《In Bed With My Fiancé’s Father》全部章節：第 191 章 - 第 200 章

Kane’s POVI pushed past Richard back into the boardroom, and the scene that greeted me was chaos. Every board member had their phone up, scrolling, faces shifting between horror and disbelief, the low murmur of nine conversations happening at once.“It’s everywhere,” Diane said, not looking up from her screen. “Financial Times. Bloomberg. It’s already trending.”“Turn on the television,” I said.Someone did. The wall screen flickered to life on a cable news chyron reading WHITMORE DYNASTY SCANDAL: DECADES-OLD COVER-UP EXPOSED, a reporter standing outside our building already, cameras flashing behind her.“He didn’t just leak it,” I said quietly, mostly to myself. “He made sure it was already a story before I could control a single word of it.”“Was that not the plan?” Richard’s voice was sharp, accusing. “You said you were releasing it yourself this morning.”“I was going to release it with context. With Edmund’s full statement. With a plan for the company, for the employees, for the

Chapter 194Kane's POVJim didn't say a word. He just turned the car hard toward Ashcombe, tires screeching against wet asphalt, both of us running on nothing but adrenaline and four hours of sleep from two nights ago."Boss, this could be a trap." He said it without taking his eyes off the road. "Everything about this note. He's inviting you somewhere. That's not how you catch someone like Julian, that's how you become his next chapter.""I know.""Then why are we driving straight there.""Because he has Celeste." My voice came out rougher than I meant it to. "I don't care what kind of trap it is, Jim. I'm walking into it."He didn't argue after that. Just drove faster.8 Ashcombe turned out to be a glass tower I'd walked past a hundred times without ever really seeing it, tucked between two more famous buildings, unremarkable in the exact way I now understood was deliberate. The doorman waved us through without a word, like he'd been told to expect us. The elevator required no key c

Kane's POVThe room went very still."That's not possible." I stared at the screen, reading the message twice like the words might rearrange themselves into something that made sense. "Marcus is standing at my mother's house right now. I left him there an hour ago."Julian crossed the room in three quick strides, looking over my shoulder at the phone, and for the first time all night, something like genuine unease crossed his face."Read me the message again," he said."'You've been looking in the wrong direction this whole time. I've been right here.' Signed Marcus." I looked up at him. "You said that wasn't you.""It isn't." His voice had lost its usual unhurried calm. "Kane, I need you to think very carefully. When you met the man at your mother's house — the man who called himself Edmund Cole — did you ever independently verify his identity? Or did you simply accept it because the facial recognition matched a photo I gave you?"The floor tilted under me for what felt like the hund

Kane's POVThe room went completely silent."Your mentor," I said slowly, watching the color still drained from Julian's face. "You're telling me the person who has my mother right now is the person who made you.""I never had a mentor." Julian's voice had lost every trace of its usual calm, replaced by something rawer, something almost human for the first time since I'd met him. "I had a doctor who documented me like a specimen and a father who left before I turned five. There was no one else. There was never supposed to be anyone else.""Then who taught you that symbol."He was quiet for a long moment, staring down at the note in my hand like it might rearrange itself into an answer he could live with."When I was twelve," he said finally, "a man visited the institute where they'd sent me for observation. He wasn't staff. He never gave a name. He talked to me for exactly one hour, twice a week, for four months, and then he simply stopped coming, and no one on staff ever admitted to s

Kane's POVThe room went absolutely silent."You're the one who killed him." My voice came out low, shaking with something that wasn't quite rage and wasn't quite grief, but sat somewhere dangerous in between. "You're the one who ran Robert Hale's car off Route 9.""I didn't run anyone off any road, Kane." The man's tone stayed maddeningly even, like we were discussing weather instead of murder. "I've never needed to get my hands that dirty. I simply made a phone call, all those years ago, to a very frightened young man who'd just discovered his business partner was about to destroy everything he'd built. I told him what men in his position always want to hear — that problems like Robert Hale tend to solve themselves, given the right encouragement.""That's a confession.""It's context." He spread his hands, unbothered. "Your father made his own choices after that call, same as you're making yours right now. I only ever provide the door. What people do once they walk through it has ne