loyal.""He was dying. Bleeding out from the glass wound. We offered him a deal. Medical treatment and immunity for cooperation. He talked. Gave us everything."Catherine shook her head. "The bombs were motion activated. You couldn't evacuate without triggering them.""We didn't evacuate. We sent in bomb squad. Remotely disabled the motion sensors first. Then disarmed the devices. Three hours ago. While you were waiting for Aria to ar

One week in the hospital.Seven days of white walls. Beeping monitors. Nurses checking vitals every four hours. Pain medication making everything fuzzy.My shoulder healed. Slowly. Physical therapy twice daily. Lifting my arm. Rotating. Stretching scar tissue that pulled and burned.The physical recovery was straightforward. Predictable. Manageable.The rest wasn't.Day three, a door slammed in the hallway. I jerked awake. Heart racing. Reaching for a weapon that wasn't there. Panicking. Sweating. Unable to breathe.Marcus rushed to my side. "It's okay. You're safe. Just a door. Nothing else."But my body didn't believe him. Adrenaline flooding. Fight or flight. Trapped in a hospital bed. Nowhere to run.It took me twenty minutes to calm down. To breathe normally. To remember where I was.The nurses called it normal. Expected. Trauma response.I called it exhausting.Day five, Dr. Morgan visited. Sat in the chair beside my bed. Not as my therapist. As my friend."How are you really do

But as the initial shock wore off, fear crept in. Heavy. Suffocating.I'd thought I couldn't have children. Flynn's drugging. Years of Depo-Provera. The doctors had warned me. Possible infertility. Possible complications. Possible damage.I'd made peace with it. Accepted it. Built a life around helping other people's children. Never expecting my own.And now this.The next morning, I called my OB-GYN. Dr. Kim. Requested an appointment. Urgent.She saw me that afternoon."The blood test was clear," she said. "You're definitely pregnant. About eight weeks. But I understand your concerns given your history. Let's do a full workup."More blood tests. Ultrasound. Examination. Questions about Flynn. About the drugging. About everything.Dr. Kim reviewed the results carefully."The Depo-Provera is completely out of your system. Has been for over a year. Your hormone levels are normal. Uterine lining is healthy. Everything looks good.""But the drugging. Years of it. That didn't cause damage?