All Chapters of The Wife He Burned, The Queen Who Returned : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The steady rhythm of the heart monitor filled the hospital room. Beep. Beep. Beep. Damian stood beside the window with his arms folded, staring down at the quiet city below. Dawn had barely begun to break across the skyline, washing the glass towers in a dull gray light. He hadn’t left the hospital. Not once since the attack. Behind him, Daniel Rourke lay motionless in the bed, his head wrapped in thick white bandages. The bruising along his jaw had deepened overnight, turning a dark purple against pale skin. The doctors had warned Damian not to expect much. Severe head trauma. Heavy blood loss. If Rourke regained consciousness, it might only be for a few minutes. But Damian had waited anyway. Because if Rourke had discovered something important enough to get himself nearly killed, those few minutes might matter. A soft knock sounded at the door. Grant stepped inside quietly, holding two cups of coffee. “You should sit down,” he said. Damian didn’t turn. “I’m fine.”

The mountain residence stood high above the city, hidden among dense pine trees and winding roads that rarely appeared on public maps. Evelyn had chosen it years ago as a private retreat for when life became too loud. Now it had become something else. A refuge. By late afternoon, security vehicles had already established a perimeter around the property. Guards moved quietly between the gates and the house, checking cameras, scanning the surrounding forest, reinforcing what had once been a peaceful escape into a guarded sanctuary. Inside the house, Silas had already claimed the large living room floor as his temporary art studio. Sheets of paper covered the rug. Colored pencils were scattered in every direction. Evelyn watched him from the kitchen doorway while speaking quietly on the phone. “Yes,” she said. “Every entrance secured.” Marcus’s voice came through the speaker. “We also added motion sensors along the outer road.” “Good.” “We’ll rotate guards every six hours.”

Blackwood Tower was unusually quiet that night. Most of the executive floors had emptied hours earlier, leaving only dim hallway lights and the soft hum of the building’s security systems. The city outside glittered beneath the windows, but Damian barely noticed it. His attention remained fixed on the laptop screen in front of him. Grant stood across the desk reviewing a stack of printed financial reports. “You’re sure these records came from Edward’s private archive?” Damian asked. Grant nodded. “Recovered from the encrypted drive we pulled out of the warehouse server.” Damian scrolled slowly through the files. Edward Blackwood had always kept layers of secrecy around his private investments. Even the Blackwood board rarely saw the full picture of the empire’s internal projects. But the files they had just decrypted revealed something far darker. Grant slid one document forward. “Start with this one.” Damian opened the file. A series of funding transfers appeared. Large

The private recovery suite had finally grown quiet. Machines that had been humming earlier in the evening now rested in standby mode, their screens dimmed to soft blue glows. Outside the wide glass window, the city lights shimmered faintly beneath the night sky. Silas slept peacefully in the center of the bed. His small chest rose and fell slowly beneath the blanket, one hand curled loosely around the edge of the pillow. The long day of medical tests had exhausted him. Damian stood near the foot of the bed, arms folded, watching his son sleep. He had been standing there for nearly fifteen minutes. Not moving. Not speaking. Just watching. Across the room, Evelyn sat quietly in the chair beside the window. She had removed her heels hours ago, and her posture carried the weight of the entire day. The genetic reports. Project Aurora. The realization that Silas might have been the only surviving subject of a medical experiment. None of it had fully settled yet. For a while,

The lights inside Damian’s office were dim when Evelyn arrived. It was close to midnight, and most of Blackwood Tower had emptied hours ago. Only the quiet hum of the building’s night systems filled the silence. Evelyn stepped inside slowly. Damian stood beside the large screen mounted on the wall, his expression darker than usual. “You said you found something,” she said. “I did.” His voice was calm, but there was tension underneath it. Evelyn noticed immediately. “What is it?” Damian didn’t answer right away. Instead, he picked up the tablet on the desk and connected it to the display. The screen flickered. A paused video frame appeared. A white laboratory. Medical equipment. Observation glass. Evelyn frowned slightly. “What am I looking at?” Damian’s eyes met hers. “Recovered footage from the Aurora lab.” Her breath caught. “You found video records?” “Only one intact file.” Evelyn stepped closer to the screen. “What does it show?” Damian pressed play. The f