Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 51 - Chapitre 60

“It proves that Victor altered the first result.”The words did not fall.They detonated.Alina stopped breathing.The world narrowed into a single, fragile thread hanging between them. Arun’s hand trembled slightly as he held the report, the crisp paper suddenly heavier than anything he had ever carried.“Altered?” she whispered.Her voice barely existed.Arun nodded slowly.“Yes.”He stepped closer, his eyes searching hers as if afraid she might disappear if he blinked.“The original test confirms it,” he continued quietly. “Victor manipulated the DNA report.”Her heart pounded violently.Hope and terror collided inside her chest.“What does it say?” she asked.Her voice broke on the last word.Arun hesitated.For the first time since she had known him, Arun looked afraid.Not of enemies.Not of losing power.Of losing her.He lifted the paper slightly.“It confirms,” he said carefully, “that Adrian is not your biological father.”Silence swallowed everything.Alina stared at him.H

The city lights stretched endlessly beneath the glass walls of Arun’s penthouse office, glowing like a sea of silent witnesses. Midnight had passed, but neither Arun nor Alina had moved from where they stood.Victor’s trap was brilliant.Cruel.Perfect.By transferring the entire empire into Alina’s legal ownership, he had turned her into the center of the battlefield. If Victor was destroyed, the consequences would fall on her. If she kept the empire intact, Victor still controlled the shadows behind it.Either way, he remained protected.Arun leaned against the desk, arms folded across his chest, his mind working through possibilities faster than anyone could follow.“There has to be a loophole,” Alina said quietly.Her voice was calm, but he could hear the tension beneath it.“There is,” Arun replied.She looked at him instantly.“What?”“Every trap has an exit,” he said. “Victor just expects us not to find it.”Alina walked slowly toward the massive table where documents from Han

The silence in the council chamber followed them long after the doors closed behind them. Twenty–four hours. That was the time the Syndicate Council had given her. Twenty–four hours to decide whether Arun lived or died. The corridor outside the chamber felt colder than before, the dim lights stretching shadows across the stone floor. Alina walked beside Arun, but neither of them spoke. Not yet. Behind them, heavy doors slammed shut with a deep metallic echo, sealing the council inside. The sound felt final. Like a countdown beginning. When they reached the underground exit, Arun stopped beside the car and turned to face her. For the first time since the council’s command, she looked directly into his eyes. There was no fear in them. No panic. Just that same steady, unreadable calm. “You shouldn’t have come tonight,” he said quietly. Alina’s jaw tightened. “If I didn’t come, they would’ve hunted me down.” “Maybe,” he said. “Not maybe,” she replied sharply. “Definitely

Gunfire echoed across the bridge.The first assassin screamed as he collapsed, clutching his bleeding shoulder.Panic exploded among the remaining riders.“Sniper!” one of them shouted.Another dove behind his motorcycle, firing blindly toward the shadows beneath the bridge.But it was too late.Arun’s soldiers were already moving.They emerged from the darkness like ghosts—disciplined, silent, precise.Within seconds the hunters realized the truth.They hadn’t found their prey.They had stepped into a trap.Alina stood beside the car, adrenaline surging through her veins.This was different from anything she had experienced before.This wasn’t politics.This wasn’t manipulation.This was war.Real war.A bullet slammed into the pavement inches from her foot.“Down,” Arun said calmly.He pulled her slightly behind the car door as another burst of gunfire split the air.One of the assassins sprinted toward them, raising his weapon.Arun didn’t even hesitate.His pistol appeared in his

The cold metal of the maintenance walkway vibrated beneath Alina’s hands as she steadied herself.Above them, the bridge still echoed with distant movement—Arun’s soldiers regrouping, searching for the invisible sniper who had turned their battlefield into a shooting range.But down here, beneath the bridge, the world felt strangely quiet.Too quiet.Alina looked up toward the dark skyline.“You really think we can hunt him?”Arun was already moving along the narrow walkway, his movements controlled and deliberate.“Yes.”“That man just killed three of your soldiers from nearly a kilometer away.”“Yes.”“And you’re not reconsidering this plan?”“No.”She exhaled sharply.“You’re impossible.”Behind them, Lena followed with casual ease, as if being hunted by the world’s deadliest assassin was simply another Tuesday evening.“I warned you,” Lena said lightly.“Once the Ghost takes a contract, the city becomes his playground.”Arun stopped walking.He pulled out the encrypted tablet agai