All Chapters of Dear Ex Husband Wants Me Back: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The morning sun at the high-end hotel was different from the sun at the Robinson estate. At the estate, the light always felt cold, filtering through heavy velvet curtains like a spotlight in a prison. Here, in the penthouse of the Azure Sands, the light was warm and smelled of salt air and expensive coffee.For the first time in four years, Rose Miller woke up without a weight on her chest. She watched Leo, who was still asleep on the sofa in the living area. He looked younger when he wasn't barking orders or staring down board members. His bruised knuckles were tucked under his chin, a stark reminder of the violence he had endured to protect them.In the next room, she heard the soft giggle of Jaden. He was playing with the two guards, who, despite their tactical gear and stern faces, were currently engaged in a very serious game of "dinosaur attack.""You’re staring," Leo’s voice rasped. He didn't open his eyes, but a small smile played on his lips."I’m observing," Rose corrected,

The North Pier was a skeletal finger of rusted iron and rotting wood reaching out into the churning, black Atlantic. The wind howled through the pilings, sounding like a choir of the damned. Rose stood at the edge of the asphalt, the salt spray stinging her eyes. In the backseat of Leo’s sleek, bulletproof SUV, Jaden was buckled in, still sleeping a heavy, medicated sleep from the transfusion.Rose felt the weight of the handgun in her waistband—a cold, heavy reminder that the world of high finance was just a polite mask for a world of high violence. She hadn't told the guards. She hadn't told the police. If the hospital was compromised, the police were a gamble she couldn't afford.A pair of headlights cut through the fog. A silver sedan pulled up, its engine purring with predatory smoothness. The door opened, and Elena Vance stepped out.She didn't look like a villain. She looked like a woman who spent her Sundays at the opera and her Mondays crushing competitors. Her grey suit wa

The penthouse smelled of ozone and ancient pine. The air seemed to crackle around the white wolf, whose presence had turned the ultra-modern suite into something primeval. Leo watched as Rose—or the being Rose had become—paced the length of the reinforced glass windows. Every time her claws clicked against the marble, the sound echoed like a gunshot."Rose," Leo whispered, stepping toward her. "Can you hear me? Is the woman I love still in there, or am I talking to the 'Variant' my father created?"The wolf stopped. She turned her massive, regal head, her golden eyes burning with an intensity that made Leo’s lungs tighten. Slowly, the shimmering white fur began to recede, pulling back into her skin like a retreating tide. The cracking of bones returned—a sickening, rhythmic sound—until Rose collapsed onto the floor, human once more, wrapped in the tattered remains of her silk robe.Leo rushed to her, wrapping her in a thick wool blanket. She was shivering, her skin deathly pal

I turned around, my heart hammering against my ribs. In the corner of the lab, hidden behind a heavy lead-lined curtain, sat a containment unit. It wasn't like the others. It was ornate, inscribed with symbols that looked like ancient runes.Inside, a man sat cross-legged. He looked like an older, male version of me. His hair was long and white, his skin etched with scars that glowed with a faint, silvery light."He’s been in a stasis-coma for twenty years," Silas whispered. "The true Alpha. The source of the royal line. I didn't create you from a test tube, Rose. I took you from him when you were an infant. I raised you as a weapon because I knew your blood was the only thing that could stabilize the Variant strain."I approached the glass. The man’s eyes suddenly snapped open. They were the same molten gold as mine.He didn't speak, but a voice echoed in my head—not the mechanical rasp of the Council, but a warm, resonant hum. My daughter. You have returned to the cage."Break it,

Astra didn't attack. She fell forward, her body stiff from years of cryo-stasis. I caught her, the cold from her skin seeping into mine like a physical weight."The song..." she rasped. Her voice sounded like breaking glass. "The song stopped.""The broadcast is over, Astra," I said, wrapping her in my own coat. "You’re safe.""No," she said, her blue eyes darting toward the shadows of the hallway. "Not over. The man in the black suit... he said when the song stops, the 'Cleaners' come."As if on cue, the facility’s red emergency lights began to pulse. A voice boomed over the intercom—not a human voice, but an AI.CONTAIMENT BREACH DETECTED. INITIATING THERMAL PURGE IN FIVE MINUTES."They’re going to burn the whole vault," Leo shouted, grabbing a nearby terminal. "Rose, there are over fifty pods here. We can't move them all in five minutes!""I can," Astra said. She stood up, her legs shaky but her gaze fixed. She held out her hands, and the air in the room began to crystallize. "I