Semua Bab The Wrong Bride, His Revenge: Bab 11 - Bab 19

The basement stairs creaked under my feet.Each step felt louder than the last. The light at the bottom flickered. Yellow. Weak. The kind of light that comes from a dying bulb. I kept my hand on my gun. Kept my breathing steady. Kept my eyes moving.At the bottom of the stairs, a hallway stretched into darkness. Doors on both sides. Old doors. Wooden. Chipped paint. This part of the house had been abandoned for years. Victor had no use for basements. He preferred to keep his secrets above ground."Isabella said you were here," I called out. "I know you can hear me."Silence."I am not here to hurt you. I am here to help."A door creaked open at the end of the hall.Mrs. Park stepped out.Her face was pale. Her hands were shaking. Her uniform was wrinkled. She looked like she had not slept in days."You should not have come," she said."Lin said the same thing.""Lin is smart.""So am I."Mrs. Park shook her head. "No. You are brave. There is a difference.""Where is your daughter?"Mr

The warehouse door was unlocked.Rex pushed it open. The hinges screamed. Inside was darkness. Thick. Heavy. The kind of darkness that pressed against your skin and made the hair on your arms stand up.I reached for my gun. Rex shook his head."Not yet," he whispered. "We do not know where the cameras are.""Victor already knows we are here.""Then let him think we are unarmed."I did not like it. But I let go of the gun.We walked deeper into the warehouse. The floor was concrete. Cracked. Covered in dust. Our footsteps echoed off the walls. Too loud. Too exposed. Footprints led toward the back. Recent footprints. Multiple people. Some large. Some small."Lin," I called out. "It is me. Mira."Silence."Lin, answer me."A muffled sound. To the left. Behind a stack of pallets.Rex held up his hand. Stopped me."Could be a trap," he said."Could be Lin.""Let me go first.""No. Together. Remember?"He looked at me. Nodded.We moved toward the sound.Lin was tied to a chair.Her wrists w

The ambulance arrived twenty minutes later.Victor was loaded onto a stretcher. His chest was red. His eyes were closed. The paramedics worked fast. Too fast. Like they knew they were losing him.My mother stood beside me. Her hand was in mine. She was not crying. I was not either.Rex stood apart. His gun was back in his jacket. His face was calm. But his hands were shaking."You saved her," I said."I saved both of you.""Thank you.""Do not thank me yet. Drake is still out there."I looked around the warehouse. The paramedics. The police. The chaos. No sign of Drake. He had disappeared into the shadows like he was never there."Where would he go?""The house. He wants the files. He wants the empire. He wants revenge.""Then we go back. Now."Rex nodded. Walked to my mother."Mrs. Thorne. Can you walk?""Yes.""We need to leave. Now.""Why? What is happening?""Drake is going to your house. He is going to burn it to the ground."We drove in silence.Rex drove. I sat in the front. My

Victor died at 3:47 AM.I was not there. My mother was. She held his hand while he took his last breath. She did not cry. She told me that later. In the hospital hallway. White walls. White floors. The smell of antiseptic and endings."He asked about you," she said."What did he say?""He said to tell you he was proud. And that he was sorry. And that he loved you.""Did he love you?"My mother looked at me. Her green eyes were red."I do not know. I like to think he did. At the end.""Does it matter?""Yes. It matters.""Why?""Because I loved him. Even after everything. Even after the lies and the betrayal and the fear. I loved him."I did not know what to say. So I took her hand. We stood in the hallway. The sun was rising. Pink and gold. The same colors as the day before. The same colors as every day."What happens now?" she asked."Now we go home. We bury him. We figure out the rest.""The rest?""Drake. The files. The empire."My mother nodded. "The empire."Rex was waiting at th