Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 221 - Chapitre 230

"We recorded it ourselves without her knowing. Sounds like you're her sister." The man shook his head. "Hard to understand. Same family, same blood. Who does something like this to their own sister? Even as a prank, this went too far."The group made their way down the path, their voices fading with the last of the light.Within minutes, the peak fell completely dark. They had taken everything: the flashlights, the phones, every remaining source of light she had.Giana lay back against the stone, all the strength draining out of her at once.It was not the drug. That had worn off hours ago.It was Irene, her youngest sister, the girl she had practically helped raise from the beginning. The one whose bad moods she had soothed, whose tantrums she had quietly endured.And this was what Irene had done.Giana wasn't going anywhere. She would stay exactly where she was. She wanted to see how far Irene intended to take this.She lay in the darkness, staring up at the sky, and at some

Irenee swept the flashlight beam from wall to wall as though the light itself could keep whatever lurked in the darkness at bay.It couldn't. Whatever had made the sound was gone. Every direction she aimed the beam revealed nothing.Then the noise came again from outside. A rustling, scraping sound dragged along the exterior wall, building slowly and blending into something that defied explanation. Beneath it, rising through the gaps in the old window frame, came a low, wavering moan."What's that? What's that sound?" Irene had reached the second window. She spun and aimed the flashlight at the glass. Her heart nearly stopped.Beyond the window, within the tree line swaying in the wind, stood the silhouette of a human figure. Each gust seemed to push it closer."Ah!"She stumbled backward. Her legs slammed into a row of old desks and chairs behind her, but she didn't stop. She kept retreating until she ran out of space and wedged herself into a corner, pulling her knees to her ch

As it turned out, the men who had escorted Irene into the old building and the men who had carried Giana up the neighboring peak had both been acting under the same orders. Neither group had acted on its own.Yelena was the one keeping Rebecca updated. "Confirmed, Miss Miller. Both of them are alone on the mountain right now."We haven't done anything that would seriously hurt them. They're not in any real danger, and there won't be any lasting harm. Think of it as a moderately harsh lesson. I'll send people up first thing tomorrow morning to bring them down."Rebecca had taken the call in the bathroom with the door locked. She hadn't told Oscar. He had already warned her to leave the Chamberlain sisters alone, and she had not exactly listened."Good. You handled this well." She set the phone down and looked at herself in the mirror.'Even if he finds out, it's fine. Irene came after me first. All I did was return the favor.' She nodded at her reflection. 'And Giana just happened

A healthy person would have struggled with that route at night. Oscar had spent the entire afternoon climbing with her.Rebecca's voice cracked, and that was what stopped Oscar.Giana mattered, but Rebecca did too.Oscar forced a faint smile. "None of this is your fault. The Chamberlains provoked you first. What you did was a response, not an attack. But Giana is different. Not everyone in that family was against me."He raised a hand and brushed the tears from the corner of her eye. "Don't blame yourself. If you were stranded on that mountain, I'd go without a second thought. My body is fine. I mean that."Rebecca still clung to his arm. "Can't I just send the security team? They can bring her down too.""I need to go myself. She's probably terrified by now. If strangers show up in the dark, it will make things worse." Oscar's tone left no room for argument.The firmness in his voice told Rebecca more about Giana's place in his heart than anything else could have."Then wait f

And now here they were. If Oscar's condition worsened because of this, Rebecca would never forgive herself."Bro, I know I was wrong. Please slow down. Giana matters to you, I understand that. But you matter to me too. You can't keep hurting yourself over this," Rebecca said.Oscar's pace faltered for a moment before settling back into the same steady rhythm.As he looked up at the dark mountain looming above him, a thought pressed heavily on his mind. 'Why can't the people who enter your life remain the same? Why does everything always have to change?'He lowered his head and kept climbing.…At the peak above, Giana no longer felt cold in the sharp, painful way she had before. Now she felt cold in the way that made her body stop responding.She hadn't dressed for a night on the mountain. Her heavier clothes were still back at the hotel. She had planned to head down before evening, return to her room, and write. Instead, the freezing wind had slipped through every gap in her cl