Alle Kapitel von Owned By My Father's Rival: Kapitel 71 – Kapitel 80

Chapter 72: The Architect of EscapeThe motel room was smaller than the last one.The walls were thinner. The bed was harder. The window faced a brick wall that had been painted so many times the original color was a mystery. Elena sat on the edge of the mattress, the paper Clara had given them spread across her knees, the address burning into her memory.Lucien stood by the window.Not looking out. There was nothing to see. Just brick and mortar and the slow creep of shadows as the sun descended behind the building."Miller," he said. "The guard. Clara said he owes her favors.""She also said Reyes is going to betray us.""She also said the FBI was the empire.""She said a lot of things." Elena folded the paper. "The question is which of them are true.""All of them.""None of them.""Somewhere in between."She looked at him."That's not an answer.""It's the only one I have."---The sun set.The room darkened.Neither of them turned on the light."When I was a boy," Lucien said, "m

Chapter 74: The Two MothersThe fireplace crackled.Mira sat on the couch, her hands folded in her lap, her eyes fixed on Elena. The photographs on the mantle seemed to lean closer, as if they too were waiting for an answer."Which mother?" Elena repeated.Mira nodded."Isabella. Nadia. The woman who raised you. The woman who died at the bottom of a cliff. The woman who's been pulling the strings from the beginning.""They're the same person.""No." Mira shook her head. "They're not."Elena sat down.The chair was stiff. Uncomfortable. The kind of chair you put in a room where you don't want people to stay long."Nadia was the one who raised me. The one who read me bedtime stories. The one who kissed my scraped knees.""Yes.""The one who recruited those girls. The one who drugged them. The one who watched them die.""Yes.""And Isabella?""Isabella was the one Margaret kept hidden. The contingency plan. The spare. The weapon.""She's been hiding for thirty years.""Longer." Mira lean

Chapter 76: The Woman Who Wouldn't DieThe photograph shook in Elena's hands.Nadia's face. Pale. Wrinkled. Tubes snaking from her arms like vines. Machines breathing for her. Machines blinking. Machines waiting.Elena stared at the woman who had raised her. The woman who had tucked her into bed. The woman who had kissed her scraped knees. The woman who had read her bedtime stories.The woman who had died at the bottom of a cliff."You're lying," Elena whispered.Mira shook her head."I watched her fall," Elena said. "I climbed down. I held her hand. I felt her pulse stop.""You felt a pulse stop." Mira's voice was gentle. "That doesn't mean it was hers.""Whose, then?"Mira looked at the photograph."Isabella. Your biological mother. The woman who's been pulling the strings from the beginning.""Isabella is at the safe house in Arlington.""Isabella is everywhere." Mira took the photograph back. "She has people. Doppelgangers. Women who look like her, sound like her, move like her. S

Chapter 78: The Walk AwayThe hospital hallway stretched before her, long and white and endless.Elena's footsteps echoed off the tile floors. Each step felt heavier than the last. Each breath felt harder to take. Behind her, the door to room 412 clicked shut. Nadia was on the other side of that door. The woman who had raised her. The woman who had read her bedtime stories. The woman who had kissed her scraped knees.The woman she was leaving behind.Lucien caught up to her.His hand found hers."Elena.""Don't.""You're hurting.""I'm fine.""You're not fine."She stopped walking.Turned to face him."She's going to die.""Maybe.""She's going to die, and I'm not going to be there.""You're choosing to live.""I'm choosing to run.""Same thing.""No." She pulled her hand from his. "Different thing."---

Chapter 80: The Confession RoomThe FBI field office looked different in daylight.Less gray. Less menacing. Almost ordinary. People walked in and out with coffee cups and briefcases, their faces relaxed, their steps unhurried. For them, this was just another Tuesday. For Elena, it was the beginning of the end.Lucien parked the car.They sat in the silence.The folder was on Elena's lap. The evidence. The confessions. The truth that had taken years to uncover and seconds to hand over."Ready?" he asked."No.""Me neither.""Same."He took her hand."Let's go."---The lobby was busy.Guards checked IDs. Visitors signed in. Agents rushed past with the kind of urgency that came from chasing monsters.Elena approached the desk."Elena Hart. Here to see Special Agent Reyes."The guard looked at his computer."She's expecting y