The Don’s Dangerous Addiction의 모든 챕터: 챕터 11 - 챕터 20

Avery stared at those words. Her phone hit the carpet. Before she could pick it up, Dominic was already moving."Drake. Clear the entire second floor. Inside and out." His brow was tight, his face stone serious."Dorothea's room. Now."Footsteps surged from every direction.The living room lights all came on at once. Harsh white light hit every face.Drake crouched in the second floor hallway, shining his flashlight on the door lock.Avery stood behind him, looking at the keyhole. No scratches. No pry marks. But the bolt was in the wrong position."Professional job. Picked it." Drake straightened up, his expression grim. "The door was never opened. The alarm didn't trip. Dr. St. Clair, the child is—"Avery didn't wait. She slammed the door open.Dorothea was still asleep, half her face buried in the pillow.Avery bent down and scooped her daughter into her arms. The child let out a vague sound of protest. Her small hands instinctively gripped Avery's collar. Her warm body heat seeped

Avery placed the USB drive and the chip on the desk.Dominic's eyes landed on the two objects, then moved back and forth between them and her face."001 gave them to me." She avoided his gaze.He picked up the chip and turned it over in his fingers. "Did you open it?""No." She paused. "I'm still looking into the password."She didn't mention the hypnosis.001 had said the password was sealed inside her memory. She hadn't decided whether to tell him that yet.Dominic studied her."What else did he say."She hesitated, then repeated what 001 had told her. The blood. Mr. D. The last remark about Dominic himself. She left out the hypnosis and the memory.When she finished, the study was quiet for a long time.Dominic folded his hands on the desk and looked at her."Do you believe him?""I believe what he said about me." She met his eyes. "What he said about you, I'm not sure yet."He didn't answer right away. His gaze lingered on her face for an extra second."Smart."Avery looked down a

The moment Drake disappeared, Avery pinned Dominic with a searing stare. "You know exactly why he went there," she challenged. "It was routine business," Dominic replied, his voice a cool, practiced monotone. "All four Families were expected to attend." "You know that's not what I'm asking, Dominic. Stop hiding behind the politics." Their eyes locked in a silent, violent clash of wills. Dominic finally snapped the folder shut, the sound echoing like a gunshot in the quiet study. "If you're asking how he knows about Project 030—believe me, I want that answer even more than you do." Avery faltered, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Could he be... Mr. D?" "Mr. D is a ghost. He never shows his face." Dominic stood and paced to the window, his silhouette dark against the moonlight. "Victor showed up in person tonight. He handed you that card w

The villa's external signal was severed completely at sunrise.Avery stared at the bars on her phone, but they remained empty—a dead brick in her hand. Only the time remained, glowing with a mocking precision on the screen: 6:47 AM. The silence in the house was absolute, heavy with the weight of things unsaid. Dominic had vanished into the shadows of Obsidian City yesterday and hadn't returned. His absence was a physical pressure, a cold void that seemed to suck the warmth out of the rooms.She hadn't slept; every time she closed her eyes, she saw star-shaped scars and black business cards. Her restless tossing had eventually woken Dorothea, who was now sitting cross-legged on the bed, her small face pale and hauntingly serious.The little girl was focused on a new drawing. On the paper was a crooked, jagged house that looked more like a cage. A stick figure stood at the threshold, but a thick red line had been slashed across its wrist—so jagged and heavy that the crayon had punched t

The villa was a tomb of silence as midnight descended.Avery sat by the window in darkness, the cold glow of her burner phone illuminating her sharp features. She zoomed in on the anonymous photograph.The angle was from the upper right, looking down.The inner office at the clinic had no windows. The only opening was the ventilation grate on the ceiling. She remembered that one corner of the mesh had been slightly bent; she had always assumed it was a sloppy installation job.Using her phone as a hotspot, she connected her laptop to the clinic’s security system and pulled the footage from several days ago. She scrolled through the frames, second by second.Seven days ago. 2:00 AM.A tiny, scarlet dot flickered on the ventilation grate.A pinhole camera.Her fingers hovered over the keyboard before she typed a direct reply to the anonymous sender:Are you 001? Why did you plant a camera in my clinic?She pressed send and clutched the phone to her knees. Beside her on the bed, Dorothea