บททั้งหมดของ Scent of Obsession : บทที่ 101 - บทที่ 110

Chapter 95: ArrivalDamien's POVThe call came on a Tuesday.Hale. Seven AM."She's ready," he said.Three words.Damien was already dressed.He'd been dressed since five thirty.He put his coffee down."I'll be there," he said."There's something else," Hale said carefully.Damien waited."Victor wants to be the one to bring her to the airport," Hale said. "He's asking for that. Just that. He hands her over at the gate and that's it."Damien looked at the city.Thought about a letter.About *be patient with her grief.*About a man who had done terrible things and raised someone extraordinary and was now standing at the end of what raising her meant."Yes," he said.Hale was quiet for a moment."You're sure," he said."He raised her for four years," Damien said quietly. "He can walk her to the gate."A pause."Okay," Hale said. "Flight lands at three forty PM. Terminal four."He hung up.Stood at the window.Three forty PM.Eight hours and forty minutes.He picked up his phone.Called

Chapter 97: SundayMargaret's POVShe was in the sitting room when she heard the car.She wasn't expecting anyone.She didn't need to be expecting anyone to know that a car pulling up outside her residence on a Sunday morning at eleven AM meant something was about to happen that she hadn't been informed about in advance which meant Damien was involved because Damien was the only person in her life who delivered facts instead of preparation.She put her book down.Straightened her jacket.Waited.The bell rang.She went to the door herself because it was Sunday and the staff had the morning off, and she opened it.Damien.Liora Kane beside him.And in front of them.Two small girls.Margaret looked at them.They looked at her.The same face.That was the first thing.The same face on two small people standing side by side in front of her door on a Sunday morning. The same jaw. The same dark hair. The same height. The same everything except the eyes.One pair grey.One pair navy blue.

Chapter 99: CartographyElena's POV She'd been mapping the castle for three years. Third floor east corridor. Camera at the end. Twelve second rotation. Gap between sweeps is four seconds which wasn't enough for most things but was enough for one specific thing she needed it for. Kitchen entrance. Staff door. Bolted from inside after nine PM. The bolt was old. The mechanism was worn in the specific way of something that had been opened and closed ten thousand times over twenty years and had developed a particular give in the third click that she'd discovered by accident eighteen months ago and had been thinking about ever since. The north wall. Twelve feet. Old stone. Enough purchase for someone who had been doing the specific exercises she'd been doing quietly in her room every morning for two years under the cover of what she'd told the staff was meditation. It wasn't meditation. It was preparation. She sat on the bench in the garden in the two hours of afternoon sun and sk

Chapter 101: Counting Elena's POV Four days. She'd seen Victor four days ago and she'd counted every hour since, shed forced herself not to think of him over the past seven years, the thought of him breaks her heart each time her mind strayed to him. But now was not the time to be thinking sentimentally, she had to be practical. She sat in the garden for two hours and didn't draw. Just sat. Watched the north wall. Counted the seconds between camera sweeps the way she'd counted them a hundred times before except now it wasn't abstract. Now it had a date attached to it. A window. A sequence of events that had to happen in a specific order or the whole thing collapsed. Mikhail sat beside her. He knew something had shifted. She appreciated that more than she could say. "The book you're reading," she said. He looked up. "Finish it tonight," she said. In English. Quiet. The specific register she used when something mattered. He held her gaze. "Okay," he said.

Chapter 103: Tonight Damien's POV He called Margaret at six. To ask if he could come. She said yes without asking why which meant she already knew something was different in his voice.. Liora stayed with the girls. He went alone. The car ride took twenty minutes and he spent all twenty of them looking at the city and not thinking about what he was about to say which required thinking about Elena being alive and thinking about Elena being alive was something he was managing. The car. The door. The sitting room. The words. Then the weight. Cole pulled up outside the residence. Damien sat for a moment. Then got out. Margaret was in the sitting room. She stood when he came in. Looked at his face. He watched her read it. She was very good at reading his face. And she'd gotten thorough. He watched her read it and watched something happen in her expression that she controlled immediately but not before he caught it. She sat back down. He sat across from her. The chai