Semua Bab I Died the Day You Cheated: Bab 1 - Bab 8

I must have looked off.Zane noticed immediately. He assumed I was upset by the teasing.“What the hell are you idiots talking about?” he snapped.The men straightened at once. Even in a relaxed setting, he was still their tactical lead.“Chloe, we’re just messing around.”“Don’t take it seriously. Everyone knows Zane’s crazy about you.”“He never takes off his wedding ring. Not even when he’s walking point for the crew.”“And he calls you every time he gets a secure line. You’re all he talks about.”They sounded sincere.If I hadn’t known about Harper, I might have believed them.Harper Monroe sat at the far end of the table. She rose slowly, smoothing her dress, forcing a smile.“It’s true, Chloe,” she said lightly. “Zane’s heart belongs to you.”Our eyes met.There was no warmth there. No apology. Only calculation.If Zane hadn’t been standing between us, she wouldn’t have bothered pretending.After a couple of bottles were emptied, the table grew louder, rougher. Voices overlapped.

The shockwave from the explosion hurled Zane to the ground.For a moment, all sound vanished except the ringing in his ears.He staggered to his feet, disoriented, smoke clawing at his lungs, and without thinking he tried to run back into the flames.Too late. The charge had already detonated.The balcony was gone. Chloe was gone.The image of her final smile—soft, almost forgiving—split something open inside his chest. It felt as though his heart had detonated with the blast.He clawed at the debris with bare hands, ignoring the shouts behind him. Concrete tore through his gloves. When the gloves shredded, his skin followed. Blood slicked his fingers, mixing with ash and dockside dust, but he kept digging.“How… how could she be there?” he muttered hoarsely.“It wasn’t her. I saw wrong. It just looked like her…”He kept repeating it, as if saying it enough times could rewrite reality.Then something caught in the rubble.A stone the size of a dove’s egg flashed beneath soot and broken

When Zane began using every interrogation method at his disposal on Harper Monroe, his mind kept replaying the moment on the balcony.Within hours, she broke.“I was sent by them,” she sobbed. “I was planted in your crew from the beginning.”She lifted her head desperately.“But Zane, my feelings were real. I fell in love with you. I did.”“They promised me,” she choked, “after this operation, they’d let me go. I’d be free. We could be together.”“I did it for you!”Zane stared at her as if she were something crawling beneath his boots.“You?” he said coldly. “You think you were ever in a position to be with me? I had a wife.”His jaw tightened.“If it weren’t for you, Chloe wouldn’t have volunteered as bait.”His voice dropped lower.“And that leg—you were screaming because of that leg, weren’t you?”The next sound in the room was Harper’s raw, tearing scream.When it ended, her leg was permanently destroyed.Zane didn’t look back as he left.At the Shaw family’s annual assembly, a co

Just then, a voice cracked through the night, thick with tears.“Zane Carter… you’re ruthless.”On the balcony stood Harper Monroe, one leg braced awkwardly, a gun trembling in her hands.Behind her were the remaining men from the Moretti syndicate who had escaped during the dockyard operation.The Underboss of the Moretti family stepped forward, smiling thinly.“Long time no see, Chloe.”“That staged death of yours was impressive. If it weren’t for Harper, we might have believed it.”Zane moved instinctively, placing himself between me and the gun.The Moretti Underboss burst into laughter.“Crew Leader Carter, we should thank you. If you hadn’t led us straight to her, we might never have found her.”Zane went rigid.I let out a quiet, humorless laugh.“So this is how you love me?”“No,” Zane said urgently. “Chloe, I didn’t mean to. Harper—she leaked our encryption keys. She exposed the access route!”Harper’s face twisted, manic.“Yes, I did!” she screamed. “I gave up everything for