All Chapters of Owned By My Father's Rival: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Chapter 52: The Twin's ShadowThe photograph burned in my hands.Two women. Identical. Same face. Same hair. Same smile. One I had watched die at the bottom of a cliff. The other had been living in the shadows for thirty years, waiting for Margaret's death, waiting for her moment to emerge.Mira stood by the fire. Her face was gray in the flickering light. She looked older than she had an hour ago. The confession had drained something from her. Some reserve of strength she had been holding in reserve."You knew about her," I said. "The twin. You knew she existed.""I knew Margaret had a daughter. Twins. She never told me which one was which.""Did you ever meet her?""No. Margaret kept her hidden. Isolated. Controlled. She was a weapon. A tool. Something to be used when the time was right.""The time for what?""To take over. To continue the empire. To make sure that even after Margaret died, her legacy lived on."Lucien stepped closer to the fire. His face was hard. His eyes were col

Chapter 54: The Harbor of Last ResortThe tunnel mouth gaped in the back wall.Natalia had already disappeared into the darkness. I could hear her footsteps echoing, fading, swallowed by the earth. Lucien pushed me toward the opening. His gun was up, aimed at the doorway we had just left."Go," he said."Not without you.""You go, I follow."The front door crashed open. Men's voices. Shouted commands. The pounding of boots on wooden floors.Lucien fired twice.A scream. A body falling."Now, Elena!"I dropped into the tunnel.---Darkness.Cold. Damp. The smell of earth and salt water and something else. Something that might have been blood.I ran.My hands scraped against stone walls. My feet slipped on wet ground. Behind me, Lucien's footsteps pounded. Behind him, the voices of the men who wanted us dead."The harbor," Lucien said. "How far?""Minutes. Maybe less.""Faster."I ran faster.---The tunnel opened onto a pier.Moonlight. Salt air. Boats bobbing in the black water. Natal

Chapter 56: The Lion's TableThe ballroom held its breath.Alexei Volkov sat at the head of a table that could have seated thirty. He was smaller than I expected. Thin. Wasted. The cancer that had killed his brother was eating him too, hollowing him out from the inside. But his eyes were the same. Cold. Sharp. The eyes of a man who had never let illness stop him from destroying everything in his path."Elena Hart," he said again, tasting the words like wine. "Sergei spoke of you often. Before he died. He said you had fire.""Sergei is dead.""Yes." Alexei gestured to an empty chair. "Sit."I didn't move.Lucien stood behind me. His hand brushed my lower back. A warning or a reassurance, I couldn't tell."Sit," Alexei repeated. "You're not in danger. Not tonight. Not at my birthday party.""Then why are we here?""Because I invited you." He smiled. Thin. Bloodless. "And because Marina asked so nicely."Marina stood by the door. Her face was pale. Her hands were clasped in front of her,

Chapter 58: The Sanctuary of GhostsThe sea stretched before them, endless and gray.Natalia had been steering for hours. Her face was drawn, her eyes fixed on the horizon, her hands steady on the wheel despite the exhaustion that pulled at her shoulders. The boat cut through the water, engine humming, spray misting across the deck.Lucien sat propped against the gunwale. His wounds had been bandaged with strips torn from Elena's shirt. The bleeding had slowed. The color was slowly returning to his face. But he was still pale, still weak, still watching the water behind them for ships that weren't there.Elena sat beside him.Her hand rested on his."They're not following," she said."Not yet.""They had boats. They had men. If they wanted to catch us, they would have caught us.""Maybe they want us to think they're not following.""Paranoid.""Survivor." He squeezed her fingers. "There's a difference."---Natalia spoke without turning around."The currents are shifting. We need to m

Chapter 60: The Passage of BonesThe tunnel entrance was hidden beneath a fallen tree.Lucien found it by memory, not by sight. His hands traced the rotting wood, the moss-covered stones, the iron ring that had been buried under decades of dirt and neglect."This is it," he said.Elena knelt beside him.The ring was cold. Rusted. It creaked when he pulled.A trapdoor swung open.Darkness. Cold air rushed out, smelling of earth and salt water and something else. Something that might have been blood."The mansion is three miles that way." Lucien pointed into the darkness. "The tunnel is straight. No turns. No branches.""How do you know?""Sergei showed me. When I was a boy. Before everything.""Why would Sergei show you?""Because he trusted me." Lucien stepped onto the first rung of a ladder that descended into the dark. "Because he thought I would be like him.""And are you?"He looked up at her."No."He climbed down.Elena followed.---The ladder went down forever.Rung after rung