All Chapters of The Ex-wife's Secret Empire: Beg For Me, Mr Blackwood : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫’𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐞 The dining room of Blackwood Manor felt like it was tilting on its axis. Maya’s breath hitched as she stared at the screen. The woman on the monitor had her mother’s high cheekbones and those same hauntingly dark eyes. Even the way she tilted her head was an exact match. But as Lucian’s hand gripped Maya’s elbow, his voice was a jagged whisper in her ear. "Look at her wrists, Maya. The scars from the 2012 accident aren't there. Your mother had a crescent shaped mark on her left pulse. This woman’s skin is flawless." Maya’s eyes narrowed as she zoomed in mentally. He was right. The skin was smooth and unblemished by the tragedy that had supposedly claimed her mother’s life. This wasn't a resurrection. It was a masterpiece of plastic surgery and psychological warfare. "Who are you?" Maya’s voice boomed through the room, her fear replaced by a cold and calculating fury. "You’re not Elena Vance. My mother died in my arms. I felt her heart stop. You’re jus

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐜𝐡𝐨 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐬𝐡 The interior of the sedan suddenly felt like a pressurized coffin. The red glow of the dashboard numbers bled into the darkness, counting down with a soft, rhythmic beep that mimicked a mechanical heartbeat. 20 SECONDS. "Mrs. Gable, stop the car! Open the doors!" Maya screamed. She lunged for the handle, but it was dead weight. The child safety locks had engaged with a heavy thud, and the reinforced glass was thick enough to withstand a riot. The old woman didn't turn around. She sat perfectly still in the driver’s seat, her hands gripped at ten and two. In the rearview mirror, Maya could see Mrs. Gable’s eyes. They weren't filled with terror anymore. They were glazed and vacant; the look of someone whose mind had been hollowed out and replaced with a single, overriding command. "The Phoenix must return to the ash," Mrs. Gable whispered. Her voice was flat and devoid of any human inflection. 15 SECONDS. "Leo, the floorboards! Now!" Maya yelle

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 The rain didn't wash away the silver blood on the pavement; it only made it shimmer like a spilled galaxy. Maya stood paralyzed as the man with the umbrella collapsed, a single, precise cauterized hole through the center of his chest. The silence that followed was deafening, broken only by the synchronized clicking of thirty other weapons being aimed at the "rogue" clone. The woman who had fired; the one who looked exactly like Maya but wore a tactical vest and a haunted expression didn't flinch. She stepped in front of Maya, her movements fluid and lethal. "Target eliminated," the clone whispered into her comms, her voice an eerie mirror of Maya’s own. Then, she turned her head just enough to look Maya in the eye. "Don't just stand there, 01. The Board has a back-up signal. In sixty seconds, every SUV in this fleet becomes a drone on autopilot. We move or we burn." "Why are you helping me?" Maya gasped, her hand instinctively shielding her

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭'𝐬 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 The silence in the van was heavier than the explosion had been. As the city lights blurred past the windows, Maya sat on the floor of the vehicle, her hand pressed hard against her stomach. Her mind was a whirlwind of terror. Six months? She looked down at her waist. She had always been fit, and the stress of the divorce had made her lose weight elsewhere, so she had barely noticed the change. To think that something was growing inside her; something that might be more machine than human made her feel like she was losing her grip on reality. "Maya..." The voice was weak, cracked like dry parchment. She turned to see Lucian. He was slumped against the metal wall, his expensive shirt torn and stained with blood and grease. He looked fragile. For the first time since she had known him, the arrogant Billionaire King looked like a man who realized he had nothing left to lose. Maya didn't move. She couldn't. "Is it true, Lucian? Did you kno

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 The air in the medical vault turned a sharp, biting cold. Maya’s hands trembled against the skin of the man she held; the man she had called husband, the man who had occupied her bed and her heart for three long years. 𝗕𝗛-𝟭𝟮. The small, black ink behind his ear felt like a brand on Maya's own soul. She looked at the row of glowing pods, where eleven identical versions of Lucian Blackwood were staring at her with robotic, red-eyed intensity. They weren't men. They were a fleet. "You see, Maya," the Original said, her voice dripping with a cruel, sisterly pity as she paced around the central console. "The Board realized long ago that a Vance woman is too volatile to be left alone. You need an anchor. But a real man has a pesky habit of developing a conscience. A real man might actually fall in love and try to save you. So, we manufactured the perfect partner. One who could be replaced whenever he got too... 'human.'" Maya felt